A scary little girl (again), a haunted doll (again), and yet another spooky well. There are certainly no new ideas in "Annabelle: Creation" but son of a gun, it was pretty effective. Even the jump scares, which I normally hate, seemed appropriate. The house was a spooky place and the choice of not showing the doll walking around was smart. The actresses playing the two youngest girls, Janice and Linda, were quite good.

There were some things that really bugged me, though. With all of the people in the house, why were so many solo scares? How did no one else hear the screaming? Especially Janice's encounter with the soul-seeking demon on the staircase. Janice screams as an evil entity pushes her wheelchair across the yard and into a shed. Yet everyone hears her screaming from inside the shed but not as she is yelling in the yard, out in the open, where the other girls are. There seemed to be a lack of attention to details at times.

"Annabelle: Creation" has some good scares and its got a limited amount of gore. It's rated 'R' and that surprised me. It's a decent haunted house story without excessive bloodletting.

The biggest disappointment was the lack of a payoff for the scarecrow tease. Scarecrows are scary.

Now that we've had three seperate origins for the Annabelle doll, maybe we can put the doll to rest. In fairness to director David F. Sandberg however, _Creation_ is entire **leagues** better than the first _Annabelle_.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

Conduit Demon: Take 27!

OK! It may not be 27 films in the latest conduit demon phase of horror film making, but it sure as hell feels like it! Annabelle: Creation would have been a very good horror film if it had come out 10 years ago, as it is we find ourselves treading familiar ground and relying on the usual horror film making playbook for our thrills.

Anyone such as myself who is bothered by pediophobia, automatonphobia and pupaphobia will surely be chilled to the bone here, for the makers push it to the max, with fine results. However, once that aspect is stripped away and the sound and visual horror staples grow tired, we are left hankering for a glorious final quarter of film to terrify us - which sadly doesn't materialise as we then get conduit demon 101.

In the pluses column there's a superb tie-in to the real Annabelle doll, an adherence to story as fact shrewdly inserted, and the acting (with young Lulu Wilson bright again as she wanders in from Ouija: Origin of Evil) is more than adequate. Sound mix rocks, as does the photographic shadows and shimmers, rendering the production technically good. If only the writers had been a bit more bolder and imaginative...

Much better than Annabelle (2014) (which isn't hard really), "Creation" is above average fare for casual horror fans with the fears previously stated. Hard core horror nuts, however, are likely to be very jaded come the end credits rolling. 6.5/10

**This is where it all begins!**

The second spin-off from 'The Conjuring' franchise and overall a fourth film to set in the same universe. The first film, which was 'Annabelle', I thought it was an okayish. Now with this, there's a potential sub franchise. Probably it could head back to back-wards as prequels, while 'The Conjuring is heading forward.

There's nothing new from this, but still not a bad film. I liked the location. A single house in the mountain and revolved around a bunch of orphans. It is where it all begins. The creation of the most haunted doll that you saw in 'The Conjuring'. Focused on a doll making family, following an accident, how the family lived their rest of the life was told.

A nun with a few orphan girls joins the family to live-in. When one of the kids discovers the locked away doll with secrets, the evil force unleashed. In the latter parts, the film reveals what happen to them and to the doll. Also hinting out at a possible prequel, going to be in Europe. I felt it was decent, so okay for watching once, especially if you had liked the previous one.

_5/10_