Annabelle: Creation

David F. Sandberg’s 2017 film arrived fourth in its series but pushes the story behind 2014’s Annabelle; five more entries followed through 2025, so it is no closing chapter. Sandberg got the job off Lights Out, grown from his own short: James Wan saw an early cut and in March 2016 put him in place of John R. Leonetti, director of the first Annabelle. Sandberg had the house built from scratch on a stage at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, because only then could he say “I want a hole in this wall, I want to crush this thing.” The fear therefore comes out of the building rather than the object, and he says he builds “as much tension as possible before” a scare instead of dropping one cold. The doll was deliberately softened from the real artefact, cheeks filled out and overbite corrected, so it could pass as a toy a parent would buy. Made for 15 million dollars, it took over 306 million worldwide. The post-credits scene moves to a Romanian abbey and sets up The Nun. A good fit if you want a budget spent on one purpose-built house instead of a cast. Not for you if watching a girl in a leg brace and crutches singled out as the target throughout is too much.