It and Annabelle to Scare You Straight

By Mahmood Hossain

2016 was, in no doubt, a very successful year for horror flicks. While the Academy Awards continues to raise its nose to genre films, the bone chilling nightmare filled films are racking up the big bucks at the box office. The most recent trailers for It and the sequel to Annabelle look to carry on that trend in 2017.

It was bad enough to scare the living daylights out of folks with the film’s latest promotional poster. Even though it’s a remake, It has significant elements from the show Stranger Things, created by the talented Duffer Brothers. The latter dealt with the monster of The Upside Down with a throwback to the 80’s horror hits. The film It, however, deals with a psychotic clown terrorizing pre-teens. In other words, you’ve got a bunch of daring kids fighting a greater evil. What is it with us and getting off of seeing children pee in their trousers? Shame on us.

Leaving that mangy clown behind, Annabelle: Creation is actually an original take on a horror story. Well, it’s not completely original, having the fact that it’s a sequel. But the mystery behind that creepy looking doll itself will attract plenty of people out of sheer curiosity. Granted, the first Annabelle wasn’t a big hit; in fact, it was terrible. But it has been given a fresh shot in the arm from producer and genius filmmaker James Wan by handing over responsibility to the director behind the horror hit Lights Out, David Sandberg. It’s a good assumption to make that Wan now knows how to rectify the first mishit.

All in all, both trailers provoked plenty of fear from these new films. What we can say is that you’ll most likely see higher box office numbers for It, which happens to be an iconic horror film. Annabelle: Creation may not match the numbers but looks to be another successful run for Sandberg.