Annabelle
Spoilers for the movie 'Annabelle,' the film based on a true story about a 'real' haunted doll. Reuters

In the prequel to “The Conjuring,” the fact-based horror story that scared millions, “Annabelle” tells the tale of how the creepy doll became sinister. While the film, which is a mix of “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Conjuring” and “Insidious,” reveals the backstory of the evil doll’s demonic possession, its delivery is lackluster and drawn-out.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

The movie starts out with Mia (Annabelle Wallis), who is pregnant, receiving the Annabelle doll from her physician husband John (Ward Horton). It was just like the one she had as a child, and it completes the collection for the baby’s room, which is filled with other dolls.

The doll is not haunted until two cult members break into their home one night, which turns into a tragedy that affects the family for the rest of the film. The male cult member stabs Mia in the stomach, and the female member commits suicide with the Annabelle doll in her arms. A drop of her blood lands on the doll, consequently possessing it.

"Annabelle"
The doll from the Warner Bros. supernatural thriller "Annabelle." Warner Bros.

The demon tied to the doll wants the soul of Mia and John’s baby, Leah, and will not stop haunting the family until it gets its sacrifice.

Annabelle never moves. Instead, the movie is filled with creepy noises, gusts of wind, dark halls and a black demon that occasionally startles.

Mia befriends two people during the film, a priest to whom she goes for guidance, and Evelyn, the owner of a small bookstore, who helps Mia discover the type of cult to which the people who broke into her house belonged. They were trying to conjure a demon, which is why they broke into Mia and John's house. Mia is the only one who sees the demon, which locks itself to the doll.

"Annabelle"
Actors Annabelle Wallis, War Horton as John and Tomy Amendol as Father Perez in a scene from "Annabelle." Warner Bros.

Evelyn shares that her daughter Ruby died in a car accident while Evelyn was driving. She shows Mia a scar on her wrist from a self-inflicted wound after Ruby's death. It wasn’t Ruby's time to die, Evelyn tells Mia. She heard Ruby say that she still had work to do on Earth.

At the end of the film, Mia gets locked into her apartment with the demon. Leah goes missing, though her cries can still be heard. Mia has a breakdown, realizing that she has to sacrifice herself to save Leah. She grabs Annabelle and stands on the window ledge in Leah’s room, ready to jump. Evelyn and John make their way into the apartment and save Mia before she has a chance to kill herself. As she rambles about trying to save her baby, Evelyn gets on the ledge with Annabelle and ultimately sacrifices herself.

It finishes, coming full circle, with Annabelle being placed in a store and a woman coming in to buy it for her daughter, who is one of the two nurses at the beginning of the film.

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