Annabelle’s Fourth Conjuring
By: Joya El Aggar
Follow @joyaelaggar
David Sandberg’s highly-anticipated Annabelle: Creation hit Egyptian theaters last August, packing an ominous plotline and a few jump scares that would chill the spine of even the most seasoned horror movie fan.
A prequel to 2014’s Annabelle and a fourth chapter to The Conjuring series, the Egyptian community seemed to love it given the massive number of people flocking to theatres.
The 2017 horror and psychological thriller revolves around a doll maker and his wife who welcome a nun and six orphans into their home after the death of their seven-year-old daughter Bee in a car accident.
The film’s protagonist, orphaned seven- year-old Janice, is a curious child who is eager to understand the mysteries of life.
Given her paralysis and inability to engage in any physical activity, Janice is mostly a lonely child.
While the film is devoid of bloody scenes, it plays with the psychological fears of those watching, leaving everyone on the edge of their seats throughout the nearly 2-hour-long film.
The most gripping scene was that of the antagonist Annabelle revealing herself for the first time, a scene which jumpstarted Janice’s courage that would characterize her behavior throughout the film.
The movie received much positive feedback from Egyptian viewers, who showed great interest in its plot.
After all, the lack of Egyptian horror movies created a niche audience for chilling Hollywood horror films.
“I wish one day, Egyptian cinema would have the ability and the quality of production that could produce horror and thriller movies,” said Rojan Tadros, a 35-year-old AUC alumna with a passion for horror movies.
Some of the movie’s fans highlighted the acting skills, while others were impressed with the quality of the production, composition and score.
“What a great movie! I was not able to move inside. The protagonist’s acting was very professional given her young age,” Reem Alyrimi, 24, a horror movie enthusiast said after the screening.
Among the scenes that resonated most with everyone, even after the credits rolled, was that of Janice going into Bee’s room and finding Annabelle sitting on the bed, talking to her .
Film critics also gave positive feedback about the movie, including Brian Tallerico, a writer and film critic in Chaz’s Journal.
“Annabelle: Creation has what the first film was so clearly lacking: a strong visual language. Sandberg and his team do a marvellous job at building tension through old-fashioned horror movie means like forcing our perspective to stay with our terrified young ladies,” he wrote.
The film has a rating of 68 percent on American film and TV review website Rotten Tomatoes. It has a production cost of $15 million and made over $295 million in box office revenues worldwide, a commendable achievement for a horror film.
