Anabelle comes home is the third
in this franchise and the seventh conjuring universe film they have made three
films about this doll three and in this filmed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick
Wilson Vera Farmiga in their first appearance in the conjuring universe outside
of a conjuring movie they're locking up the Annabelle doll in the secret room
of terrible things and they go away for awhile leaving their ten-year-old
daughter Judy played by McKenna grace alone with two babysitters and eventually
Annabelle escapes and wreaks havoc in their home so this is the seventh
conjuring Universe film so far I've enjoyed the conjuring too and
Annabelle creation which was surprisingly effective especially for a prequel
that was also a sequel to a movie that nobody really liked that much it was
actually pretty good David Sandberg did a great job directing that and he
proved his talents again when he directed Shazam but as with most of the conjuring
universe films they've proven once again that they're not that concerned about
making a great film but rather getting a return on their investment because
usually, when a franchise is filled with this much mediocrity they just stop
making them but all of these movies can be made for super cheap especially this
one almost all of Annabelle comes home takes place inside the Warrens house
which is cool I understand the benefits of shooting mostly in one or two
locations especially when it comes to horror it's just a smart thing to do when
it comes to money and what's cool about one or two locations is it will force
you to get creative it will force you to figure out the best things you can do
with characters to keep an audience on their toes in the case of this movie
that's not what happened the characters in this movie don't really feel like
characters, in fact, this story of Annabelle comes home doesn't even really feel
as a story, there's a backstory to every character these three girls trapped in
the Warrens house during all these supernatural trauma things have happened to
them in the past and shitty things have occurred in their lives but nothing's
happening to them now it's all back story the actual story of the movie is a walkthrough
hallway encounter strange sound rinse repeat over and over again
I'm gonna be a
little harder on this movie than I think perhaps some other people will and that's
because I am seeing a really dangerous trend in current horror the nun was big
with this, the curse of LaLlorona was even worse and now this might be the worst
offender and that is building entire sequences primarily around a jump-scare
without giving an about character without giving an about plot the entire last half
of this film is scene after scene after scene of crafting a jump-scare characters
will look at something the camera pans away for a moment as the character turns
the character turns back the camera pans back and now something's changed but
it's not quite ready yet the sound is starting to drain out from the mix and
they're introducing bass and one of the channels and all of a sudden the character
turns and then turns back again and now something has changed again now the bass
is entering all the channels surrounding the theatre the character turns and
turns around and what do you know somebody's screaming at you and there's a
loud jump-scare sound and that's what the entire last half of this film is like
over and over again the nun was huge with this that film was sequence after sequence
of characters walking around building some sort of loud noise that was about to
happen you didn't really feel like you were building character learning
anything about these people it was just basically alive walking through the haunted house if that's what you like when you go to see your horror movie well
then you're probably going to enjoy Annabelle comes home but if you go to a
film to see a film you're not going to get that here sure this is a real movie
and it's shot well and everything and it's great acting McKenna Grace is
wonderful in the movie really good performance she's amazing and what little
screen time Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga have in the movie it's great to see
them they definitely enhance the proceedings without a doubt but the writer of
the nun has also written this film and it's his first time directing and
there's nothing about it that differentiates itself from this conjuring the universe and this is really starting to worry me because this is the base level
of horror, this is the bottom of the barrel
when it comes to scares this is very
basic and we're seeing this get really popular again horror films are doing
great right now they're proving to be extremely successful at the box office
when it comes to the two biggest things right now it's basically superheroes
and horror films which are awesome because
horror is my favorite genre but this style of horror is dangerous this is like
fast-food horror these sequences all throughout Annabelle comes home is just
finding something then it's not exactly what you thought it was and then it
jumps out at you there's no plot to this movie there really isn't the entire film
proceeds along this haunted housetrain ride style thing I like haunted houses
in fact, I love haunted houses but when I go to see a film I want to see the character I want to see people doing things I want to see a plot I want to get
invested in a narrative there's no narrative here this is hey we could make
another Annabelle movie and we could have it all be in one house and it'll be
super cheap the other thing about this film that was a major missed opportunity
is it's rated R for some reason this is very much so a pg-13movie like when it
comes to scares insidious was far scarier I actually didn't find this movie
scary at all In ever once found myself scared throughout the entire runtime of
this movie there's like a little bit of blood in two shots I don't know why
it's rated R but when it comes to scares let's talk about that because I've
talked a lot about the sounds you guys know I hate that okay this isn't this isn't
news to you I've said this before I'll say it again if you like jump scares
you'll like him just go see him if you hate him if you think they're cheap then
you're gonna hate this movie I think it's cheap that's just the way it goes but
I really never found myself tense once in this movie I never found myself
leaning forward with the great direction I never found myself curious about what
they were going to do because it was so goddamn predictable I went with my wife
to this screening and I started to notice something really interesting
throughout the movie and I think this is the perfect way to describe how
predictable the scares are in this movie my wife as she was watching this it
became so a parent when they were setting up a jump-scare that
she would
actually, start to go like this like she was ready to plug her ears because she
didn't want to be startled by this loud noise that the7.1 surround sound
speakers are booming into your ears and every time she did that she was right
there was a jump-scare within a few moments because it's so obvious there's no
tension because it's predictable everyone is waiting your wall bracing
yourselves for this you can feel this movie stretching to its absolute limit in
regards to plot because there really isn't one it's just a long series of scare
scenes and none of them were effective honestly and last but not least let's
talk about how these films actually come to fruition the first Anabelle was
because the Annabelle doll was in the conjuring the nun was because the nun
showed up in the conjuring - there's little in references throughout all these
films so they can then make a spinoff they've been talking about making a
Crooked Man movie for a long time now this movie has characters in it that have
really nothing to do with this film I mean zero to do with the narrative and
they are clearly in the movie just to set up another potential spin-off with
that entity it is shameless I could not believe it it was seen as at least in
the none like the conjuring - version with the nun it was like that seemed
to have something to do with Lorraine Warren the Annabelle doll had a reason to
be in the first conjuring here is just like what other random entities can we
talk about what other random scenes can we have with some sort of monster or
creature or ghost that we can then set up for another film in this universe
that's not going to be that good and that's exactly what they keep doing over
and over again and it's very disappointing these movies should be great the idea of a horror cinematic universe it just sends chills through my body that
it even exists but they just keep making mediocre horror films or even below average
in this case, Annabelle comes home has respectable performances production
design cinematography all of that stuff but when it comes to the most important
elements writing-directing this film is seriously lacking I'm gonna give
Annabelle comes home a d-plus I would say it is ever so slightly just better
than the none and the reason I say that is because Edie and LorraineWarren are
in this movie and McKennaGrace is really good in the film so there's sort of
like a connection to other films that I like more with some characters in it
that I already have pre-established love for so that kind of boosts it above
the nun a little bit but man I mean this could have been so much better all
that being said I I do want to give a huge thank you so much as always for reading
my reviews and if you like this you can comments write here and get stepped eyes
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