Annabelle Comes Home focuses on Judy Warren, played by McKenna Grace, daughter of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played once more by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, respectively. The Warrens hire babysitter Mary Ellen, played by Madison Iseman, to watch over Judy while they are away working another case. Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela, played by Katie Sarife, arrives uninvited, and finds her way into the Warrens’ artifact room, where she unlocks a case containing their possessed Annabelle doll. Soon after, the house becomes infested with spirits conjured up by the doll, causing the three girls to work together to try locking the doll back up.
This is the second Conjuring Universe film released this year, after The Curse of La Llorona, and Annabelle Comes Home suffers from a lot of the same problems that that film had. Namely the fact that the film relies almost consistently on jump scares to get it through its hour-and-forty-minute runtime. The film feels more like an event-based film rather than a story-based film. While each of the characters do have some backstory, namely Sarife’s Daniela, who’s looking to communicate with her dead father, much of the character development and story takes a backseat so the film can just set up atmospheric set pieces that are built around jump scares.
And that’s really all this film is, for the most part. Once Annabelle is unlocked and the spirits are out, this film is essentially scene after scene of characters entering a creepy-looking room in the Warrens’ house, looking around only to come face-to-face with some screaming entity that attacks them and then backs off. While some set designs are well done and nice to look at, the movie itself isn’t so much creepy as it is predictably scary. There are some sequences that work fine, but just about any time this film builds up to a jump scare, it does happen.
One of the only truly creepy moments would be in the opening sequence, which focuses exclusively on Ed and Lorraine when they first recover the Annabelle doll. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga both bring a solid energy to this opening act, like they do in the main two Conjuring films, and the way in which they react to the sequence of events that unfold, they do a great job building up the tension as far as what’s to come. It’s a shame that neither of them have a larger presence in the film, and that the rest of the movie doesn’t build on the great suspense presented in these first few minutes.
It’s probably the acting itself that’s one of this film’s strongest points, and at the very least, makes a fair amount of sequences enjoyable to watch. While most of the characters are severely underwritten, the main cast does a great job with what they have to work with, and manage to elevate the subpar material at various points throughout this movie. McKenna Grace is by far the biggest standout in this film, having the most commanding presence of the bunch, despite being by far the youngest of the bunch. She has a very confident presence about her that allow for the audience to invest in what she does that really outshines just about everything else in this movie.
Both Madison Iseman and Katie Sarife also do fine jobs with the material, even if most of their lines are reduced to stock characters. But they are quite believable as typical high school friends with opposite personalities that make for some fun moments early on. And seeing all three actresses work together in some of the quieter moments during the first act are enjoyable watch, if only for the solid chemistry they all share with one another. While the second half of the film is by far the weaker part, it’s the likable nature of all three actresses built early on that at least allow the audience to at least be intrigued how these events unfold.
Annabelle Comes Home is a fairly middle-of-the-road entry into the Conjuring Universe. As far as scares go, while it does have some decent moments, it’s really not all that scary. Much of the film, especially during its second half, relies heavily on jump scares that wind up being easily predictable. And in terms of story and characters, there are some sporadic moments of decent character development, but most of it is thrown out the door once the film dives into its rinse-and-repeat style of manufactured jump-scares. The only reason one would fully invest their time into seeing how this movie plays out, it’s due to the fact that all of the main performers are likable enough that they all manage to make some truly weak material into something that’s somewhat enjoyable.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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