Review of Annabelle: Creation

Annabelle: Creation is the fourth film in The Conjuring film series after The Conjuring, Annabelle and The Conjuring 2. The film is a prequel that focuses on the backstory behind the Annabelle doll.

Following the dud Annabelle of 3 years back and the not as good as the first part Conjuring 2, there weren’t really high standards for this one to meet.

The Mullins are a couple who have suffered a tragic loss of their daughter. Fast forward 12 years, they have opened their home to a few orphan girls and their caretaker Sister Charlotte. The girls have specific instructions to stay away from a particular room. One girl is polio affected and feels lonely and decides to enter that room, she then opens a closet to see the Annabelle doll and lets the evil break free.

WHAT’S GOOD

Annabelle: Creation is the first film where we see the Annabelle doll in action. That doll is creepy enough with it's presence and it's blank stares, but here, it’s moving. (We have more reasons to fear the doll that we have been conditioned to fear)

Horror doesn’t need a good script to survive… what most people remember are the scares (we still remember the Spider walk scene right, when someone says the word Exorcist) and Annabelle: Creation has them in abundance.

Despite it being the same old cliché scares, the director has been able to run a chill down his audiences' spines as……

It’s all about timing in horror films. The jump scares are timed to perfection. They aren’t from out of the blue and leave us wondering as to where did that come from. We are given cliché horror film hints that something is about to happen. There is dead silence for a while. Then as when a character looks into a mirror there is a slight flash in the reflection accompanied with a musical note. The music then picks up, building a sense of anticipation within you. The scare is delivered within time as just when you are about to heave a sigh of relief the demonic entity pops up. The director builds that feel of anxiety within the audience till the last possible second.

The stair lift angle is new and bone chilling.

The tempo of the music during the scary scenes was exceptional. It was playing in my head during the interval (which greedy multiplex owners force into films despite English films not being shot that way)

Talitha Bateman as Janice, is brilliant as the girl who is isolated and has lost hope at the start of the film and as the possessed girl she becomes in the latter half.

Lulu Wilson as Linda has the best and most sensible scene in the movie (and horror films of recent times) as when the doll is tossed into the well it begins pounding the grating. When Sister Charlotte asks her what is it. She delivers the best and most sensible line ever seen in horror films, “Who cares? Run!”

This is the first attempt at universe building in a horror film franchise. All of the Conjuring films have glimpses of the Annabelle doll and this film offers a fleeting glimpse of The Nun (a character seen in The Conjuring 2) in the photograph shown by Sister Charlotte to Mr Mullins. The spirit is shown to be in black, but the hand of the nun who pushes Janice’s wheelchair into the barn is white. (possible Valak appearance. They didn’t show the face)

WHAT’S BAD

The predictability. It’s always the weak one, who becomes the target of the demonic presence. The use of mirrors in horror films, we know that there will be something else reflected. It is used on two occasions in this film and we are literally waiting for the appearance as it is such a common scare in films.

There wasn’t much of dialogue among the characters, for them to observe a slow and gradual change after the demonic entity has taken a human form.

The scares are the same old fashioned ones. Doors slamming as the protagonist tries to get away from the demon, lights flickering, appearances in mirrors, the silences, etc.

It is a successful formula, as why would anyone move away from what is successful. There are no new experiments in this genre.

WHO SHOULD WATCH IT?

Horror buffs, as in no place I felt like laughing as if it was a joke. Conjuring Universe fans should not avoid this. 

Anyone who wants to get scared and experience a hair raising fear with an impact that will leave your heart pounding. There is no calming presence of Ed and Lorraine Warren in this film.

As a horror film I was expecting to be freaked out from the start, but then I remembered the titling of the film. It always first films in the series that take time to establish the setting (I’ll take the example of superhero films where characters are established in the first half of the first movie and then the second half is where the action starts to pick up) That's exactly what happens here.

Jab Harry Met Sejal

Jab Harry met Sejal is a romantic comedy directed by Imtiaz Ali starring Shahrukh Khan as Harinder Singh Nehra a.k.a. Harry and Anushka Sharma as Sejal Jhaveri. The duo reluctantly team up and set out on a journey retracing their steps across Europe to search for Sejal's missing engagement ring.

When hearing the name Jab Harry Met Sejal, one automatically thinks that this will be a rip off of the similarly titled rom-com classic "When Harry met Sally."

WHAT'S GOOD

The acting of Anushka Sharma. She portrays the chirpy young Gujarati girl and is the reason that the film is watchable in the first half. Shahrukh Khan to some extent is refreshing as he is in a new role as a tour guide and isn't that lover boy that audiences have grown accustomed to seeing over the last 2 decades. The music is lively and upbeat. The frames feature glimpses of what Europe is about with lush green countryside, opera performances, bar culture, prostitution happening on shady streets. As is common with all Bollywood films, there are songs, but background dancers remain absent. I've always wondered how the whole street knows the steps and how do they know to form shapes where the leads are always in centre. The songs have very well edited shots which establish how the characters get acquainted with each other. In the first half they (the songs) don't disconnect with the plot, as there are short grabs of them searching for that ring.

WHAT'S BAD

The film as a whole, is bad.

The locations work like glue does when applied on the cracks on a wall. The effect of the glue was nullified quite soon into the film and cracks appeared. Cracks in the film, the definition of the character, the stereotypical representation of the characters.

 What we ended up getting was two characters unwilling to travel at first, then they travel in concentric circles around Europe. Amsterdam to Prague to Budapest to Frankfurt to Prague to Lisbon to Frankfurt. They help each other out, discover themselves, fight, realise they are incomplete without each other. It’s not that it hasn’t been done before, but it’s the same director who has done it before in Jab We Met and in Tamasha. The glimpses of Europe didn’t mask the lack of charm in the rom com. It also didn’t mask…..

The stereotypical representation of the character Harry. Harry is a Punjabi and has a loud voice. The reason for it is that he had to sing over the sound of the tractors as all Punjabi's are farmers. Seriously? Can't he have a loud voice as a natural trait?

Sejal, though she keeps the film running in the first half, is absolutely annoying with that accent. (Harry is pronounced as Hairy) Her behaviour is not in keeping with the modern woman she calls herself, but that of a toddler trapped in an adult’s body.

 After calling herself a modern woman, she makes it very clear that she is not interested in Harry in any way. In one scene, she asks Harry, "Mere pe try maar rahe ho?" Harry says, "Bilkul nahin." She replies, "Kyun main sexy nahin hoon?"

Why does she seem insulted here? If she has said she isn't interested in Harry in any way?

Why does a modern woman constantly require validation of any sort? (in this case that she’s more layak than any of Harry’s conquests)

During a scene, Harry tells Sejal, “Tum iss se bhi laayak ho.” Upon hearing this, Sejal is overjoyed and asks him repeatedly, “Kya main sachi iss se bhi layak hoon?” Audiences now will go home with the image of a modern woman being one who needs to be repeatedly told that she is more “layak” over the other.

This is a train wreck of a movie. I ended up coming home and watching "When Harry met Sally". A rom-com movie which had the feel of a rom-com. The charm present in that classic was absent in this film. Shahrukh Khan needs to head back to playing age appropriate roles as he did in Raees and Dear Zindagi. If you are an Imtiaz Ali fan after watching his work in Jab We Met, Rockstar, Highway then please avoid this film which after watching you would label as a disaster. If you are a fan of Shahrukh Khan’s 1990s and 2000s persona, avoid this movie.

WHO SHOULD WATCH IT

Those who want an hour’s entertainment and then spend the second half just thinking about the next day at work or of unfinished chores.

PAHLAJ NIHALANI SECTION

How can we forget good old Pahlaj Nihalani? This film received attention as “Protector of the audiences” in an attempt to make the film sanskaari raised objection to the words sexual intercourse in the film. It was replaced by Physical interaction (now that can include a handhshake, a slap on the back, etc). Though sexual intercourse was banned, the words "sex" and “copulation” were allowed to be a part of the film!

Applause for the man!