But while it’ll definitely give you the creeps, Annabelle won’t stand up to close scrutiny. Set a couple of years before The Conjuring, in a small Californian community where everyone goes to church on Sundays and no-one locks their doors, this is the origin story of the creepy doll that’s locked safely away in the ghostbusting Warrens’ basement. Turns out, she wasn’t always evil: she was bought as a gift by medical student John (Ward Horton) for his very pregnant wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis). Mia is a doll collector, and this doll is the one she wanted to complete her collection. So far, so adorable. Looking at the Annabelle doll, you sort of expect that the movie will become a Chucky-style murderous doll caper. But it doesn’t. The doll is completely irrelevant to the plot, while at the same time being absolutely crucial to the film. The demon could have attached itself to literally anything; the fact that it’s a scary-looking doll doesn’t mean anything, and the doll itself never actually does anything. You could drag and drop most of the scares in Annabelle into a Paranormal Activity movie and not notice the difference. But grounding the evil forces in something that looks so utterly nightmarish lends even the sillier jump scares a bit of oomph. Without the Annabelle doll, this movie would be another forgettable Rosemary’s Baby wannabe (check out the names of the main characters, and try not to roll your eyes). The doll is what makes it memorable. Even when she’s not in a scene, you’ll find yourself waiting for her to appear, and that anticipation is the fun part. Sadly, the not-fun parts include embarrassingly trite dialogue, a daft ending, and the revival of a racist stereotype that’s somehow managed to creep out of the same dustbin the characters keep stuffing the doll into. The movie might be set in the late 60s, but this is 2014, and there’s no excuse for such crappy writing. The last ten minutes really let down a movie that’s got enough genuine scares to overshadow its occasional misfires – no-one’s scared of a faulty sewing machine, but that scene in the basement is properly terrifying. In the end, Annabelle is a fun ride, but in comparison to The Conjuring’s slick and well-designed rollercoaster, it’s a rickety old end-of-the-pier attraction that feels like it could fall apart at any moment. And you definitely wouldn’t want to get on it again after the first time.