David F. Sandberg brings his unique filmmaking approach to 'Annabelle: Creation'
Once known for making no-budget short films on YouTube, Sandberg is getting more money and resources from Hollywood than he ever could've imagined.
In Annabelle: Creation, it feels as though horror is being hearkened back to its glory days when the genre actually relied upon genuine tension and suspense, as opposed to the cheap, predictable jump scares audiences have come to expect from mainstream horror movies.
Directed by David F. Sandberg, Annabelle: Creation is the latest installment in the billion-dollar Conjuring franchise and chronicles the unsettling events that take place several years after the tragic death of the daughter of a dollmaker and his wife, who decide to invite a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their possessed home.
While much of Annabelle: Creation plays out in a rather conventional, by the books manner, Sandberg’s unique approach to filmmaking — a craft which he learned from his mentor Svante Rosberg and perfected through the short films he posted on his YouTube channel under the pseudonym “ponysmasher” — makes it all the more captivating.
My conversation with Sandberg begins below:
What was your initial reaction when New Line approached you to direct the Annabelle sequel?
They came to me during post-production on Lights Out and they were very happy with how the film had turned out. I had a very good experience working with them, but when they first asked if I wanted to direct the sequel to Annabelle, I was like, “Well, where are you going to take it? Is it just going to be the same movie again the way a lot of horror sequels are?”
But then I was totally surprised when I read Gary Dauberman’s script and saw that it was very different from the first movie. It really felt like something I could make my own.
It’s a very standalone movie and you don’t even have to have seen the first one to see this one. You can even see the first one after and it still works. Plus, it’s a real period piece, and we got to build the whole house from scratch, it’s a mostly girl cast, which I thought was really cool, and there was just a lot of things that made me want to do it.
The kids in this movie were outstanding. Gabriel Bateman’s — who you worked with on Lights Out — sister, Talitha Bateman, was especially good.
Yeah. But she didn’t just get the part. She auditioned several times and really proved how good she was. The casting was so important and we had so many girls that kept coming back. It takes so much work to find the perfect actress for the right role.
One of the best scenes in the movie is when one of the orphan girls is trapped in the barn and the light bulbs start unscrewing themselves from the ceiling. Was that moment inspired by your short Attic Panic?
Absolutely. There was actually a different thing that was supposed to happen in the barn during that scene that was not as exciting. So when the studio mentioned that they were going to do some additional photography and asked me if there was anything that I wanted to change or improve upon, I brought the idea to them.
A lot of people who have seen Attic Panic told me, “Hey, you guys should do a feature film based on Attic Panic,” but I always thought that there was no story there. You can’t make a feature out of that.
So, instead, we decided to just incorporate that part into Annabelle.
It was really cool with the help of Hollywood-level people. In the short, I used CGI for the light bulb and everything, but it didn’t turn out that great. This time around I had an actual practical effects guy who made a remote-controlled unscrewing light bulb and stuff like that, which looked really cool and Benjamin Wallfisch did a great recreation of the score I made for the short.
The barn scene probably got the best reaction out of the audience at my screening. One of the other scenes that seemed to play really well was the ending; that very final scene.
You said you haven’t seen the first Annabelle movie, right?
No, I haven’t.
Yeah, that was a worry if people would be too confused by it, but it seems most people sort of are still OK with it. Those very last shots are actual footage from the first Annabelle movie, so you could actually start the first Annabelle right there and just have one really big, long movie. I thought that was really cool. People who had seen the first Annabelle movie really loved the ending of this one so much.
But yeah, that was a worry, and we even considered test screening without that ending as well, which we did.
You recently confirmed that you’ll be directing Shazam! for New Line and DC. What kind of challenges do you foresee making the switch from the horror to the comic book genre?
I’m mostly just excited about trying something different. I’ll definitely be making a return to horror at one point or another. I’m just really excited to try something different.