Filmmaker David F Sandberg on how his locations become key characters of his horror narratives and drawing inspiration for Annabelle:Creation from his nightmares
How did you approach the filming of Annabelle: CreationIJ
My approach wasn’t that different from how lotta losten and I made our shorts back in Sweden. We’ve always let the location inspire our story-telling. So this time I had a fantastic set designed by Jennifer Spence that was truly inspiring. It’s somewhat of a cliché but I wanted the house in the film to feel like it was an important character. It’s a kind of purgatory for the characters – they’re stuck there.
What went into the design of the houseIJ
In the early scenes, we wanted the house to have a comforting and happy aura. So we added elements like the digital leaves to the tree outside just to make it look more rustic and welcoming. But after a tragedy hits Mr and Mrs Mullins – the characters played by Anthony la Paglia and Mirando Otto – I wanted the house to feel as if it had become lifeless. Now, the trees are naked and scary-looking; within its deserted surroundings, the house feels almost hellish. It’s extremely hot and dusty and there’s no life in there, anymore. It’s just dead.
The house looks worn out. The Mullins’ bedroom is especially dilapidated; that’s where Esther Mullins has been bedridden for many years and it’s just her and the room, which is rotting away.
Mrs Mullins is almost like the monster behind the curtain because we don’t see her for a very long period of the film, and we don’t know what we’re going to find when we do see her. How did you use her as a tool to create suspense and tensionIJ
I want to keep the audience guessing about what’s behind her mask for as long as possible. We spent a lot of time designing it. The initial designs we looked at had a lot of scars but that was something that audiences would expect to see. What I wanted was to hide wounds that had never healed because they are demonic in nature.
The design of the doll Annabelle had been established in the first film. But with this one, you get to explore her journey through different stages. How did you bring that into the designIJ
The “non-possessed” version of Annabelle looks like an inanimate object. But when she’s possessed, her eyes become very life-like. Our make-up effects house ADI is very good at that. So, when we visited their shop, I saw a gorilla and some monsters they created, whose eyes made it seem like there was a person inside the creature. I told ADI that that’s what I wanted for Annabelle. When this doll looks at you, it feels like there’s something behind those eyes; it’s more than an inanimate object.
Miranda Otto had said she didn’t want to be on the set with Annabelle because she felt like the doll was watching her. How did the younger actors reactIJ
I think they were kind of okay with Annabelle, even though they admitted she was creepy-looking. It was Stephanie Sigman, who plays Sister Charlotte, who was most disturbed by the doll. She didn’t want to hold it and avoided Annabelle whenever possible. In fact, Stephanie had heard that for the first Annabelle, a priest had blessed the set, so she asked that our set be blessed, too. And it was.
How did you communicate with the young actresses who portray the orphans living in the Mullins’ homeIJ There’s some scary and sometimes disturbing things happening around them in the story.
They were all so professional that it was never a problem for them to act in the heavy or scary scenes. The youngest of the actors, Samara lee, who’s eight-years-old, is a big horror fan. When I told Samara that she shares her name with a famous character in another horror film, she knew immediately what it was (The Ring); in fact, she was named after that character!
Her favourite director is James Wan, who did the Conjuring films, and when The Conjuring 2 was released, Samara was among the first in line to see the film. During our table read, Anthony laPaglia asked Samara if our script was too scary. She replied, “No. I’m eight.” Samara wanted to do as much scary stuff as possible.
The score adds a lot to the film. Is this your first time working with a full orchestraIJ
Yes, and it was a great experience. The brass adds a lot to the scary moments, and we had a separate session with the string orchestra, where we had them explore weird sounds with violins and cellos. We used a lot of that in the movie. Some things the musicians wouldn’t do, for fear of ruining their expensive instruments.
What do you hope audiences experience when they see Annabelle: Creation in cinemasIJ
The best part of being in a theatre with an audience watching the film is the series of three emotions they express: anticipation, when they’re whispering, “Is this thing comingIJ” or “No, don’t go in that room!”; when they get scared and jump and scream; and, finally, when they laugh with relief at each other for jumping and screaming. Then that’s what I’m hoping for.
How do you sleep at nightIJ
like a baby – but sometimes I do have nightmares. There’s a scene in this movie that came from a dream I had. I woke up and immediately wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it. And then I sent it to Gary Dauberman, our screenwriter, and asked like if we could put it in the movie.
I was covering my eyes during several scenes. Why make an innocent doll so scaryIJ
I think life-like dolls are scary because they’re little versions of us. They look like us and you kind of expect them to walk around and start doing things.
Is this film based on a true storyIJ
The doll is based on the real doll that Ed and lorraine Warren believed was haunted, as we saw in The Conjuring. The doll is locked up and they have a priest bless her every week to make sure that nothing happens.
What were the most challenging aspects of making this filmIJ
One challenge came with the fact that we had this rule about never seeing Annabelle walking around. So, we threw a sheet over her and then you see the sheet move. That’s allowed in this universe.
We also had a lot of fun dreaming up different ways of depicting Annabelle as the vessel of evil.