Verdict
Summary
Annabelle Comes Home is an effective chiller but personally I found it to be the weakest of the 3 movies. It’s not without its intense scenes but I think we should leave it as a trilogy as I doubt there is anything new that can be brought to the series.
Plot: Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren 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, her friends and their young baby sitter.
Review: I absolutely adore the Conjuring Universe and frankly am more interested in it than I ever would be for the MCU; I loved the first two Annabelle movies (even the first one) but Annabelle: Creation was particularly unsettling with several moments of utter terror.
Annabelle Comes Home is a big lighter and nowhere near as scary and for me personally is the weakest of the three movies. It makes the mistake of showing a little too much like a werewolf(?) and lots of fog and smoke giving it a more clichéd feel. I always find horror movies do better when showing less is more effective.
Where Creation was creepy within about 10 minutes Annabelle Comes Home took a long time before things got scary and it never gets as intense as previous entries. It’s certainly better than The Nun but with all the rave reviews this one was getting I just expected more. I think my main problem was I hated some of the main characters especially Daniela (Katie Sarife) who is responsible for the events in this film and I feel like she deserved a far worse fate than she got. Her constant stupid decisions were infuriating but I guess that is generally the case with horror movies.
It sounds like I hated the movie but I absolutely did not; it still had several effective scares and a chilling atmosphere with Mckenna Grace proving a likable protagonist. It’s a shame Ed and Lorraine only had smaller roles in the film as I do love Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s portrayal of them.
Although there are some excruciating moments for the character of Bob (the serenading scene is cringe worthy) he is arguably the star of the show with the running joke of Bob’s Got Balls providing several laughs. As I said this gives the film a lighter tone than previous entries which is a refreshing change and it at least never feels like a rehash of the same stuff.
It adds to the Conjuring Universe with cool new characters like The Ferryman which provided several eerie moments but yeah the Werewolf/Hell hound shouldn’t have been a thing.
Overall, Annabelle Comes Home is the weakest of the Annabelle movies to date but it’s a step up from The Nun and has a suitably chilling atmosphere; it takes a while to get where it’s going but if you’re looking for a less intense watch than Annabelle: Creation then this may be more your speed.