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Film Review: Annabelle Comes Home

Annabelle Far From Home….sorry Comes Home, is the 7th film in the MCU, sorry The Conjuring Universe, and once again dips the audience into the super natural adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Actually, they barely appear in the film, just an opening scene and an end scene, as the film focuses on their young daughter, growing up in a hostile environment due to the growing interest in her parents, and their mysterious comings and goings. So when they have to tackle an overnight case, that will probably be Annabelle Leaves Home, or something, they get teenage babysitter Mary Ellen to look after daughter Judy.

To stretch the scares out, Mary Ellens friend Daniela shows up, as well as Bob, the hardware store assistant and love interest for Mary Ellen. Daniela knows all about The Warrens, and has her own agenda about helping with the baby sitting duties, and Bob is really just comic relief. As The Warrens keep all their haunted stuff in a locked room, it is of course only a matter of time before the room is opened and the horrific entities that abide there, are let loose in the household, causing all kinds of spooky set pieces for the trapped ensemble cast. If I was The Warrens in this franchise, I would have hired a storage space and put them all in there. Now theres an episode of Storage Wars I would watch!

Basically, this movie is like a collection of set pieces strung like haunted pearls on an ancient necklace, designed to give fans of this series more of the same kind of stuff they have been doing for years. As well as the most grotesque doll ever created, Annabelle, we see cameos from The Elementals, sorry I mean The Scary Bride, The Ghostly Samurai, The Hell-Hound and The Ferryman. These nasty entities slowly make their presence known, creeping through the house, dropping coins, hiding in the darkness, whispering in the ether before suddenly jumping out at the cast and screaming.

Now if you are wondering about the plot here, honestly, thats all there is. The whole film pretty much takes place in the house, and feels very much like a “base under siege” story from an episode of Doctor Who. The cast are tormented by the Scooby Doo rogues gallery and have to find a way to save themselves and contain the evil.

Apart from a very slow first act, when things get into a higher gear the scares come thick and fast, trouble is a lot of them are spoiled in the trailer, however I suppose that you cannot fault a horror film that does exactly what you thought it would do. It is hard to complain about a film like this by saying, there is lots of scares and ghosts in it. Its like going to see Avengers: Endgame and saying there are too many super heroes in it. So with that in mind you have to give credit where credit is due.

The Warrens? Check.
Annabelle Ghost Doll? Check.
Lots of scary ghosts? Check
Jump Scares? Check.

Everything is in place, so if you are a fan, I suppose the only real problems are that The Warrens themselves have very little screen time, and as a result their characters are the same as they are in every other film, and despite the frights, most of the scares we have seen before. BOO! You’re scared.

Financially though, it seems that these films continue to make money. The small cast and very limited sets must have saved the production company a fortune, and the budget looks around the $30 Million mark. I would venture that this film will have already doubled that in its opening weekend, and if this film is another success for the franchise, it wont be long before we get Annabelle Homecoming or Annabelle Home Home On The Range.

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