Writer Gary Dauberman, making his directorial debut “Annabelle Comes Home”, does a fine job.
Although this film released last week, I just had to review it. In a cinematic world dominated by superhero movies, the next genre that has gained the most traction is horror and the Annabelle franchise is one of the most lucrative today. A part of the larger Conjuring film universe, a loyal fan base around the world has served as a strong source of patronage for these films.
Horror has seen many changes over the decades. Classic horror in the 1930s was led primarily by Universal Studios monster films, where Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Mummy dominated. Then slowly sci-fi movies began to gain popularity with Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Invisible Man. In the 1960s, horror in the U.S. died down a little, with the B-grade Hammer Films in Europe filling the quota, and thrillers like Psycho and The Birds doing really well in the U.S. Things turned around in the 70s and early 80s when Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining arrived on the scene. These films changed horror forever, but then another shift happened, which would negatively impact horror for 16 years.
John Carpenter’s Halloween burst on the scene in 1978, giving birth to the slasher genre. In the 80s, Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Child’s Play started a new trend of violent, gory horror movies establishing a niche audience and alienating casual moviegoers looking for an interesting time at the movies. While horror continued to gain a bad name, director Wes Craven gave a re-birth to the genre with Scream (1996). Horror continued to have hits and misses in the early 2000s with good films like The Ring, Signs, Saw and The Sixth Sense, and terrible ones that remade earlier horror classics. But in 2013, James Wan’s The Conjuring released to mass critical acclaim and success and thus began a new horror renaissance and new cinematic franchise for audiences to follow. Horror is now a genre not only respected, but one that produces massive returns as well. This was all due to the Conjuring!
The Conjuring spawned a sequel, The Conjuring 22, and several spin-offs including Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, The Curse Of  La llorona and The Nun, each a success. One of the scariest movies in this franchise was Annabelle: Creation, so I was eagerly looking forward to Annabelle Comes Home. Does it live up to expectations set forth by its predecessors? Here’s my take…
Annabelle Comes Home takes place during the first Conjuring. The Warrens (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the famed investigator couple from the other Conjuring) have now obtained the Annabelle doll to keep in a museum they have at home which includes cursed demonic objects. They live with their young daughter Judy (McKenna Grace), who has to deal with being bullied due to her parents’ profession. When the Warrens have to travel out of town, they ask Judy’s kind babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) to take care of Judy. Unfortunately, Mary Ellen’s nosy friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) also comes over to the house and is super intrigued by the cursed museum. Daniela enters the museum and unleashes a demonic firestorm led by the evil Annabelle. Will the trio be able to stop Annabelle before anything terrible happens? Does Daniela have an underlying motive for being so curious about the Warrens? Watch Annabelle Comes Home to find out!
McKenna Grace puts in a natural performance as Judy. This young actress is no stranger to the horror genre after starring in Netflix’s House On Haunted Hill and her wonderful performance continues here. She will be a superstar in the future! It is refreshing to see Madison Iseman in a nice and kind role after the mean character she played in 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle. She performs her role perfectly and her character is extremely likeable. Katie Sarife bring the right amount of ambiguity, hate and sympathy to her character and does complete justice to her role. Of course, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are perfect as the Warrens.
Writer Gary Dauberman makes his directorial debut with this movie and does a fine job. The movie does not rely on jump scares too much, and focuses more on anxiety and suspense. The opening sequence and the introduction of one of the demons (which I will not ruin here) did frighten me! It has been a longtime where the situation has been given precedence over items jumping out at you and I commend Dauberman for this. The movie, despite being almost 2 hours, moves along smoothly and has an interesting theme – being trapped in your own home with demonic objects unleashed. The movie could also be perceived as a new spin on the “babysitter horror†genre which had started to surface in the ’80s.
The movie is not without flaws, however. For one, it is definitely less scary than the previous movies. I think the franchise is starting to run a little bit out of steam. Second, some of the demons that come out of the room are tacky and lame and take away from the ghostly horror of Annabelle herself. This is partially because the special effects are not up to par.
All in all, the movie is a fun watch and fans of the franchise will enjoy it. I give it a 3/5. Worth a one-time watch. I now keenly await Conjuring 3 next year!