Annabelle: Comes Home (2019) Review

‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ is the third installment in the Annabelle spin-off series and the seventh film in The Conjuring Universe. The thought of a horror cinematic universe sounds appealing and The Conjuring 1 & 2 were feasible introductory films that breathed new life into the horror genre. However, this concept of an intricate horror franchise is becoming more of a bleak vision because of the franchise’s recent installments that feature uninteresting plots, disposable characters, and effortless attempts to make money. Unfortunately, ‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ follows this trend instead of breaking it.

Gary Dauberman, director, and screenwriter of ‘Annabelle Comes Home’, is known for his writing of recently successful horror movies such as ‘Annabelle: Creation’ and ‘It’. These well-written films show that Dauberman is more than capable of writing a compelling and consequential story. He happens to also be the writer of notoriously underwhelming movies like ‘The Nun’ and the original ‘Annabelle’ that are full of horror tropes and clichés. While I was extremely critical of ‘The Nun’ as its premise made little sense, there at least was effort put into its production design and cinematography. I am unsure what positive aspects ‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ has to offer outside of its cast.

‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ tells the story of a babysitter named Mary Ellen (played by Madison Iseman) that is taking care of Judy Warren (played by Mckenna Grace), daughter of Ed (played by Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (played by Vera Farmiga) Warren. The babysitter’s friend, Daniela Rios (played by Katie Sarife) comes over to the Warren’s house and lets Annabelle out of its case. The entity then slowly terrorizes Judy, Mary, and Daniela as they must quickly figure out how to contain the evil spirit.

The first visual that greets the audience is a close-up of Annabelle. The camera begins to slowly zoom out as the Warren’s are giving the babysitter instructions about the house and Judy, but its focus remains on the doll. The effectiveness of this scene along with other scenes that features Annabelle hinges on whether you find the doll scary or not. If you do not find this doll scary, then expect the entire 101-minute runtime to bore the hell out of you. The entire first half of this film is prolonged camera shots of Annabelle that are meant to create tension, but it just shows a lack of creativity.

This movie is full of clichés such as loud knocks at the door, crosses turning upside down, a little girl that can see spirits, and doors closing behind people. This film even had the nerve to tease jump scares. For instance, Lorraine Warren holding up a map and blocking the window outside only to put it down and nothing be there!

Okay, fine that was clever.

Later, we hear music start up by itself, but it is the babysitter’s crush outside playing a guitar and singing. Well, at least they are making fun of that cliché.

Nope! A record player turns on by itself soon after that happens, and it epitomizes how similar these Conjuring spin-offs are to each other.

Unsurprisingly, there is hardly a tangible plot to ‘Annabelle: Comes Home’. Daniela makes a deal with Judy Warren to give her a hoverboard in exchange for permission to access to the Warren’s artifact room. First off, Judy is aware how dangerous that room is. So, she is perfectly fine putting all their lives in jeopardy for a hoverboard that eventually injures her. Naturally, Daniela uses that opportunity to open and leave the key in Annabelle’s case. Daniela is purely a plot device. The writers decided to give her a hollow backstory that hardly affects the story and is there to add depth to an unlikable character.

The story itself is born out of nowhere, goes nowhere, and ends nowhere. Simply put, it is inconsequential. The only contributions it made is potentially setting up more Conjuring spin-offs with brand new entities. Unless, the Annabelle doll being at the Warren’s holds significance in the upcoming ‘The Conjuring 3’, then this may be the most forgettable movie of the franchise.

The one redeeming quality of this movie is its acting. Madison Iseman and Mckenna Grace does an incredible job evoking fear and their screams were authentic. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are in the background during this film, but that gives an opportunity for the other actresses to shine. Despite Daniela’s poorly written character, Sarife appears physically and mentally broken in a variety of scenes which adds value to the movie, overall.

My biggest gripe with the film is its production design. The story primarily takes place in two locations, the school and the Warren’s house. Yes, the artifact room feels haunting and I would never willingly walk in that set room alone. But the scenes that take place during the night outside looks incredibly fake. To hide that it is a stage, they pump an ungodly amount of fog into the air. It makes no logical sense why there is that much fog, but to make up for it, they create a “fog dog” entity that chases the babysitter’s boyfriend around. What does the wolf creature have to do with the story? Nothing. It is there to deliver cheap, unearned jump scares and that is it.

‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ also introduces us to an entity called the Ferryman. This demonic creature has a backstory and an explanation for his motives. When people die, two coins are set on the corpse’s eyes, so they have enough money to pay the Ferryman his toll. It is an intriguing character but the only significance he has in this movie is to leave a trail of coins for the babysitter that lead to a jump scare. There is a scene later that explores his concept more, but it is a tactic to tease a demonic creature just to make a low-budget spin-off down the road.

The cinematography is haphazard throughout the film. The first half of the movie does well in low-light settings as events and people are distinguishable. It helps the setting feel claustrophobic, plus the scene with Judy and that rotating color wheel was visually appealing and equally entertaining. But as the movie nears the end, it appears they just cranked up the brightness for a few scenes and left it at that. It feels like they did not have time to finish the movie, so they sent it off as is.

‘Annabelle: Comes Home’ stands for everything I despise about what the horror genre is becoming. These movies have low budgets and can make significant profit, so of course they rush to make these films. It leaves the audience with an inferior product full of cheap gimmicks. This movie had potential to at least set up the next movie in the series and entertain us a long the way. Unfortunately, the movie fell flat on its face and gave the audience the middle finger in the process.

Final Score: 4.5/10