 First you have a story. Usually after that you have the sequel to the original story which is a telling of events that follow the original. Occasionally, you get the story that leads up to the original and we call that the prequel. Think The Godfather Part II or Prometheus. Did you know Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is actually a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark? It takes place a year before the events in Raiders. | |
The trickiest prequel I’ve seen lately was the 2011 version of The Thing. It looked to be a remake of the John Carpenter classic, but fans of that version quickly realized in the final scenes that what they were actually watching was a prequel. Pretty slick.
Prequels can be tricky, though. They do not necessarily have to lead up to the same story that precedes them. A prequel could just deal with characters from a previous story or even a setting. Annabelle is the prequel to the horror film The Conjuring. An audience already familiar with the material from the original story are easy pickings for dramatic irony that derives from a prequel. The term prequel has been around since the 50s but probably become popular around the release of Butch and Sundance: The Early Years in 1979.
As a prequel, Annabelle has many nods to the previous film as well as some interesting connections to other films and cultural events referenced in the movie. There’s a 1963 Twilight Zone episode called “Living Doll” where a doll causes people harm. The mother of the little girl in that episode’s name was Annabelle. There’s a baby mobile over the crib that plays the same tune as the music box in The Conjuring. There’s a building in Annabelle called the Barclay…Andy Barclay was the name of the main character in the film Child’s Play about another psycho killing doll named Chucky.
 There are also many references to the cult classic Rosemary’s Baby (1968). It stared Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. The couple’s name in Annabelle are Mia and John. They name their daughter Leah…Leah is also one of the names of the neighbors in Rosemary’s Baby. Both films have a dramatic scene in an elevator. In 1969, the Manson family killed Sharon Tate and her unborn baby. This killing is mentioned in the film Annabelle. Sharon Tate was married to Roman Polanski. Roman Polanski directed Rosemary’s Baby. |  Sharon Tate  Roman Polanski  Evil Psycho |
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