8. Annabelle, 2014

Annabelle cinematic trailer

Wan’s role: Producer

Annabelle is sort of a horror film tragedy.  If Wan directed the movie like he did with the first two Conjuring films, who knows what it could have become.  But alas, we are stuck with the Annabelle we have.

Annabelle is inspired by the truish story of one of the Warren’s most famous cases, a haunted doll that terrorizes a young nursing student.  But Annabelle tells a fictional story of the family that owned the doll before her. 

The film’s tension essentially relies on a series of increasingly menacing shots of a creepy porcelain doll.  It’s one of those horror films whose supernatural antagonist has no real defined powers, but rather is capable of doing whatever is convenient for the scare, which make the scares themselves feel kind of cheap.

5/10