Annabelle Comes Home

Although horror is not my favourite film genre, and have made that known more than once before in the past, there is still high appreciation for it. Although there are a fair share of average at best films or even clunkers (even when trying to take them for what they are or intend to be), there are also an equal fair share of good horror films as well as classics, which won't be named in order to be fair.

Really enjoyed the two 'The Conjuring' films for the same reasons to each other, that they were well-made, well-crafted, suspenseful, entertaining and had genuine shocks. 'Annabelle' is inevitably compared to them, but to me it doesn't compare favourably and could have been much better. Its prequel 'Annabelle: Creation', although far from perfect or great with some of the same mistakes being made, again to me fared better, though again not close to the quality of 'The Conjuring' films. 'The Nun' meanwhile was a mediocre disappointment. Put 'Annabelle Comes Home' in the middle and personally found it a difficult film to rate and review, though it will be easier for others.

'Annabelle Comes Home' looks good. There is a great Gothic atmosphere, lush and darkly atmospheric production design and stylish photography. The supernatural effects are surprisingly excellent too. The music is haunting and the direction brings a genuine eeriness and mysteriousness in places. There are parts that are suitably uneasy and eerie once 'Annabelle Comes Home' gets going.

The pace, again once the film gets into gear, it has been said that the mute vision in the television is the scariest part and do have to agree with this. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga do good jobs, though take a backseat to the younger cast. Was worried that this would not work, but the younger cast carry the film quite well and don't bore and annoy as feared.

However, the story is near-non existent with few surprises and can get very silly. Especially towards the end. Although there are moments of scares and suspense, there are not enough of either and could have done with more build up that would have made them less predictable.

Did feel that the pacing was still very flawed. 'Annabelle Comes Home' takes too long to get going and then the climactic parts feel very rushed. The ending is one of the film's biggest issues, as well as being rushed it was very anti-climactic and bordered on plain ridiculous, as well as illogical. The dialogue is no improvement too, very awkward-sounding and banal, doing little with developing rather clichéd characters.

Summarising, difficult to rate and review. Watchable but never rises above borderline between average and decent. 5/10

Nothing special in this film . The stupid teenage girl which makes the worst decisions and decides to get in the basement . She touched everything bla bla bla. It has some decent moments some good jumpscares . Just 1 questions . How can 3 girls defeat so many demons !?!?

Don't bother watching this movie. It's one of those standard production, boring and predictable movie.

The story is mostly mix for me on how some parts work and some don't. The movie does a better job on building up the atmosphere than the La Llorona movie I review. It does a great job on building up tension towards the creepiness factor and there's a couple of creepy scenes in the movie. Also I found the backstory of the spirits to be pretty interesting and creepy. And I found the ending to be really emotional.

Unfortunately I found the way the spirits are unleashed to be really stupid and predictable. The minor side plot about Bob is unnecessary and uninteresting. And some of the jump scares aren't that effective and really obvious.

The first thing you'll probably notice is just how much better 'Annabelle Comes Home (2019)' is, immediately, than 'The Nun (2018)', 'The Curse Of La Llorona (2019)' and its oft-forgotten predecessor, 'Annabelle (2014)'. I mean, it seems like a masterpiece in comparison to those; it's actually engaging, features a variety of successful scares and centres around compelling characters. However, the second thing you'll probably notice is just how much worse it is than 'The Conjuring (2013)', 'The Conjuring 2 (2016)' and, even, 'Annabelle: Creation (2017)'. That's because its plot is incredibly slim - I'm talking almost anecdotal - and it starts to wear thin far faster than it, perhaps, ought to. As such, the piece ends up somewhere in the middle, quality-wise, of the overall 'Conjuring' franchise; it's by no means bad but it's certainly not great, either. Thankfully, though, it's a decently enjoyable, competently constructed experience throughout. The reason for this is, I feel, two-fold. Firstly, its characters - on whom it relies solely because its plot is almost non-existent - are mostly well-rounded and believable. One of them does make some odd decisions that aren't explained until long after they've been made and, even then, don't stand up to all that much scrutiny. Still, this isn't too detrimental and the development done for all the main players is serviceable enough, with some of it actually going a long way to plugging the potential leaks caused by those previously mentioned poor choices. Plus, everyone on screen is, essentially, as likeable as they could be. Unfortunately, they aren't quite interesting enough to keep you wholly engaged during the movie's slower segments. It has a really strange, somewhat disjointed pacing that practically paints most of it as an extended build-up for a seemingly fifteen-minute finale. Luckily, then, it's competent when it comes to the second 'fold' of that two-fold reason I mentioned earlier: the scares. While there's nothing outstanding here, it's also not just jump-scare central. There are are variety of occasionally quite inspired gags that often play on audience expectation, building up genuine suspense that isn't deflated every two minutes by an obnoxious 'false' fright. It does sometimes get a little too overt for its own good - though, the overall series is no stranger to bold, effects-based 'creatures', either - but it's refreshing, and sadly so, for a film like this to not be made of abrasive, repetitive, 'cattle-prod' stuff. Generally, the flick is a fairly fun time. Sure, it wears thin and is only ever so compelling in the first place, but it's a solid haunted house - literally and figuratively - that will certainly satisfy fans of the franchise. 6/10