My Review of Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

 

Written And Directed by Gary Dauberman 

Judy: "What else did you touch?"

Daniela: "...Everything."

I'm impressed that a spin off managed to complete it's trilogy before the parent movie but that's kind of what happened here. Although if you do love Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga), you get some of them here for this third instalment on that killer doll.

Although it's a movie that had their daughter, Judy (Mckenna Grace) play a much larger role than before. Yup, because of her patent psychic powers and the parents she has, it's not too surprising that Judy would be something of an outcast with her peers.

Unfortunately for Judy, she had a birthday party looming and her classmates didn't seem interested in attending. Judy also had a babysitter named Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) who was nice to her. Mary Ellen also had a friend named Daniela Rios (Katie Sarife). Daniela had some nice words to say to Judy about feeling like an outsider.

Daniela had also lost her father to a car crash and it was her snooping into the Annabelle doll that caused the mayhem in this movie. Add in a love interest for Mary in the form of shy grocery worker, Bob (Michael Cimino) and it wasn't just Annabelle who wrecked havoc in this movie.

Why just have Annabelle creating mayhem when you can also add Black Shuck, the Ferryman, ghost priest and a werewolf into the mix? It's enough to make you think that poor Bob was done for. Enough for Daniels to wind up possessed while Judy and Mary had to work together to put everything back together and save both Bob and Daniela.

Surprisingly enough, this managed to be low on the body count for this franchise. There's a birthday party for Judy with new friends and a nice closure moment for Daniela courtesy of Lorraine.

- The end credits had a dedication to the real Lorraine Warren who died the same year as this movie's release.

- Mckenna Grace replaced Sterling Jerins as Judy. Jerins would reprise the role for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

- Standout music: King Harvest's Dancing In The Moonlight.

- Chronology: The film was set around Judy's birthday.

Well, I gotta admit that I liked Annabelle Comes Home a lot more than the previous one. It still doesn't touch the same greatness as the first movie but it had some better jump scare moments and a better third act.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Annabelle: Creation (2017)

 

Written by Gary Dauberman

Directed by David F. Sandberg

Janice: "Forgive me, Father, for I am about to sin."

How do you follow the success of Annabelle? Well, you follow it up with a prequel that gave the evil doll it's origin story of course. Yup, that's how you do it.

You've got the Mullins family - doll maker, Samuel (Anthony LaPaglia), his wife Esther (Miranda Otto) and their daughter, Annabelle (Samara Lee). They're a happy family until tragedy struck and poor Annabelle died early in the movie.

It also didn't take this prequel to change course a little by having a group of characters who'd end up on the Mullins land and would interact with a certain doll. Those people included Father Massey (Mark Bramhill), Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) and a bunch of young girls.

The girls in questions were Linda (Lulu Wilson), Carol (Grace Fulton), Nancy (Philippa Coulthard), Kate (Tayler Buck), Tierney (Lou Lou Safran) and Janice (Talitha Bateman). It's not long before Annabelle and the Demon (Joseph Bishara/Fred Tatasciore) began to terrorise everyone.

Things didn't particularly end well for the grieving Mullins family and the demon in particular took something of an interest in Janice. In fact Janice's story tied in rather fittingly to the first movie when she ended up with a new family and a new name.

Janice became Annabelle Higgins and her unfortunate adoptive parents, Pete (Brian Howe) and Sharon (Kerry O'Malley) would later become victims of Annabelle. Yup, this really did tie nicely back to a key event from the first movie.

- David F. Sandberg who directed this movie would later feature the Annabelle doll in both of his Shazam! movie. His wife, Lotte Losten had a small role in the film.

- There's a teaser for The Nun at the end of the movie.

- Standout music: Charles MacDonald's You Are My Sunshine.

- Chronology: Twelve years before the events of Annabelle.

Annabelle: Creation is a very dull, often confusing prequel. I've watched it enough times and I just don't like it that much as either a prequel or movie (though I did appreciate the brief appearance of what the real doll looks like in real life). It's very tedious and drawn out.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Annabelle (2014)

 

Written by Gary Dauberman

Directed by John R. Leonetti

Evelyn (to Mia): "I'm old, which means there's very little that surprises me any more and if it does, I'm too tired to show."

The Conjuring franchise in spite of it's mixed reception and personal feelings towards the Warrens has undoubtedly managed to cement itself as one of the most successful horror franchises out there and after introducing the titular antagonist in the first movie, it was time to give her a spin off.

This movie opened with a bunch of nurses relaying their experiences before we headed to Santa Monica. Once there, our protagonists of the piece included a young doctor named John Form (Ward Horton) gifting his pregnant wife, Mia (Annabelle Wallis) a porcelain doll named Annabelle. Even if you've never seen a horror film in your life, what unfolded throughout the movie will not shock you in the slightest.

For you see, Annabelle isn't any ordinary porcelain doll. Now, whenever she's in someone's possession, bad things tend to happen and it's not long until the Forms, in particular Mia fall victim to this doll's malevolent ways. It's also not long until Mia herself gave birth to a baby girl named Leah and the Forms moved to Pasadena with Annabelle not far behind to cause them more harm.

Fortunately a change of location did bring about one ally in the form of local bookstore owner, Evelyn (Alfred Woodard). In what's something of a slight role and often exposition full in parts, Alfred Woodard does a lot with on paper does feel like a rather paper thin character. Even when her sacrifice feels rushed, it still managed to land some kind of impact.

As for the main couple of the piece, they're a fairly inoffensive group of protagonists. Out of the two, I do feel that Annabelle Wallis pulled in the stronger performance compared to Ward Horton, who felt a little too stoic in parts. As for Father Perez (Tony Amendola), it's a solid performance but again, not the most fascinating character in the movie.

As for Annabelle, herself, well her look here was the most stereotypical evil look compared what the real thing looks like itself. This ain't a Chucky style quipping a minute, but more of a quiet menace that's effective in it's scares. By the end of this movie, Annabelle might have left the Forms in peace but her evil has found someone else to antagonise.

-  The original Annabelle doll is a Raggedy Ann doll that the Warrens are keeping in a glass case in the now closed occupy museum of the Warrens.

- Not only does the foll appear in other movies set with The Conjuring universe but even DC fans have seen them in the likes of Aquaman and Shazam!

- Rosemary's Baby definitely seemed to a heavy influence, even down to naming the protagonists John and Mia.

- Chronology: The story of Annabelle did seem to originate from the 1970s but this movie did seem like it was set a decade earlier. 

Annabelle served as a solid means of showing that this franchise had the ability to expand beyond the Warrens while never forgetting them either. It's a solid spin-off/prequel with good performances from the main cast and decent enough scares. Not a classic but very watchable.

Rating: 7 out of 10