Review of Annabelle Comes Home (2019) by Cdougall — 17 Aug 2021

Annabelle Comes Home is a frustrating movie for me and a big disappointment compared to it’s predecessor. The writing, directing and story really lack the finesse that they had in Creation and the acting doesn’t really do too much to get around this.

The entire movie revolves around character curiosity and stupidity which makes this movie feel really inconsequential with regards to both the franchise and the Conjuring universe at large. ACH didn’t need to happen and only happened because of the actions of one character in the movie, which makes it feel like it was just made just to get some money out of fans of the previous two movies and the Conjuring universe.

The film doesn’t progress the storyline of the franchise or universe and only ties into the other movies at one moment that doesn’t add much to the movie or the story. The worst part is that even the scares themselves aren’t too good; they’re really cliche and are jump scares for the most part, so the horror in this movie is pretty boring and uninteresting which makes a lot of it feel like a drag.

There is a cheesy romance plot that attempts to distract from the scary stuff but more succeeds in making the film cringey and awkward at times, a not nice juxtaposition to the so-so horror that dominates the rest of the movie.

The acting is ok but nothing special and doesn’t add much emotion or depth to the movie and makes a lot of the dialogue and interactions fairly uninteresting. There are a few redeeming qualities, though.

The end is decent and “sweet” in a way I didn’t expect, wraps the movie up nicely, and manages to contain some lessons for the viewers and characters. Those lessons are cliche and generic, but they are still important lessons about life and how to not cause really bad situations, so the movie does attempt to redeem itself from the boredom that dominates a lot of it and tries to prevent situations like ACH from happening again in the franchise.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, although they’re not in a lot of the movie, are welcome faces and highlights in the parts of the movie that they’re in and yet again do a great job portraying Ed and Lorraine Warren.

It’s nice to see them in parent and mentoring rather than paranormal investigator roles; it’s a breath of fresh air and a nice part of this movie. Overall, while ACH does have a few good things in it, for the most part it’s a big letdown from its predecessor and is a bit boring and unengaging.