New Line Cinema, the studio that birthed A Nightmare On Elm Street (and then went on to birth its often-horrible sequel spawn) knows a little something about horror. So it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when The Studio That Freddy Built recently deployed some of the most terrifying words a horror fan can ever dread to hear: “spinoff sequel film.” (Also, some stuff about creepy haunted dolls.)
Yes, Annabelle 2 will soon be lurching its way into theaters, with screenwriter Gary Dauberman providing a new set of jump scares and ominous incidents for the Conjuring-based demon doll to menacingly pose near. So far, Dauberman’s the only returning presence on the sequel, actually—other than the doll, whose career options are presumably limited to this and the world’s ookiest American Girl Store—with not even producer James Wan signed on so far.
Still, it’s hard to fault New Line for shoving another murder-doll masterpiece into the world; the first Annabelle made back something like 35 times its meager $6.5 million budget last year, ensuring that, like some sort of spook-infested action figure, it’ll be lingering with us for a good long time.