This October, Warner Bros. will unveil Annabelle, a prequel to The Conjuring that tells the horrifying story of the titular doll before she ever came into the possession of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Seeing as Conjuring cinematographer John R. Leonetti is sitting behind the camera here, working from a script by Gary Dauberman (who did uncredited rewrites on A Nightmare on Elm Street), we’re expecting great and terrifying things from this flick.
Now, the first full trailer for Annabelle has hit, giving us a better idea of what to expect from its story. Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton and Alfre Woodard star as the unlucky souls who become targets of the possessed doll’s wrath. In an interesting twist, it appears that Annabelle is not only appearing in doll form during this prequel – the preview indicates that ghosts reside within the doll but are perfectly capable of coming out to wreak all kinds of bone-chilling havoc.
The official synopsis for Annabelle reads:
John Form has found the perfect gift for his expectant wife, Mia—a beautiful, rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. But Mia’s delight with Annabelle doesn’t last long. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack the couple. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now…Annabelle.
The satanic cult angle explains that creepy first teaser, and though the rest of the set-up sounds very familiar, I’m hopeful that Warner Bros. wouldn’t be taking steps to turn The Conjuring into a franchise with a movie it didn’t feel confident in. We’ll get to find out for ourselves whether Annabelle can match the blood-curdling scares of its predecessor when it opens on October 3rd.