Back in 2014, Annabelle provided a prequel to 2013’s The Conjuring. With 2017’s Annabelle: Creation, we find a prequel to the prequel.

Presumably this will soon bring us Annabelle: Procreation, a prequel to a prequel to a prequeal in which we see the origins of the human Annabelle. Until then, we’ll deal with evil dolls.

Creation opens in 1943, where we meet dollmaker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia), wife Esther (Miranda Otto) and daughter Annabelle (Samara Lee). Tragedy strikes when Annabelle dies in a car accident.

When an orphanage closes 12 years later, Samuel allows a nun named Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) and six girls to reside in their spacious home. Though warned to stay away from Annabelle’s old room, young Janice (Talitha Bateman) ventures into it anyway, and she finds a doll possessed by a demon. This leads to various forms of terror and intrigue.

Well, that’s the plan, at least. I thought the first Annabelle offered decent entertainment, and buoyed by generally good reviews, I hoped Creation would be as good – and maybe better.

I’ll be honest: I barely remember the first Annabelle. I recall it as a movie short on creativity but effective in its creepy atmosphere.

To its credit, Creation doesn’t attempt to replicate the Rosemary’s Baby vibe of its predecessor. The prequel goes its own way, a choice that I appreciate.

We last saw director David F. Sandberg as the man behind 2016’s Lights Out. Like the first Annabelle, that movie offered a fairly impactful little creepfest that I largely enjoyed.

Lights Out got a boost from its running time, as it filled an efficient 81 minutes. With so little cinematic real estate to occupy, Sandberg kept things tight and brisk, factors that allowed it to succeed.

The original Annabelle also benefited from a reasonable 98-minute length, but Creation goes longer. At 110 minutes, it fails to become an endurance test like the 134-minute Conjuring 2, but I think it could use some trimming.

That’s partly because Creation takes a surprising amount of time to get to its horror action. The narrative tends to go slowly, and not in a way that builds a lot of tension.

This seems like a drawback. I can work through a scary movie that takes its time if it at least manages to draw us into its world and atmosphere.

This doesn’t really occur with Creation. We spend an awful lot of time with Janice as she goes through mundane explorations, so while these connect to the evil eventually, they feel like they could move faster than they do.

Janice doesn’t even find the Annabelle doll until almost half an hour into the movie, and we need to wait much longer before the evil manifests itself in an active manner. Again, I’m cool with slow-building tension, but too much of Creation’s first half just seems sluggish.

Once the action intensifies, Creation still doesn’t kick into higher gear. That’s partly because the semi-flat nature of the first half leaves us a little bored, but it’s more the case because the film simply never generates any real terror.

Instead, it mixes cheap “jump scares” with derivative supernatural characters/themes. None of these seem inventive or involving, so they lack real punch.

Admittedly, I’ve seen less effective horror movies, as Creation at least manages the occasional jolt. In the end, though, it fails to deliver a consistently impactful piece, so it winds up as a sluggish disappointment.

Footnote: a tag scene appears at the conclusion of the end credits.

Annabelle: Creation appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a strong visual presentation.

At all times, sharpness seemed terrific. Any instances of softness remained negligible, as the film appeared accurate and concise.

Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

To the surprise of no one, Creation went with a pretty standard orange and teal palette. These hues stayed moderately subdued, though, so they avoided the garish tones that mar some movies. The colors seemed well-rendered within their stylistic conceits.

Blacks were dark and dense, and low-light shots gave us good clarity. I felt pleased with this impressive transfer.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack offered a fairly typical horror movie soundscape. This meant a lot of creepy atmosphere and occasional “jolt moments”.

Along with good stereo music, the soundfield was able to open things up in a satisfying manner that embellished the story. The mix didn’t dazzle, but it worked fine.

Audio quality was always good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy. Bass response excelled, as low-end seemed dynamic and tight.

Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. Again, this wasn’t a heavily active track, but it made sense for the story.

When we move to extras, we open with an audio commentary from director David F. Sandberg. He presents a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, influences, sets and locations, effects, music, cast and performances, stunts, editing/deleted scenes and related domains.

Sandberg provides a thorough and engaging track. While he tends to focus a little too much on technical areas, he still covers a good array of topics, and he does so in a clear and concise manner. Those factors allow this to turn into a worthwhile commentary.

A Deleted Scenes Featurette runs 12 minutes, four seconds. It mixes cut footage along with commentary from Sandberg.

This becomes an awkward presentation, as Sandberg talks over the deleted scenes – we get no option to watch them on their own. Why not just show them solo and offer optional commentary?

As for the content, the cut sequences offer a bit more backstory/exposition and they throw out a few more scares. Sandberg offers an efficient examination of the scenes and why he gave them the boot.

Next comes the 42-minute, 21-second Directing Annabelle: Creation. It mixes notes from Sandberg with footage from the set as he gives us a tutorial on what a director does on a film.

As someone who learned parts of the trade via DVD extras, Sandberg seems to genuinely want to convey this material to aspiring filmmakers, and I love that. “Directing” combines his insights with the material from the shoot to become a good overview of the subject matter.

The Conjuring Universe lasts four minutes, 51 seconds and features Sandberg, filmmakers Corin Hardy and James Wan, producer Peter Safran, and writer Gary Dauberman. “Universe” views the connections among the Conjuring and Annabelle movies as well as aspects of Creation and another upcoming spinoff called The Nun. It tends to be superficial and promotional in nature.

Two Horror Shorts appear: Attic Panic (3:10) and Coffer (3:09). The Blu-ray’s case states these two inspired Creation, and Sandberg directed both.

Indeed, one can clearly see how Sandberg reused parts of the shorts as scenes in Creation. They’re a cool addition to the package.

The disc opens with ads for It, Justice League, Dunkirk and the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War videogame. No trailer for Creation appears here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Creation. It includes the deleted scenes featurette but lacks all the other extras.

Every once in a while, Annabelle: Creation shows glimmers of life. Unfortunately, too much of it drags and seems without creative inspiration. The Blu-ray boasts excellent visuals as well as good audio and some informative supplements. Creation delivers a spotty prequel.