ANNABELLE COMES HOME (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

annabelle comes home (2019) movie

Genre              |   Horror

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   99 minutes

Released         |   4 July 2019

cast

Vera Farmiga ... Lorraine Warren
Mckenna Grace ... Judy Warren
Patrick Wilson ... Ed Warren
​Steve Coulter ... Father Gordon

director

Gary Daunberman

writer

​James Wan ... (story by)
 
Gary Dauberman

cinematographer

​Michael Burgess

music

​Joseph Bishara

film editor

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box office result

Worldwide             $​TBA

Australia                 $​TBA

North America       $TBA

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movie minutiae

This is the third film in the ANNABELLE franchise which has been going since 2014 and it is the sixth film in THE CONJURING franchise which has been going since 2013 and it is also going to be a direct sequel to the first ANNABELLE (2014) and not ANNABELLE: CREATION (2017) the prequel to the film.

James Wan stated that the movie will pick up directly after Ed and Lorraine Warren took the Annabelle doll, in the first ANNABELLE (2014) movie. Therefore the movie will take place in Ed and Lorraine house, along with all the other artifacts.

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related movies

ANNABELLE (2014)

ANNABELLE COMES HOME (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

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Posters

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Posters

ANNABELLE COMES HOME (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing.  But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends.

ANNABELLE COMES HOME (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 4 July 2019

​​Pop Movee Rating

The third film in the ANNABELLE “Conjuring Universe” spin-off series is a strange hybrid thing. On one hand, it seems desperate to plug into the ready-made, box office friendly mythology of its forebears… On the other, it seems just as desperate to establish the Demon-diverting capabilities of a new series of characters, ready to take the mantle of Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren...

For this third go around, series writer Gary Dauberman double times, chomping down hard on the metaphorical “bit” and taking the Director’s reins in an effort to make sure what’s down on the page plays out on the stage…

To be honest, Dauberman’s writing efforts to this point haven’t overwhelmed Horror fans with anything approaching free-form innovation. Outside of his three ANNABELLE credits, Dauberman’s best received writing effort has been a screenplay credit for Andy Muschietti’s 2017 feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s genre opus, IT. To be fair, much of the success of that film rests in King’s source material and Mushietti’s visual flair. The screenplay is a by-the-numbers adaptation of the book and, when the author’s work is as well known and highly regarded as King’s, it’s pretty hard to make a meal of it…

Dauberman ain’t no King and ANNABELLE COMES HOME is no IT!

Despite this latest film being set in and around THE CONJURING universe films, ANNABELLE COMES HOME feels more like a slightly edgier version of a GOOSEBUMPS outing. It would have been no surprise to have had Jack Black pop out from behind a door for a screen-mugging cameo…

However, the people at the Warner Bros Marketing Department are a smart bunch…

The trailers for ANNABELLE COMES HOME made a big point of including Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as on-screen husband and wife ghostbusters, Lorraine and Ed Warren. This proved to be a smart move. The duo have become closely connected with these respective characters and it seems natural for them to be a big part of a story that is set almost entirely in their home.

Except, they’re absent for the bulk of the story.

Farmiga and Wilson serve as narrative bookends for this third film, appearing just long enough to qualify for an “Also Starring” credit.

Instead of Lorraine and Ed, this time around, audiences will have to be satisfied with their daughter Judy, play by Mckenna Grace. 

With Mum and Dad off to prevent further supernatural shenanigans somewhere, young Judy is left home alone with her babysitter Mary Ellen, played by JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE actress Madison Iseman. (There is a certain irony that Iseman also recently appeared in GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN. The jury’s out on which film audience members have been traumatised by more.)

Things get freaky when Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) shows up to keep the pair company. Daniela has a skeleton in her closet and she’ll do anything to open the door to let it out, even if it means unleashing forces that are beyond her comprehension and control.

What follows is a solid hour of silliness as Dauberman tries to pump up the volume on a “Haunted House” story that’s been done many times before (and better).

For a franchise that’s relied upon jump scares to get the audience going, ANNABELLE COMES HOME is lacking even the most basic of frights. In an effort to build tension, Dauberman slows the pace of the film to the point that the jump scares are no longer the cinematic equivalent of an exclamation mark; they’re more like a comma, breaking long, seemingly endless sentences that seem determined to test the audience’s patience.

Of all the things Dauberman tries, only one trick really works…

Taking something of a leaf out of classic films like POLTERGEIST (1982) and the Japanese 1998 Horror classic RINGU, one sequence features Daniela witnessing a version of herself on a black & white television where she sees what’s about to happen just mere seconds into the future. Long-time CONJURING Universe musical collaborator Joseph Bishara does a very nice job with this sequence, creating a haunting electronic sound that is quite other-worldly, providing a distinctive sound unlike anything else in the film. If ANNABELLE COMES HOME had played more in this space, the finished product would have been a much better movie.

Such is the problem of ANNABELLE COMES HOME…

Unfortunately, there are precious few “moments” worthy of mention in a film that pushes well beyond the accepted norm of a 90 minute running time for this type of fare.

Both THE CONJURING UNIVERSE, under the guiding hand of James Wan, and the various Blumhouse franchises have, up to this point, audiences who will tolerate a certain amount of largesse within the genre, depending on who’s sitting behind the camera calling the shots. Wan himself gets the most amount of leeway, as he and Leigh Whannell reinvigorated Horror with SAW back in 2004 and he has a proven track record of success.

Gary Dauberman, on the other hand, is a novice when it comes to directing and a 106 minute ANNABELLE movie by a first-timer is a gamble irrespective of how cost-effectively this style of film can be produced for. 

In the case of ANNABELL COMES HOME, some things are truly better left locked up in the glass cabinet...

ANNABELLE COMES HOME MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

Annabelle Comes Home - Wikipedia
​Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - IMDb
​Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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