LOS ANGELES: A doll is every child's best friend — until it turns to killing.

Inanimate toys seem to be doing a lot of onscreen killing lately, with another doll turning to evil in the horror flick Annabelle, opening Friday.The garishly painted porcelain star is the latest smiling doll character to get a horror close-up.

And it’s not just the supremely creepy doll that is its star. In this prequel to last year’s hit “The Conjuring” — one of the most effective haunted house movies of recent years — cheap jolts are provided by an errant sewing machine, a record player spinning The Association’s hit “Cherish,” heavy books, a malfunctioning elevator and even an unattended Jiffy Pop popcorn pan. The filmmakers literally throw in everything but the kitchen sink.

Usually, movie spin-offs attempt to up the ante — witness this summer’s “The Purge: Anarchy,” which considerably ramped up the scale of its low-budget predecessor. Here, director John R. Leonetti (“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”) and producers Peter Safran and James Wan have taken a low-rent approach, with a cast of unknowns substituting for such estimable performers as Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Lili Taylor. It’s as if they thought the doll alone could carry the movie, but Annabelle is no Chucky.

Set in the late 1960s, the story concerns young married couple John (Ward Horton) and Mia (Annabelle Wallis). Mia is heavily pregnant (and is the character’s name a sly homage to the star of “Rosemary’s Baby”?), and her husband gifts her with the large-sized doll she’s apparently been coveting to complete her collection.