Annabelle Comes Home
Directed by Gary Dauberman

Annabelle Comes Home is the latest chapter of the Conjuring universe, a series of films that I’m not super familiar with. I think I saw the first one a couple years ago but it didn’t really wow me. Maybe its because I’m not really into haunted house movies or possession movies, maybe it was just how I was feeling that day, whatever the reason, I never saw another Conjuring movie. But people love these things! They’ve consistently made money, and the series is growing by the year with more sequels and spinoffs and what have you. None of that made me want to see this movie though, I saw this because I was recommended it, and you can do the same to get me to watch whatever good (please!) or bad (why must you hurt me?) movies you have in mind. So how is Annabelle Comes Home without having any context from the previous films? Join me to find out!

A Nice Simple Ghost Story.

In a much-appreciated introduction, our film begins with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren collecting the dastardly Annabelle doll and explaining its powers before passing off the narrative to their young daughter Judy, a child who has inherited her mother’s spirit-sense. Before Judy’s birthday, her parents leave town, probably for some investigation, and leave her with beloved babysitter Mary Ellen. But their responsible night is soon crashed by Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela, who has heard of the Warrens’ reputation and wants to snoop in their collection of cursed items. After an ill-fated attempt to contact the dead, Annabelle is released from her holy prison and wreaks havoc on the three, subjecting them to ghastly torments as the doll seeks a soul to steal.

I Think They Explained Annabelle Well?

My perspective of the movie is probably a little different than many viewers because I have no clue what Annabelle is, what her powers are, and what the history of the character is. That’s why I appreciate the opening sequence where a basic outline of Annabelle’s abilities and drawbacks are explained because it wasn’t just exposition, they actually managed some neat visual storytelling to explain the ‘conduit for spirits’ thing. I guess it’s part of the ‘we need to make this movie as broadly accessible as possible’ goal that I’ll get into in a second, but I am happy that I know what I need to know and the info was passed on in an artful way.

Everyone Gets A Ghost!

Now I did mention that there was a definite attempt to make this movie as broad as possible. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The scares in Annabelle Comes Home arise from that whole ‘spirit conduit’ where the doll seems to be able to trigger the power of haunted and cursed items and ghosts, many of which are conveniently located in the Warrens’ vault! There are many spirits, and many different kinds of spirits as well, so no matter what you’re scared of most, i.e. ghosts of your past, deadly monsters, possessions, or whatever, there’s probably something here for you, and I’m no different. When I found my favorite one of the spirits I was quite pleased whenever they were on-screen. Mine was the Ferryman, coincidentally.

Unfortunately, This Is All Mainly Surface Level

At the same time, that’s also the biggest problem Annabelle Come Home has, it doesn’t really commit to any one of these spirits and never gets to the depths of horror that it could go. Being new to the series I may be missing out on the established depths that all these monsters have, but that doesn’t come across even if it’s true, most of these spirits seem to just want to skulk around to set-up jumpscares. They’re good jumpscares, as far as those go, and I do appreciate the attempts to give each spirit its own slightly unique atmosphere, but there just isn’t enough time for everyone to get the screen time they deserve. And they do deserve more because these are some pretty cool monster designs.

But There’s Enough To Keep The Story Going

Another thing that works well here is the setting and characters. Nearly all of the film is set in one house with the three young women I mentioned above and I liked the basic ghost story nature of the ‘in a house just like yours with people just like you and your friends’ narrative they have going on. Nothing super deep going on with the characters but they all seem fairly realistic, even the troublemaker of the trio isn’t an over the top character, just a teenager who can be realistically shitty sometimes and not shitty other times. I can’t think of any performances that really wowed me, but everyone seemed to be doing the best they could to bring some depth to a mostly standard archetypal character.

Annabelle Comes Home Has Its Moments. It’s Fine.

In a lot of ways, Annabelle Comes Home is the least interesting kind of movie to review. There is a definite level of competence at every stage of filmmaking so nothing is done excessively wrong, but things are generally played too safe for anything to be done too right. It feels kind of committee designed to be palatable, but I suppose there’s nothing wrong with making a basic middle of the road diversionary horror movie to be some escapist fun. I can’t imagine that really hardcore horror fans would get too much out of this though, so as far as recommendations go, I’d only suggest it to more casual viewers of the horror genre, people who may not be up for the more intense stuff but still could want a ghost story now and then. If you’re into the Conjuring universe this one may be fun, otherwise, you could skip it without missing too much.

Tags: Horror movieMovie ReviewThe Conjuring