Film Preview: Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Page Revisions:

(November 6, 2016) Original
(April 9, 2017) New Trailer (#2) / New Poster (#1)
(June 25, 2017) New Trailer (#3) / New Poster (#2) / New Release Date (changed from 5/19/17)
(August 6, 2017) New Poster (#3) / Added Image Gallery

Release Date:

August 11, 2017

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.”

Poster Rating: B / B / C

Review: (#1) An interesting design, one that fits well with the first trailer and should sufficiently pique the interest in fans of the Conjuring franchise.

(#2) A pleasing overall look that has some measure of creepiness, but perhaps not enough. It reflects a key scene in the third trailer, which is a nice tie-in all things considered.

(#3) The religious symbolry of this design is utterly pointless. However, since this is a Spanish-language poster, that culture’s Roman Catholic roots may help bolster its prospects in those theaters, but probably not if they weren’t already sold on the film.

Trailer Rating: C+ / B / B-

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) It’s a short teaser that’s will likely pique the interests of the original’s fans, but beyond that, there’s nothing particularly scary, tense, or exciting on display here.

(#2) While the first trailer put forth a lot of familiar gimmicks, those tricks have been largely excised with this new trailer, which has a few jump scares, but gives more background and detail to the events. It also gives the audience endangered heroes to worry about and that’s the most important requirement of a horror trailer.

(#3) A re-working of the prior trailer, the film looks more rote as we see more of the content. Jump scares, religious iconography, everything one could want from a demonic possession film, but perhaps not enough to appeal to fans already becoming disenchanted with the sub-genre.