With the paucity of any good attempts in this genre, there is always a fan base waiting to crowd the theatres at such opportunities. And when you have a sequel/prequel to the much-acclaimed Conjuring, the expectations are a given. This addition to the possessed doll series leaves us with one question.

Why make a prequel when you have nothing new to say? 

It has all the conventional elements of a regular horror flick. A desolate house someone moves into, a forbidden door, the usual moving of furniture, things coming out of wardrobes and wells, and of course the spooky doll. If the makers had followed the path of clichés they might as well have followed it to the tee, but even that closure is left to your imagination. There is no reveal as such, we know that the doll is possessed and that’s pretty much all that there is. Who needs a story, or a build-up? Just make up a bundle of characters who are brave and foolish enough to walk around this isolated rickety house in the night to discover whatever could kill them.

There are some spikes in scares for the visual thrill, but they are left hanging with the absence of any logic or plot. A mention of a mysterious Nun in one of the scenes leaves you with some bleak hope of discovering more in the next spin-off ‘THE NUN’.

We can only wait to see if this one makes any sense in the big scheme of things, independently it is only a disappointment.