10 Horror Movie Sequels Nobody Wanted…. But Everyone Loved
2. Annabelle: Creation
The first two Conjuring movies were hugely successful creatively and commercially, with plenty of people championing them as two of the best horror pictures of the 2010s.
Prequel Annabelle, on the other hand, was widely panned as nothing more than a derivative, shallow, and uninteresting waste of time. (It also established the ongoing trend for movies in the Conjuring Universe that aren’t directed by James Wan turning out bad.)
Given Annabelle’s awfulness, there was clearly no desire from audiences to add more fuel to the fire with another Annabelle catastrophe.
Fortunately, though, Annabelle: Creation wound up exceeding expectations, ultimately becoming the third highest-rated chapter of the Conjuring Universe on Metacritic (next to The Conjuring and The Conjuring II).
Aside from Annabelle co-writer Gary Dauberman being the sole writer of Annabelle: Creation (leading to a much tighter and more fleshed out story), director David F. Sandberg brought the same sort of fluidity and inventiveness he’d previously shown with 2016’s Lights Out to the experience.
Consequently, Annabelle: Creation was sufficiently scary, absorbing, and warranted, with old-school techniques and compelling plot points setting it apart from the pack while also adding worthwhile lore and answers to the haunted doll’s intriguing history.