It’s business as usual in the third installment of this lackluster horror franchise. The demonic doll Annabelle features in a stream of ineffective jump scares, backed by a soundtrack that is simply cacophonic.
Scriptwriter-turned-director Gary Dauberman embraces every genre convention. The result is stilted dialogue, a fog-enshrouded neighbourhood, and yet nothing that scares — except perhaps the prospect of sitting through the rest of the fiasco as it unfolds.
The storyline factors in the demonologist couple (Vera Farmiga-Patrick Wilson) from the Conjuring universe in which the doll was introduced, as well as their preteen daughter and her two best friends. All hell breaks loose after Annabelle, a beacon for evil spirits, is accidentally let out of a glass cabinet in the basement.
Cue shrieking girls, doors that creak open of their own volition. There’s even a shadowy werewolf. And yet, if anything about this movie haunts you, it will most likely be the abominable performances across the board.