Mia (Annabelle Wallis) and John Gordon (Ward Horton) are expecting their first child. After a traumatizing event, Mia suspects that a collectible doll John found for her may be haunted.

Mia and John move to Sacramento, where John has just accepted a job as a doctor. Before moving, John threw away the collectible doll. Mia couldn’t stand to keep it, after the previous events.

When they move into their new apartment, Mia finds the doll at the bottom of the last box they were unpacking. Thinking it got placed there accidentally after the fire, she decides to keep it, since John went to such lengths to find it. Bad decision. Mia finds herself haunted by something not of the Earth.

John thinks Mia is crazy. That the events she is describing are impossible. Mia befriends the local bookstore owner, Evelyn (Alfre Woodard), to keep her company the nights John is at work. Eventually, the couple enlists the help of Father Perez (Tony Amendola) to help get rid of the beast. But even Father Perez may not be enough to save them from the demon hunting them.

Annabelle is a prequel to The Conjuring, which I have never seen. It is the back story of how Annabelle became possessed. It is supposed to be the scary movie of the year. It is not.

Despite it’s R rating, it very easily could have been awarded PG-13. Even though you see a fair amount of blood, you don’t see one person actually get killed. Not even the man who stabbed Mia. It is all done in a very Psycho type style. You see the intent. You see the aftermath. But you don’t see the actual act. It is a complete departure from horror movies lately that rely solely on gore to make them scary.

The problem is, the movie isn’t that scary. The doll isn’t really possessed. It’s more a demon moving the doll around. A demon who is searching for a soul. The soul of Mia and John’s new baby, to be exact. None of the events are terrifying. Or even remotely scary. There is maybe one scene that will make you jump. That’s about it. On top of that, it is completely predictable. I had the ending figured out by the time the “action” started.

To be fair, I’m not a big fan of the horror genre. I loved them when I was younger. I don’t have the patience for them now. Mostly because of their heavy dependence on gruesome scenes and little else. That may be skewing my perception of the movie. But even my 14-year-old, scary movie loving daughter thought it was a let down. Although, there was a moment in the parking lot after the movie that showed she may have been a little more scared than she let on.

Don’t waste your time with Annabelle. It brings nothing to the table and is a disappointment in every sense. The only thing scary about the movie is realizing how much money you just wasted.