The Devil doll makes her appearance once again, as Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton star in this cut-rate movie from John R. Leonetti. The film is a spinoff of James Wan’s movie “The Conjuring” and brings us back in time to 1969, when Annabelle was just your regular doll.

The inspiration for Annabelle was a real-life “spiritually possessed” Raggedy Ann doll obtained by paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Annabelle in “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle,” however, is a porcelain doll which was made into a more disturbing looking doll than the original.

 Since the plot of the new movie is set a year before the Warrens received the doll, it explains how the doll became haunted in the first place.

 John (Ward Horton) gives his pregnant wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) the last doll she needs to complete her doll collection as a gift. That night, their neighbors, the Higgins, whose daughter Annabelle ran away as a young girl, receive a visit from Annabelle, who proceeds to attack and murder her parents with her satanic boyfriend.

 John goes to check on the neighbors’ house, only to find that they are dead. He exits the house and tells Mia to call the police. Mia goes to her own house and calls the police, unaware of the stranger lurking around behind her in her home.

This stranger, who is actually Annabelle, runs to the baby’s room and locks herself inside. After the police take down Annabelle’s boyfriend, they break down the door to the room Annabelle is in and find a horrible scene.

 It goes unnoticed by everyone at the crime scene that Annabelle’s blood has entered inside the doll’s eye, which causes the doll to become possessed.

 We found the movie corny and boring at some parts. There were several scenes that made the audience feel apprehensive, such as when a couple of jump scares happened, but the majority of the techniques used to conjure up a sense of horror lacked in originality.

 Runtime: 1 hour 35 mins.

MPAA Rating: R

Lion Tales’ Rating: 6/10