Things that go bump in the night, or the day for that matter, are the stuff of horror movies. And there's certainly a degree of strange noises to be found in ANNABELLE where young pregnant couple Mia - the unfortunately named Annabelle Wallis and her final year medical student husband John - Ward Horton - welcome into their home a new doll called Annabelle to add to Mia's already extensive collection. We the audience know from a preface to the film that this is not a good idea.
Poor old Mia is left at home to bed rest because the murder of their next door neighbours and attempt on themselves by two crazed cult followers has left her a bit unsettled.
When Alfre Woodard enters the picture as a local bookshop owner with a tragic story of her own and a shelf full of books on the occult and demons, you might think we're getting somewhere, but they don't read far enough to learn how to deal with demonic possession of dolls. Apart from the fact that as performed by Wallis and Horton, Mia and John give new depth to the meaning of bland, this film is very much stock schlock. The screenwriter was Gary Dauberman who seems to specialize in this sort of material and the director was John R Leonetti whose career as a cinematographer, particularly in television, is extensive. He doesn't bring anything new to this genre, in fact I think he diminishes it somewhat.