This one is a bit of a mess. Produced by James Wan (creator of Saw and Insidious), Annabelle advertises itself as a prequel/spin-off of The Conjuring (2013), focused on the eponymous doll briefly featured in that film. If you don't like creepy dolls this is definitely not the film for you, but this is also not Chucky. In fact, my primary problem with this film is that it can't quite decide what it wants to be: possession, home invasion, satanic panic, or haunting. I'm all for complicating genre boundaries, but this just gets confusing. And it seems that director John R. Leonetti views each "type" of horror with a different aesthetic approach, which makes the film inconsistent. I would say that the film's heart lies with a paranoia of the suburban occult, and in this it succeeds over other recent attempts like this year's Devil's Due or Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones.
Annabelle is mostly full of jump-scares; unless you're scared of hideous porcelain and lace, this one won't keep you up at night. It's a little too familiar, a little too predictable, and a little too relaxed to keep you on the edge of your seat, either. A lazy mixture of Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Child's Play (1988), the filmmakers toss in a little classic haunted house to try and buttress the scary elements, because they know the rest of the film is so weak. Even though it may be the best Satanic panic film in a while, it's also the only one we've seen in some time, and it doesn't really stick to that plot. Cheap scares and poor special effects with little real grasp of the potentially horrific elements makes a disappointingly chilly (but still rather entertaining) Halloween treat.
That's not to say there aren't good moments. Actors Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton acceptably play the lead married couple, and stole my sympathies if not my strict attention. Tony Amendola plays an unfortunately shallow priest who only serves as a poor plot device reminiscent of The Amityville Horror (1979). Alfre Woodard steals the acting spotlight as the friendly mentor/neighbor. Her character embodies the central "lesson" of the film -- praising a sacrificial mother -- which is surprisingly fresh, I think, in the genre, though it isn't particularly strong in context of this movie.
Leonetti occasionally scores well with his visuals and atmosphere, though they never seems to last long. My favorite scene takes place in the basement, as the panicking mother hallucinates and frantically tries to escape a materialized demon in an elevator that suddenly breaks down. Another good scene takes place near the beginning as an insane couple murder two people, break into our protagonists' house, and attempt more murder. One image that actually did remain in my mind as I turned out the lights last night was one of the titular doll levitating off the floor in veiled light through the window; as it rises, we see a demon's face leering out of the darkness behind it in an image similar to one in Insidious (2010). The film has a number of these little memorable moments, which I think makes it worth a watch on the small screen.
IMDb: Annabelle
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