Annabelle: Creation

Before Annabelle ever ended up in someone's spare room causing chaos, she had to come from somewhere, and this is that somewhere. David F. Sandberg takes the doll right back to her beginnings, in a house that's already carrying more grief than any house should have to. Something in that house has been waiting for an opening, and a doll is exactly the sort of quiet, patient thing that can offer one.

This is proper creeping dread rather than one big shock. Long corridors, things left slightly wrong in a room, that horrible doll-in-the-corner stare. It builds rather than dumps everything on you at once, though there's still plenty here to make you regret checking on a noise.

Watch it on a night when you want to be unsettled without needing therapy afterwards. It's part of the wider Conjuring world, so if you've enjoyed any of that, this fills in a piece you didn't know you wanted filled in. Not one for anyone who already sleeps with the landing light on.