A new poster for Annabelle: Creation hints at the film's ties to The Conjuring universe. One of the biggest names in horror in the last couple of decades is James Wan, co-creator of the long-running Saw series, and future Aquaman helmer for the DCEU. Seemingly everything Wan touches lately turns into a franchise, including the Insidious series, and perhaps most notably, The Conjuring franchise. A huge earner on a small budget, The Conjuring was so successful it was never really a question that sequels would be made. What's been a little more surprising is that an entire mini-cinematic universe would be spawned from Wan's tale of demonic possession.
In addition to 2016's The Conjuring 2 - and a planned Conjuring 3 - three spin-off series have been created. The first arrived in 2014, with Annabelle, an origin story of the possessed doll that stole the show during her brief role in The Conjuring. Spin-offs of Conjuring 2's demonic nun villain Valek and supporting monster The Crooked Man are also now in the works, respectively entitled simply The Nun and The Crooked Man.
Related: First Trailer for Annabelle: Creation
The next Conjuring spin-off to hit theaters is Annabelle: Creation, coming later this summer. Despite the original Annabelle film purportedly showing how the titular doll came to be possessed, Creation is set even further back in time, and features the creation of the doll itself. It's essentially an origin story to an origin story. Now, Warner Bros. has released a creepy new poster for Annabelle: Creation, which can be seen below.
Sporting the tagline: "You don't know the real story," the poster also proudly boasts of the film's Conjuring ties. One wonders if the tagline might be a bit of a meta reference to the seeming retcon of Annabelle's established origin story, as the 2014 film presented Annabelle as nothing more than a doll before a satanist performed a suicide ritual upon her. Annabelle clearly isn't going to be benevolent in Creation, so it would seem that she was in fact possessed by something long before the story of the first Annabelle movie was set.
While it made a ton of money, Annabelle wasn't exactly the most well-regarded film from a critical standpoint, so it'll be interesting to see if new director David F. Sandberg can succeed in impressing the critics this time out. Creation will only be Sandberg's second feature, although his first was last year's horror hit Lights Out, also produced by James Wan. That film was generally beloved by both critics and the genre community, so Sandberg may very well be able to give Annabelle the cinematic treatment she deserves.
Next: New Annabelle: Creation Images
Source: Warner Bros.
