Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - Movie Review

As much as The Conjuring has put its boot print on the face of modern horror cinema, its spin-offs have been… less than ideal, Annabelle in particular. The first Annabelle marks one of the most unintentionally funny ‘horror’ flicks I’ve seen, to the point where its infamous elevator scene still makes me giggle to this day. Given what I went into with Shazam! earlier in the year, I won’t revive that whole mess but, suffice it to say, Annabelle: Creation wasn’t all that good either. Even though I went to bat for The Nun when few others did, I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting much out of this one. Thankfully, I can report back that I finally, finally have an Annabelle movie I can get behind.

While the film itself is set in the household of the Warrens, the family that forms the core of the franchise, Ed and Lorraine don’t appear much in this, save for the bookends. Instead, our leads consist of the Warrens’ daughter Judy, her babysitter Mary Ellen, the babysitter’s potential love interest Bob(‘s got balls, in one of the weirder running gags I’ve seen all year) and her best friend and frequent social blackmailer Daniela. ‘Main cast full of teens’ + ‘haunted house’ is the kind of combination that makes me immediately worried, considering this is also the formula for a lot of C-grade schlock in the age of Eli Roth, but they turn out surprisingly well. Or, in the case of Judy as played by McKenna Grace, unsurprisingly well.

The characters rub against the grain, but it never reaches a genuine ‘please leave the film’ point. The only one who comes close is Daniela, but because of both the writing around her and Katie Sarife’s commendable performance, she quickly went from the most annoying to the most interesting character in the film. Shame she seems to disappear at points, but all the same, her character arc is quite enjoyable. Beyond that, it amounts to late-60’s nostalgic kitsch as is the M.O. for the mainline Conjuring films.

Actually, while I’m talking about this, this is far less a true Annabelle sequel as much as it is The Conjuring 2.5. Part of that is how it directly involves the Warrens this time around, but also because Annabelle doesn’t end up being the main attraction here. In the film’s own words, she is a beacon for other spirits, and considering the collection the Warrens have accumulated, there’s a lot of them in close proximity. The film’s variety when it comes to scares stick to the respectable ‘lingering background movement’ method, and the examples we get range from a possessed suit of samurai armour to an evil wedding dress to a board game that automatically wins points for not just being another friggin’ Ouija board.

Writer Gary Dauberman, who has either produced or written the other Conjuring spin-offs, steps into the director’s chair for the first time, and it’s clear that he’s picked up some tricks along the way. He maintains the sunburnt lens that James Wan banked on for the more domestic moments, the use of fog to make the potentially-ugly CGI work feels pulled right out of The Nun’s playbook, and while the titular Annabelle isn’t the scariest thing to be found here, her place in the story makes sense. I mean, her presence in the spin-offs, including The Curse Of La Llorona, is what ties these films together (and possibly Shazam! as well, but that’s just from what I’ve heard). She is the conduit for this franchise, so putting that right at the forefront was a solid move.

I’m not going to pretend that this is the scariest thing I’ve seen, or even the scariest Conjuring spin-off I’ve seen (which, at this stage, is still The Nun). But considering I was either lukewarm or stone-cold on the other Annabelle flicks, I’m pleasantly surprised that this film is as good as it is. It’s got solid scares, good methodology in their use, the characters are interesting, the performances either bolster the writing or make up for its weaker moments, and the story overall feels like a natural progression for what the series has shown us so far.