+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year
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| A wealth of exitement-building snaps from the film surrounds the menacing titular doll on this poster for Gary Dauberman's Annabelle Comes Home |
As the possessed Annabelle doll is safely stored in a consecrated cabinet in the home of the country's leading demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, its power is checked. Right until the Warrens leave their daughter Judy for a night to the care of a young, local babysitter, and evil is once again let loose.
Annabelle Comes Home is the 7th film in the Conjuring franchise and the third in the Annabelle spin-off series, following Annabelle (2014) and Annabelle: Creation (2017). It is written by writer/director Gary Dauberman (It (2017), co-writer), whose debut it is. James Wan (Saw (2004)) supplied story elements.
The film gets started with a premise that seems sound enough; a babysitter story. Many good fright tales involve a babysitter. Sadly what follows is a limp serving that is more likely to make you drowsy or downright fall asleep than scare you, - especially if you have seen strong horror films either in or outside of this golden franchise in the past.
The basic story has just three characters: Judy, the bullied Warren girl, Mary Ellen, the trustworthy but naive babysitter, and Daniela, the bad-girl high school friend of Mary Ellen, who comes to snoop around the Warren room of evil, because she wants to reconnect with her late "darling" father. The three aren't compelling or too sympathetic. In fact they are dull, and the outsider Daniela's function as the spring whose curiosity lets the genie out is painfully obvious from the second she arrives to the house.
Annabelle Comes Home excels in postponing real horror moments again and again, but without us getting invested in the narrative and characters, the result instead is that we just grow tired, and the horror feels positively sedated as the worst thing that's happened in the film going on over its halfway point is the death of a chicken off-screen.
The concept involves springing to life some of the possessed objects and presences of the Warren home, and one scene of the Ferryman does have a bit of zest to it, but that's pretty much it. Everything else has been seen and done much better elsewhere, and the titular doll becomes a side prop here, as we long for the end credits to set us free. Annabelle Comes Home doesn't terrorize its characters enough to terrorize or even spook horror veteran audiences like me.
The Warrens in the familiar guise of Patrick Wilson (Stretch (2014)) and Vera Farmiga (Breaking and Entering (2006)) open and close the film, but in the closing Annabelle Comes Home also manages to deal haphazardly with these pillars of the franchise: SPOILER On returning to their home following the irresponsible caretaking of their daughter and house, Lorraine immediately forgives the naughty Daniela for putting every one and everything in danger, (not so dangerous we must surmise), - and Ed uses an overly familiar nickname that we don't see how he knows; both additional instances of poor scriptwriting.
There is a fourth leg to the story, which is a lame and way over-the-top cute romance story: Twinkle-eyed Michael Cimino (No Child Left Behind (2019, TV movie)) is just too cute as store clerk Bob, - SPOILER another character whom the film doesn't see itself fit to kill, (as any halfway decent horror film would.) Annabelle Comes Home kills just one thing, slowly, which is time.
Related posts:
Gary Dauberman: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2019 in films - according to Film Excess
The Nun (2018) - Hardy succeeds with old-timey Gothic horror on FX steroids (writer)
It (2017) - Muschietti succeeds with terrifying, thoroughly well-made King adaptation (co-writer)
Annabelle: Creation (2017) - Sandberg's orphanage doll prequel is slow but rewarding (writer)
Annabelle (2014) - Leonetti's creepy if derivative Conjuring spin-off (writer)
Cost: Reportedly 27-32 mil. $
Box office: 83.6 mil. $ and counting
= Box office success (has already grossed 2.61 times its cost)
[Annabelle Comes Home premiered 20 June (Los Angeles, California) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Atlanta, Georgia from October - December 2018. It opened to a 20.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, behind Toy Story 4, - the smallest opening of any Conjuring film, and has grossed 40.4 mil. $ domestically so far. The film has yet to open in 11 countries. The franchise is set to return with The Conjuring 3 (2020). Dauberman does not have his next director's gig announced yet. Mckenna Grace (The haunting of Hill House (2018), TV-series), who plays Judy, returns with a voice performance in Scoob (2020) and physically in Ghostbusters (2020); Wilson in Midway (2019), and Farmiga in The Many Saints of Newark (2020). Annabelle Comes Home is fresh at 66 % with a 5.95/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Annabelle Comes Home?
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