ACCORDING to the opening credits of Annabelle, dolls have frequently been used as conduits of evil.

Modern film-makers have had great fun transforming inanimate figures into demonic vessels.

Anthony Hopkins fell under the spell of a possessive ventriloquist’s dummy in Richard Attenborough’s 1978 thriller Magic and mannequins ran amok the following year in the gruesome horror Tourist Trap.

In the late 1980s, audiences squealed with delight at the opening instalments of the Child’s Play and Puppet Master series.

This prequel to 2013 supernatural horror The Conjuring fleshes out the blood-soaked history of a garish figurine called Annabelle, who sent chills down the spine in the first film.

She remains under lock and key in the home of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Director John R. Leonetti replays the opening scene of The Conjuring and then rewinds 12 months to sunbaked 1967 Santa Monica, California, where picture perfect couple John (Ward Horton) and Mia Gordon (Annabelle Wallis) are preparing to welcome their first child into the world.

Annabelle appropriates elements of Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen for an increasingly silly tale of demonic possession and maternal sacrifice.

Leonetti achieves a couple of decent scares but when it comes to burrowing deep beneath our skin both he and scriptwriter Gary Dauberman fall short.

The visual effects are sparing, which is more than can be said of Joseph Bishara’s deafening orchestral score, which turns the volume up to 11.

Wallis works through a dizzying array of screams, shrieks and caterwauls as the plot careens out of control around her and we eventually lose interest.