More stupefying than scary, Annabelle takes whatever promise there was of a Conjuring franchise and flushes it down the bowels of Hell with its uninspired direction and wooden performances.

Where The Conjuring took classic horror conventions and made them fresh and exciting, Anabelle does the complete opposite.

With a moronic script by C-grade horror specialist Gary Dauberman as its guide, tone flat performances from its cast, and inept direction by John R. Leonetti (who biggest directorial achievement until now was Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), it’s the scares that Annabelle must rely on to see it through.

Yet so telegraphed are many of its high horror cues and idiotic the character motivations that lead to them, that Annabelle would leave many shaking their heads at the disappointing absurdity of its existence, rather than shaking in their seats at the chilling horror that should have been delivered.

The biggest question that Annabelle begs us to ask is why, in the name of all that is holy, would anyone want to own an antique doll that’s as grotesquely designed and crafted as the demon-conjuring doll that takes centre stage in this film?

It’s a question that’s raised when heavily pregnant Mia (Annabelle Wallis) happily receives the gruesome looking doll from her woefully oblivious husband John (Ward Horton). When a satanic cult attacks their middle class abode at night (the films was based in the mid ‘60s where murder cults ala The Manson Family were all the rage), things get even worse for this young family when a conjured demon begins to aggressively haunt them. Cue plenty of jump scares and much rambling about God and the Devil that would even have religious folk roll their eyes.

The fact that the actors in Annabelle are more wooden than the wooden doll itself is a big problem, made even worse by a script that needed a dire injection of personality that this cast just cannot provide.

Where The Conjuring benefited in having great character actors (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston), Annabelle suffers in casting charisma robbed leads in Annabelle Wallis and Wade Horton who look the part of ‘60s suburban couple, yet are unable to draw any sympathy for their plight. After all, what good is a victim when they are not worth caring for?

Leonetti has a long history with The Conjuring director James Wan (who produces here), having been his Director of Photography for five films. Leonetti persistently goes to the James Wan playbook of scares, with plenty of holding shots followed by creepy sound followed by jump scare.

Yet without that emotional investment that good performances can create, the scares in Annabelle are fleeting, and an effective horror movie should be much more than that.