I realize that I am so late to the party on this one that all of the guests have gone home and the lights are out, but I do love The Conjuring Universe, warts and all and, while I hated the first Annabelle movie, I adored the second. How would the third look?
Not great, but at least it was better than the first.
Annabelle is chilling inside the Warren’s museum of horrible, awful, and evil things when the friend of a babysitter lets her out… because she’s a nosy idiot, basically.
After all, if you’re a paranormal investigator whose house is full of demonic artifacts that can posses, murder, stalk you, or otherwise ruin your day, it’s perfectly logical that you leave your only daughter alone with an underage babysitter overnight.
While this movie does have some pretty great and scary moments (that sequence with the ferryman and the eyes in the dark was pure horror art), the movie comes off as a big screen adaptation of the old Friday the 13th television series where you have cursed objects causing all kinds of havoc and mayhem to those who are unfortunate enough to come across them. Not that it’s a bad thing as I am a shameless fan of the old Friday the 13th series, but with Annabelle Comes Home, it seems like a highlight reel from a series we never got to see.
More than that, the movie actually takes the focus off of Annabelle as the main antagonist, focusing more on the array of spooky scary skeletons in the Warren’s closet which, to me at least, diminishes the idea of making an Annabelle movie in the first place.
The movie itself is really nothing more than a trio of girls and a very unfortunate guy going from room to room getting the piddle scared out of them by jump scares. Some are well done while others are predictable. Honestly, this was like watching other people walk through a haunted house with none of the fun of being there.
Now, I will say that I appreciate this movie attempting to humanize the characters, especially the idiot who basically trespasses and lets all of the demons in the house lose because she’s stupid. She could have been written as a terrible, selfish, stuck up teenager as cliches would seem to demand, but the writers actually make her sympathetic and gives her a very heartfelt motivation for her mind boggling stupidity.
Annabelle Comes Home is not a wholly terrible movie. I’m glad I watched it, but I’m not sure I would go out of my way to see it again. On the whole, I would call it an ordinary horror movie with moments of brilliance that elevate it more than it otherwise deserves to be.
Jason Gaston 