Director:
Writers:
James Wan (story by), Gary Dauberman
Stars:
There is one rule in the horror book that should never be broken. There must be deaths. In ANABELLE COMES HOME, no one dies. The rule is broken in one of the worst horror films or films in general to open in 2019. It is senseless, overlong, boring and downright silly.
ANNABELLE COMES HOME is the third instalment of the ANNABELLE franchise, a spin off fro the Conjuring movies. The first was terrible, the second not bad and this one back to terrible. It is the second film with the theme of a demon doll to open this month after last week’s more fun CHILD’S PLAY. Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) the main character of the film is clear to point out the difference. Annabelle is not a doll that is possessed, but a portal through which demons can enter the human world. He also claims that possession can only take place in living things therefore putting CHILD’S PLAY down. To add on: “Isabelle is the devil.”
Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine Warren Vera Farminga) bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year old daughter, Judy (McKenna Grace), and her friends, babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) and Daniela (Katie Sarife), the troubled one guilt ridden of having killed her father in a car accident.
Director Gary Fauberman directs from the script (if one can call it that) he co-wrote with James Wan. The film begins with Ed and Lorraine Warren who bring the audience to date of the doll and how they lock it up safely. The couple has three scenes – the locking of the doll, the stranded car and the end. Other than that, they disappear for the rest of the film.
The film has the typical scares found in a horror film like sudden appearance of objects or loud sounds (telephone ringing) and other assorted false alarms. These go on throughout the entire film regardless of where the story is leading, escalating to a meaningless climax. Too much of the same thing leads to monotony which is exactly what happens in this otherwise extremely slow paced film.
To Dauberman’s credit, his time lapse mirror segment is worth mentioning. In it, the girl glares at her reflection in the mirror. The reflection in the mirror occurs a few seconds in the future. For example, she sees a falling in he mirror just before it actually falls. Though this has noting to do whatsoever with the plot, it is quite the creepy and inventive device.
Forget the ANNABELLE and CONJURING franchise. It is time to have the series locked up for they do no-one any good.
Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker’s possessed creation, Annabelle.
Festival Reviews 