The first intraquel of the series, Annabelle Comes Home serves as an introduction for new villains and new stories. While the film struggles a bit to find its place in the chronology of the Conjuring Universe, the story is optimistic and more humorous than any of its counterparts.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own.
Annabelle Comes Home is the seventh installation in the Conjuring Universe, the third of the Annabelle spinoffs, and the second movie from this universe released this year following The Curse of La Llorona.
The first intraquel of the series, Annabelle Comes Home serves as an introduction for new villains and new stories. While the film struggles a bit to find its place in the chronology of the Conjuring Universe, the story is optimistic and more humorous than any of its counterparts.
Here’s a look at the official description of the film – “Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc on innocent victims, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in their home’s special artifact room, placing her behind sacred glass. But when the doll escapes and awakens the room’s evil spirits, she conjures up an unholy night of horror for the Warrens’ daughter and her friends as they desperately battle to bring Annabelle’s reign of terror to an end.”
Annabelle Comes Home, directed by Gary Dauberman, stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, and Michael Cimino, and runs an hour and forty-six minutes.
Annabelle Comes Home isn’t exactly a prequel or sequel to any other movie in the Conjuring Universe. Instead, it’s an intraquel, meaning that the entire story takes place within the timeline of another film. In this case, the film that bookends the story is the one that started it all back in 2013, The Conjuring.
Opening with the same scene as The Conjuring, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga respectively) meet with a group of roommates who are being haunted by a doll. The Warrens explain that the doll itself is harmless, but that a malevolent spirit is using the doll to terrorize the girls. The Warrens take the doll with them, planning to lock it safely away in their artifact room when they get home.
After passing a wreck and then experiencing car trouble of their own, Ed gets out to examine the engine. Lorraine, still in the car with Annabelle, hears a voice whisper, “I like your doll.” It’s here that the movie first hints at the possibility of non-evil entities, an idea unseen in the Conjuring Universe so far. When other spirits begin to arrive, Lorraine realizes that the Annabelle doll is a beacon and far more dangerous than they originally thought.
When they finally get home, their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace taking over the role from Sterling Jerins) watches as they carry the doll into the house. A priest blesses the doll, and holy glass is used to seal the doll in a case. Instructions to never open the case are printed on the glass.
The movie treats its opening ten minutes as a prologue to both reintroduce Annabelle and establish the story’s place in the overall Conjuring chronology.
Jumping into the film’s real first act, the story takes place a year later and Judy is preparing for her tenth birthday party. The audience gets a chance to see Ed and Lorraine as parents rather than demonologists. Though she is kept from it, Judy is still impacted by their professional lives. She is ostracized and bullied at school after a news article is published about their controversial work.
When her parents leave for another case, Judy is left with Mary Ellen (Iseman), her babysitter, and Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Sarife). Though Mary Ellen seems fine, Daniela is not a likeable character at first. She only appears to be interested in Judy due to her parents. When she sneaks away from Judy and Mary Ellen, she finds a way to enter the artifact room and immediately proceeds to touch everything, including Annabelle. Daniela is the catalyst to ignite the movie’s plot, but the audience will struggle in feeling any sort of attachment to her at first. It’s only as the plot progresses that Daniela becomes a more sympathetic, respectable, and ultimately realistic character.
As the consequences of Daniela’s actions become apparent, a host of new villains and new scares are introduced. Led by the still unnamed Annabelle demon, the Bloody Bride, the Ferryman, the Werewolf, and others begin to threaten the girls. Annabelle Comes Home is clearly meant to be a launchpad for new stories in the same way that The Conjuring 2 introduced The Nun and The Crooked Man. The Nun went on to get her own origin movie, and it seems likely that at least one of these three new villains will do the same.
Annabelle Comes Home has tense moments throughout. Director Dauberman does a nice job of setting up scenes that will put the viewer on edge. Not all of these moments turn out to be scares, meaning that the film never becomes too predictable or formulaic. Of particular note is the Feeley Meeley game that has escaped from the artifact room. Players must draw a card with an item pictured on it and then reach blindly into the box to find the item. It’s a far more intense game for the viewers than the players . . .
The movie’s biggest flaw is its relationship to the other films in the same universe. Items not acquired by the Warrens until the events of The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are already seen on the shelves in their artifact room. A newspaper article about the Warrens includes a picture from the press conference in which they meet Carolyn Perron, again two years early according to the timeline. Do these things really matter? Probably not. But these holes in the timeline will likely take longtime fans of the series out of the story temporarily and may cause problems if more spinoffs are developed that are set in the same time period.
That aside, the movie is successful in many ways. It feels more like a Conjuring movie than an Annabelle sequel due to the presence of Ed and Lorraine. With two movies already to her name, the Annabelle storyline needed something new. This movie delivers by giving her more screen time with Ed and Lorraine, not introducing any new backstory for her, and allowing her to torment new victims in conjunction with other threats.
Annabelle Comes Home is also far less dark than the other Annabelle movies. Given that this is an intraquel to The Conjuring, viewers can fairly safely assume that nothing too terribly bad will happen – otherwise, the plot of The Conjuring would have reflected it. Unlike the other Annabelle movies, this one ends on more of a positive, optimistic note. The movie’s exploration of non-malevolent spirits and neutral artifacts, as well as the movie’s sense of humor, keep the story from ever getting as dark as past films in the series.
Speaking of humor, this is the first film in the Conjuring Universe to features multiple humorous moments and funny situations. Many of these scenes feature Michael Cimino as Mary Ellen’s bumbling but sweet love interest. Patrick Wilson’s stoic Ed Warren also gets to provide some of the humor this time around. The funny moments are quick and never take away from the horror element of the story. While they may not fit in the upcoming Conjuring 3, they work quite well here.
All in all, Annabelle Comes Home is a fun film and a strong launchpad for new villains to the Conjuring Universe. As the first intraquel in the series, the movie struggles a bit in finding its place in the chronology. But, the story balances a tone of horror, hope, and humor that sets it apart from its counterparts.
Is There a Scene After the Credits?
The end credits start with a brief tribute to the real-life Lorraine Warren who died earlier this year, but there are no additional scenes or teasers for upcoming films.
Special Features
- Deleted Scenes (11:28) – Six deleted scenes and one alternate ending are presented.
- The Artifact Room and the Occult (5:07) – This feature compares the set of the Warrens’ artifact room to the real one in their home. Viewers will also hear from the real-life Judy Spera (nee Warren).
- The Light and the Love (4:26) – Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga talk about the love between Ed and Lorraine Warren and the optimism they see amidst the darkness in the Conjuring Universe.
- Behind the Scenes – James Wan, Director Gary Dauberman, and other crew discuss creating and bringing the new threats to life on the screen.
- Part 1: The Ferryman/Demon (5:18)
- Part 2: The Bloody Bride (2:57)
- Part 3: The Werewolf (3:07)
The deleted scenes don’t add much to the film, and one of them even further muddles the timeline of the story. Each of the other three features does a nice job of highlighting at least one aspect from the movie. “The Artifcat Room and the Occult” looks at building sets and collecting props for the movies. It also clues viewers in about a hidden Aquaman Easter egg they may not have noticed. “The Light and the Love” looks at the humor and optimism woven into the stories. Finally, “Behind the Scenes” does a nice job of briefly looking at the inspirations and costuming used to create three new formidable villains and revisits the unnamed Annabelle demon. Overall, this is a nice set of special features.
Takeaway
Annabelle Comes Home is the seventh entry in the Conjuring Universe. Though technically a sequel to Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle Comes Home feels more like a Conjuring film due to the presence of Ed and Lorraine Warren and the exploration of new villains. While the film struggles a bit to find its place in the chronology of the Conjuring Universe, the story is optimistic and more humorous than any of its counterparts. Fans of the series will definitely want to add this to their collection.
