Review Roundup: Chilling Horror Film ANNABELLE Hits Theaters Today!

The highly anticipated supernatural horror film ANNABELLE opens nationwide today, October 3rd! The film is a prequel to to the 2013 horror thriller THE CONJURING.

The story centers around Annabelle, the infamous doll from THE CONJURING. The doll is purchased by a man named John Gordan, who buys the doll as a gift for his preganant wife and unborn child. But one fatal night, the innocent family is attacked by a group of satanists, who conjure up a demon entity who now lives inside Annabelle, making the doll more threatening and powerful than ever imagined.

The film stars ANNABELLE Wallis and Ward Horton as the Gordans, alongside Alfre Woodard, Eric Ladin, Brian Howe, and Tony Amendola.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Ben Kenigsburg, The New York Times: "Annabelle" seems less confident when it comes to its secondhand plot, which includes such standbys as self-shutting doors and self-popping popcorn.

Scott Foundas, Variety: ...if audiences are sure to head home complaining about how dumb and predictable it all was, many may also find themselves nursing their significant others' lightly bruised forearms.

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A couple of jolts don't make for much of a supernatural thriller, and ANNABELLE has only fleeting jump-in-your-seat moments.

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: "Annabelle" is rather a guided tour of the era's possession-saga aesthetics: old-school wide shots, loud noises, showy shocks and quieter creeps. It lacks the exhilarating pull of "The Conjuring," but as a side dish of demon-doll supernatural, it suffices.

Kyle Smith, New York Post: While the film isn't clever or original, it is reasonably scary, especially when it knocks off the preliminaries and gets to the good stuff.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Each time a character gets tossed in the air by some manifestation or another, the effect is cheesy. Still, I've seen worse

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter:...the film is ultimately so generic and formulaic that you'll probably forget it by the time you get home. Equally unmemorable are the bland performances by the two leads, who never manage to elicit the necessary sympathy for their characters' plight.

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Gate: The production schedule was rushed, and it shows. The script highlights an annoying lack of self-preservation on behalf of the protagonists. But the movie tries to be more than just a creepy doll freakout, and delivers the requisite scares.

Drew Taylor, Indie Wire: While it does nothing to diminish the accomplishment and artistry of "The Conjuring," it's also kind of a bummer that one of the very best studio horror movies to come around in a good long while has to be tarnished so quickly by something so cheap and awful.

Tristen Yang, The Source: Even though "Annabelle" plays off from a cult classic, it misses some of the essential elements of horror such as gore, timing, and mystery.

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