Movie Review: Annabelle Comes Home

By Ryan Grow | July 2, 2019

Annabelle Comes Home is a Goosebumps story within The Conjuring Universe that will make you want to sleep with the lights on.

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) lock the possessed doll in the artifacts room in their house. But when the doll awakens the room’s evil spirits, it soon becomes an unholy night of terror for the couple’s 10-year-old daughter (McKenna Grace), her friends, and their young baby sitter.

After the overly hyped The Nun and the grimly sad story in The Curse of La Llorona (which isn’t officially a Conjuring Universe movie, but they made it pretty clear it is), Annabelle Comes Home is the grounded, fun film the franchise needed. The film moves like “teens in extreme danger movie from Blumhouse and the plot is like an adult version of Goosebumps. It’s not the most violent chapter in the series, it’s aggressively intense but not enough to deserve its R-rating. 

It may not be as scary and intense as previous films, but its the kind of shake-up that these films need if it’s going to continue to be successful. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman, this film acts as both a sequel to the two other Annabelle films and a prequel to The Conjuring. The film starts with the Warrens trying to bring the Annabelle doll to their “protected” home. Things get a little complicated, but they arrive safely home and put the creepy doll into a glass case. 

Time jump a year later, we see Judy Warren dealing with the backlash at school of her parents’ unusual occupations, and the accusations of fraud in the local papers. The Warrens aren’t in the picture for long and Judy is left with her babysitter, Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) for the weekend. This is when things start to get interesting when Mary’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) sneaks into the Warrens’ artifact room and accidentally unleashes the horror that is Annabelle. 

What makes this film so unique is that we get a better look at the Warrens’ room of doom and get a little more insight into more of the artifacts that live within it. When all is said and done, the movie ends on a high note. The climax works and the epilogue is deeply moving. 

Annabelle Comes Home brings a little bit more fun to the franchise and is definitely aimed at the sleepover crowd. The kids are great, especially Grace who just shines in any role she gets and it’s always fun to watch Wilson and Farmiga in these films.

Critic Review: 4.5/5 stars

What did you think of Annabelle’s return? Sound off in the comments