It's the little things that can make a good movie.
During the first act of Annabelle: Creation, before the expected ghostly horrors begin, Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) is sharing a photograph of her fellow nuns and, at one point, she tilts it at a certain angle and, briefly, a face appears in the shadows of the picture, lenticular-like: it's Valak (from The Nun and The Conjuring 2).
It's never mentioned again, never referenced, but it's a marvellous Easter Egg tying this film - beyond the presence of its titular antagonist - to the wider Conjuring Universe.
Director David F Sandberg (who also directed Shazam!) makes great use of light and shadows in this creative origin story for the demonic doll, Annabelle, that far exceeds her disappointing first 'solo' film for scares and coherence.
Written by Gary Dauberman (who was also responsible for Annabelle, Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun, IT: Chapter Two, and developing Swamp Thing for DC Universe), Annabelle: Creation sees melancholic, former toy maker, Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his bed-bound wife, Esther (Miranda Otto), opening their isolated home to Sister Charlotte and half-a-dozen orphan girls.
Twelve years earlier, in the mid 1940s, their young daughter, Annabelle (Samara Lee) had been run over and killed, and despite the generous nature of Mr Mullins, there's a definite creepy cloud of gloom hanging over the house.
Exploring a room in the house she was forbidden to enter, one girl, Janice (Talitha Bateman) is attacked in the night by some kind of demonic entity. Already hobbled by polio, this attack leaves her in a wheelchair, and the other girls start to believe her stories of 'ghosts', especially when Janice's behaviour takes a turn for the worse.
Although the climax of the main plot is slightly jumbled, even feeling a bit rushed, overall Annabelle: Creation is tightly scripted and delivers on most counts.
For the most part it avoids cheap jump scares, and instead oozes unnerving, "it's behind you", tension and atmosphere.
Taking a lesson from the first Annabelle flick, director David Sandberg doesn't dwell too long on the static doll, instead drawing the story's terror from what goes on around her.
The all-important "creation" of the central demonic doll is surprisingly interesting and clever (although I don't understand why no one ever suggested pouring a can of petrol over the doll and setting it alight, especially once it became clear how evil it was).
Towards the end of the film there's a nice nod to the "real Annabelle doll" in a sequence that dovetails neatly into the first Annabelle movie.
Besides the fantastic Easter Eggs, a strength of many of The Conjuring Universe movies has been their period settings, and that's ever-prevalent in Annabelle: Creation, with its story eventually spanning spanning three decades.
And, I know I came to this franchise late, but I love the way it really is a "cinematic universe" - in the style of the Marvel movies - with its stories not focusing on a single demonic entity or ghostly group simply repeating the same narrative over and over through unending sequels of ever-decreasing quality and budget.