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Article by Nathan Hurlbut
Annabelle Comes Home is now the seventh (or is it eighth?) movie in the ridiculously profitable The Conjuring movie universe that started back in 2013 with that original film’s release. In fact, there are now more Annabelle movies than Conjuring movies at this point (The Conjuring 3 isn’t due out until next year). It suggests the whole series has become a bit of a cash grab by now.
However, 2017’s Annabelle: Creation turned out to be a surprisingly good sequel, especially impressive considering the first Annabelle (2014) movie was probably the worst entry in the entire series. (The recent The Curse of La Llorona certainly gave it a run for its money.) It leaves expectations for this third Annabelle movie a bit heightened.
As the film’s trailer exploited to full effect, the movie does feature appearances by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as ghost hunters Vera and Ed Warren, giving the movie a level of gravitas that suggest this is more than just a spin-off of a successful series. However, their characters’ presence here is a bit of a cheat, as they merely bookend the main story. They’re both in an effective prologue that sets up the plot in which they bring Annabelle to their home, incarcerating the evil doll in a prison box of sacred glass and having it blessed by a priest. They again show up in a short epilogue in which they return home, with the end result being that they serve more as supporting characters here.
The rest of the film rest squarely on the shoulders of, in traditional horror movie fashion, a cast of teenagers (including the requisite babysitter), as well as the Warren’s shy young daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace).
As the story goes, the Warrens have business out of town, so they leave their daughter Judy in babysitter Mary Ellen’s (Madison Iseman) hands. Mary Ellen’s trouble-seeking friend Daniela (Katie Sarfie) shows up at the house as well and, for reasons of both curiosity and related to personal tragedy, decides to explore the house’s dark secrets when Mary Ellen and Judy are preoccupied elsewhere. It isn’t long before Annabelle is accidentally freed from her incarceration in the house’s ‘horror museum’ basement and starts making the girls’ lives a living hell.
The movie doesn’t feature much of a plot, perhaps due to the fact that the story is sandwiched into the middle of the Conjuring timeline, and events can’t have too much in the way of consequences or it would topple the whole chronology like a dismantled Jenga tower. In fact, the entire opening act of this particular story seems solely determined to find a way for Annabelle to escape from her enclosure so she can once again wreak havoc upon the world.
The method by which Annabelle does escape is a victim of that frequent cliché of horror films, “characters doing extremely dumb things,” in this case Daniela unlocking Annabelle’s case despite posted warnings never to do so. In fact, it is safe to say that the characters here do generally follow the horror movie rule that if it’s an incredibly bad idea, it’s probably the best option at any given moment. “All the better to set up the best scares,” the Big Bad Wolf would have informed Little Red Riding Hood back in the day.
However, the way in which Annabelle Comes Home embraces such horror cliches actually gives its old-fashioned, suspenseful atmosphere a degree of authenticity as if these common tropes are being discovered for the first time. The movie falls more effectively into the category of ‘haunted house/ghost story’ film rather than a violent, slasher movie type, keeping it within The Conjuring’s style of throwback, 1970’s style horror (making this film’s R rating a bit puzzling).
It shows first-time director Gary Dauberman displaying his familiarity with the series’ atmosphere, having penned the screenplays for the two previous Annabelle movies, as well as last year’s spin-off The Nun. He provides the film with an effective slow burn of tension that gradually escalates into an all-out intensity-fueled climax. You could even call it more of a ‘lethargic burn’ for the first half of the movie as we patiently wait for something (anything!) particularly eventful to happen. However, once events finally get rolling in the second half of the film, it pays off with a cavalcade of jump scares and an ever-increasing level of dread.
It’s probably best to approach Annabelle Comes Home with a degree of diminished expectations. Nothing particularly consequential happens, and you may be hard pressed to remember much of the movie after it’s over. However, if you’re looking for an old-fashioned scary movie about things that go bump in the night, this movie will certainly quench that particular thirst well enough.
Rated R.