Annabelle Comes Home Movie Review: All Dolled Up

Annabelle Comes Home, directed by Gary Dauberman, is the third Annabelle film (Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation), and is the sixth entry in the Conjuring Universe of films, which includes the Conjuring series and The Nun series. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as a highly fictionalized Ed and Lorraine Warren: real-life demonologists, exorcists, and all-around good Catholics. In the opening of the film, Ed and Lorraine remove Annabelle (a really creepy-looking doll that nobody in their right mind would have in their house) from an apartment where she was wandering from room to room at night, and just generally causing mischief. Luckily, the Warrens have a room in their house, with five locks keeping it shut, holding all their possessed objects. Annabelle is given a special, priest-blessed case made out of church glass and held together by a flimsy lock.

The Warrens have to leave for an investigation that will last overnight. They will be leaving their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) behind with her babysitter, Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Judy’s birthday party is coming up but no children from school plan on attending because the parents think the Warrens are either demon hunters or the Warrens think they are demon hunters, and neither option sounds pleasant. Judy and Mary Ellen are having a fun girls’ night when Daniela Rios (Katie Sarif), a friend of Mary Ellen, shows up with the sole intent of getting into the locked room. Recently, Daniela was driving a car with her father in the passenger seat when there was a terrible accident and her father was killed. Daniela hopes to contact her father through the Warren’s demon-possessed objects and apologize for the accident. For once, there is a good reason why a person would try to break into a scary room.

The problem is Annabelle; she is a conduit that calls all the demons in the area. And there are a lot of demons in the area. There is the Ferryman – a creepy water-logged abomination. There is the Bride – a demon who looks like she was jilted at the altar. There is a Feeley Meeley board game (from Milton Bradley!) – the least scary of the bunch because it is just a box. Last, there is Black Shuck – a werewolf; he’s big and fast, but the real scares are from the Ferryman and the Bride. Each of the young ladies deal with their own demons as they try to get Annabelle and the rest back into the quintuple-locked room.

Annabelle Comes Home is one of the best entries into the Conjuring Universe. We understand why Daniela wants in that room so badly, and we forgive her for it. We feel for Judy because she has visions like her mom does, and she is the most aware of just how terrible the locked room can be. And poor Mary Ellen could just open the front door and run for her life, but she would never do that because of her love for Judy and a general sense of duty and responsibility. All the characters are likeable, and their actions always make sense. This was Gary Dauberman’s directorial debut after writing several Conjuring Universe entries. It is good he was given the opportunity; the direction is excellent throughout. He gets great performances from the actors and the horror elements keep ratcheting up until the intelligent ending.