Warner Bros. Pictures
There is no doubt that Warner Brothers, New Line and James Wan struck gold when they produced the first The Conjuring movie back in 2013, a groundbreaking take on the horror genre that actually harkened back to the good old days of horror flicks like the original The Haunting that didn’t rely on cheap scares and loud music cues to send chills up and down your spine. It was that film that also introduced the Annabelle doll in a brief opening scene but no one knew at the time that the brief scene would lead to a spin-off that would also beget two (and counting) sequels.
The first Annabelle replayed that opening scene and expanded on it, doing a nice little loop in the storytelling. The second film was a real surprise in that it went back about 20 years in time to the creation of the doll, hence the title Annabelle: Creation. Now the third film comes full circle, once again going back to that scene that kicked off The Conjuring, and for the first time in an Annabelle movie includes the Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) on screen, collecting the doll from the apartment, hence the title Annabelle Comes Home.
Much has been made about the Warrens making their first appearance but this isn’t The Conjuring 3. Their time on screen is really limited to the beginning and end of the movie as they go out of town on business, leaving daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) in the care of her favorite babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Mary Ellen loes Judy and is quite familiar with the Warren house rules that no one is to ever go into their room of evil, cursed objects. But Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela is very curious about that room, and grocery store cashier Bob is very curious about Mary Ellen. Showing up unannounced, Daniela manages to get Mary Ellen and Judy out of the house with a birthday present of roller skates, and she finds the keys to unlock the room. Daniela isn’t just curious about the room, she hopes to use one of the objects in the room to conjure up her father who recently died in a car accident (Daniela was driving and blames herself). But Annabelle has other idea and before long she’s out of her glass case, causing mayhem for the three girls (and Bob after he shows up to ask Mary Ellen on a date), and unleashing even more evil from the other objects in the room.
Annabelle Comes Home is a pretty decent horror film. I really appreciated how quiet the movie was, allowing the visuals to really sell the scares. I get particularly tense when a character is in a room surrounded by inky blackness, just waiting for something to make an appearance. There are a few scenes like that that made me jump or had the hair on the back of my neck stand up, especially when there was just barely something seen, illuminated briefly by a candle. That kind of stuff is much more frightening and effective than a loud music cue. On the fright factor scale, the movie is a success.
While it’s better than the first movie, it’s not quite as good in the storytelling department as Annabelle: Creation. The story here is actually quite slim and once Daniela unwittingly unleashes the evil, the rest of the movie is mainly four characters trying to survive. As with the previous movies, we never actually see Annabelle move, although she does manage to get from room to room somehow, and I like that all of that is left to our imaginations. But with the characters trying to survive the onslaught, the story takes a back seat and instead serves up more characters and objects that could definitely become part of The Conjuring Universe of movies, particularly a character known as The Ferryman — and probably the creepiest character in the movie — a cursed wedding gown (aka The Bride), and a Samurai suit of armor. The only thing that really bothered me was another monster, a sort of werewolf that goes against everything the folks behind these movies have been known for — generally using actors in elaborate makeups. The werewolf is obviously a CGI character so that kind of detracts from the more realistic approach they’ve taken to the various spooks … but the real life Warrens did once investigate a werewolf demon (The Black Shuck) so there definitely is a movie idea in there.
Annabelle Comes Home is a middling movie as far as story goes, but it’s still a lot of fun and intrigues us with what may come next in The Conjuring Universe.
Annabelle Comes Home has a run time of 1 hour 46 minutes and is rated R for horror violence and terror.
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