Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

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When it comes to the 'Conjuring' series, I've mentioned before how with each film, the quality shifts. Although it's perfectly debatable, I consider 'Annabelle Comes Home' to be one of the better, if perfectly average titles. I enjoy this, as far as average "haunted house" movies go; it's something to watch for a fun Halloween romp. It's more on the fun side of things, less on the scary side of things, and it features a slew of possessed objects as Annabelle more or less leads an army of entities here.

The film opens with Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) receiving the Annabelle doll from nurses Debbie and Camilla (Kenzie Caplan and Sade Katarina, respectively) and bringing it home to be locked away, thereby preventing any further harm to anyone else. While driving back home, Ed and Lorraine experience a variety of paranormal activities, including Ed being attacked by a group of cemetery ghosts. Here, Lorraine establishes that Annabelle acts as a beacon to other restless spirits. Once home, the doll is blessed and stashed away in a glass case, labelled with warnings against opening it.

Once Annabelle is locked away in her case within a locked room filled with cursed and haunted objects, Ed and Lorraine are contacted to investigate another case, which will be overnight. They welcome their daughter Judy's (McKenna Grace) babysitter, Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman), and this is where things get interesting. For me, the fun of it comes into play once Ed and Lorraine leave, and the film says, "let's just do our own thing." Honestly, I believe the only thing based on "truth" (a word we use very loosely with the Warrens) here is some of the drive home and locking Annabelle away.

While babysitting, Mary Ellen's friend Daniela (Katie Sarife), having learned at school just whose house she's babysitting for that night, pays a visit to the Warrens' home to hang out with her friend and have her show her around. When, admittedly very irresponsibly, Judy and Mary Ellen leave for a quick errand, Daniela is left alone to snoop, stumbles into the room of oddities, finds the key to unlock Annabelle's case, does so, and therefore unlocks a bunch of evil that channels the other spirits in that room to "rise," and haunt the hell out of these kids.

Daniela may very well be a snoop, and perhaps a bit untrustworthy, but it's hard not to empathize with the real reason she's there - in hopes of getting into contact with her deceased father. In the meantime, I'd say Mary Ellen plays the audience, while Judy takes on the role of the "paranormal expert," having been given some of her Mother's psychic gifts. On a personal level, this particular title holds extra fun for me, as I mainly know McKenna Grace as Phoebe Spengler from the more recent 'Ghostbusters' films, which is a connection that is just too strong to ignore in a movie like this.

As the movie unfolds, it is, as I mentioned, a haunted house-type film with a lot of variety, as several of the spirits that terrorize the house are interesting and creative. Some are loosely based on real cases, but some are clearly made for the film. My personal favourite is a piece of haunted Samurai armour, from which the closer you get, the more you hear what seem to be the tortured screams of its victims. It also just looks really cool. However, there are several other entities here, each as creative as the last, that deserve just as much credit.

Suppose I compare this to another horror series. In that case, I might consider it the 'Elm Street: Dream Master' of the 'Conjuring' universe, given that reviews are overall very mixed, and it feels like a bit of a cash-in, suggesting that most of its viewers came to see it because of the title as opposed to word of mouth on anything good about it. To each their own, but I find it underrated. There are far worse movies in this collection. It's not as scary as some of its predecessors, but also not as lame as others. This is good for a fun evening of not-so-serious thrills and chills, and something that injects a bit more fun into the series.

3/5

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