Annabelle: Creation (R)
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This is a prequel to Annabelle. It came out in 2017, but I didn't see it until 2025, on the night that "The Conjuring: Last Rites" opened in theaters. It was better received critically than the first "Annabelle" movie, and I have to agree. I didn't think it was great, but it was definitely good, and better than the first movie (which I thought was just okay).

It starts in 1943, when we meet a toy maker named Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife, Esther (Miranda Otto), who have a young daughter nicknamed "Bee". (It's not until much later in the film that we learn her real name was Annabelle, though I don't think that's much of a spoiler.) One day, Bee is killed by a car. Twelve years later, in 1955, the Mullinses take in a group of girls from an orphanage. (They're not adopting them, just giving them a place to stay, since apparently the orphanage was overcrowded, I guess.) The most important girls to the plot are Janice, who has been disabled by polio, and her best friend, Linda. The girls are accompanied by a nun named Sister Charlotte. We learn that Esther hasn't walked in years, and we don't really see her until later in the film, as she spends all her time in her and Samuel's bedroom. Samuel himself seems somewhat standoffish toward the girls.

One night, Janice is led by a note slipped under her bedroom door, to Bee's bedroom, which is supposed to be locked. However, she finds it unlocked, and begins exploring the room. She finds a key in a dollhouse which opens a closet door, which contains a porcelain doll (the same one seen in the first movie). After that, a demon which uses the doll as a conduit to enter the world, begins terrorizing all the girls, but mostly Janice and Linda. I don't want to give away too many details of what the demon does, but at one point it possesses Janice. And we eventually learn some backstory from Esther, about what caused all this in the first place.

Beyond that, all I want to say is that the movie ends another twelve years later, neatly tying the film to the plot of the original movie. I thought this movie was reasonably scary, and overall I liked the story and the acting. It was nice to get to know how everything started. There's also a brief mid-credits scene with the doll, and a post-credits scene that ties in to "The Nun". (Earlier in the movie, we saw the demonic nun from that movie in a photograph that Sister Charlotte had.) And I guess I don't know what else to tell you, except that I look forward to watching the sequel, "Annabelle Comes Home".