It’s been said that children shouldn’t play with dead things. It’s also been said that you shouldn’t snoop through other people’s things. One of these days people will listen to someone, or at least pay attention the film’s that tell of what happens when you don’t.
The Warner Bros. Pictures film “Annabelle Comes Home” is just about a wall to wall fear fest that doesn’t stop. You’re either dreading an image that’s slowly creeping towards you as a character moves or for the unknown thing to pop out and surprise you as you focus on something else creepy. It’s definitely a different fright fest than before.
I didn’t think it possible, but this film may be better than the first and second. Perhaps its simple story allows for a focus to be where it should be: characters and scares. Or, which I can’t deny, it’s that this film comes after my sitting through the previous entry along with several other “Conjuring” universe films. Fear can build in some pretty fascinating ways it seems. I almost feel alive and in love with this film and its franchise, so hopefully when I revisit all these films again (in a longer marathon?) I’ll have an even better experience and find new ways to love these films!
No Touchy
If I wasn’t a fan before, I feel like I certainly am now! Annabelle is one of the best horror characters ever created and all she has to do is sit there and look creepy. That’s incredible! I love her and am frightened of her presence all at once. As much as it would be fun to see another film with her in it, I’d be okay with this being the final one.
Simplicity is sometimes best. So too is a familiar eerie location. I’m certain that’s the only reason why this film works as well as it does. When you get through the opening of this film and into the Warren house, you’re automatically put into a different mindset. You’re familiar with the location and what’s contained downstairs. Even while the rest of the house doesn’t look or seem creepy and eerie at all, it’s hard to shake the knowledge that not too far below, evil lurks. And so, whether an audience member or one of the characters, you’re always uncertain and hoping it’s all in your head.
That’s one of the upsides to these older characters too. We’re kind of like them. Seeing this house and being around the Warren’s for the first time. It was easy to slip into this world. Plus, there was something less irritating about these young ladies as opposed to the orphans from the previous film. Well, until Katie Sarife went into the forbidden room that is. Helping to sell the fear and sheer terror, which likely worked its way through me a bit, was that these girls each seemed predisposed to believing in something. Like how “The Skeleton Key” needed people to believe in order for the film’s finale to work. It doesn’t take much, but just a little something will do.
And a lot was done with a little. With no doubts about the relationships between any of the characters, the fun and games could begin! Slow and steady is a good mantra for these films. Instead of jumping straight to scares of the lazy kind, which even the film’s subdued score didn’t seem to want to be part of, everything is given time to work under your skin. Classics exist: shadows and misdirect, or in some cases the known scare you were expecting 15 seconds ago but didn’t get for another 20 or so, and just simple reveals. At one point I uttered, “Fucking Annabelle”! That’s how much she scared me when a simple blanket was adjusted and she was shown to just be laying there. The sight of Annabelle has proven many times over to be enough to get me going. And even after the slow fun and games began and she appeared here or there, it still sent me over the edge. I was only too happy to get to the end of the film. I pretty much loved each individual sequence. There’s no favorites. Because of how pervasive the bulk of the film was, I just went from one scary and tense moment to the next, marveling at the execution of each scare.
I love to be scared, but this film made it seem like I was only being terrified. While the story was simple and not much progress was made to grow the characters (or show enough Vera Farmiga or Patrick Wilson), I feel okay. I don’t think much else could’ve been done from a story standpoint that didn’t completely drain the horror from this film. That seems to be one of the best thing about this entry. The focus was squarely on Judy. We really got to see what this world is like for her and what it does to her as well. I’ll certainly take that over having her be merely a prop and a means to easily connect to everything else we’ve come to know and love.
Originally Released: June 26, 2019
Written and directed: Gary Dauberman
Starring: McKenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Michael Cimino, Samara Lee, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson
...Everything in Between 