#MovieMonday: Annabelle Comes Home: Perfect For Horror Newbs

Wassup guys. It’s 1 July, and you know what that means;

It’s time for Movie Monday!

And seeing how I haven’t done a horror movie in ages, I think it’s only appropriate that I do a horror fest for today’s edition. And really…

What better movie to kickstart today’s bone-chilling fest, than the most hyped up horror in recent history…

Annabelle Comes Home?

#MovieMonday: Annabelle Comes Home

Taking place after the events of The Conjuring, Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle Comes Home once again centres in on our favourite doll of all time as it goes around in search of more human spirits to devour.

Well alright; I’m not the best at summaries, so here’s the official one for your perusal:

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in the artefacts room in their house. But when the doll awakens the room’s evil spirits, it soon becomes an unholy night of terror for the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, her friends and their young baby sitter.

Directed by Gary Dauberman, the 1 h 46 min Thriller/Mystery flick is produced by James Wan and was released on 26 June 2019.

You can view the creepy ass trailers over here:

Review wise, the film never quite hits the critic-appealing peaks of The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, but it does achieve a milestone set by its predecessor Annabelle: Creation.

But is it truly as good as the critics and general audience preach?

Let’s find out.

Movie Review

If you’ve been following previous entries in the Conjuring Universe, you would be more than familiar with Annabelle, one of its more titular characters with four starring entries to date.

A creepy ass doll that attracts malevolent spirits everywhere it goes, it’s truly the ‘living’ embodiment of the notion: birds of the same feather flock together.

So I bet you’re wondering. What’s up with this latest entry?

Well, as you can somewhat surmise from the movie title and poster, Annabelle’s back ‘home’, though keeping it quiet’s akin to tucking your children in bed at night.

It gets kind of tough.

And the movie kind of unfolds like you would somewhat expect. At the expense of minimal spoilers, I’ll just say this:

All hell breaks loose.

But here’s the thing. While you would expect the movie to centre in on Annabelle and Annabelle alone, the movie entry chooses to employ a more diverse range of scares.

“ANNABELLE’S NOT ALONE,” you can almost imagine the other entities screaming throughout the course of the movie. “WE’RE THERE TO HELP. BECAUSE WE’RE FRIENDS. NAKAMA. CHINGU.”

Granted, it does work pretty well. You might’ve gotten used to Annabelle’s constant flurry of tricks, but add in other unexpected entities and all of a sudden you’re drawing your cup of popcorn close to your eyes.

It becomes a wild ride with scares you often don’t see coming.

In that aspect, it’s all good.

But here’s the thing

Personally speaking, I didn’t feel that Annabelle Comes Home was that… well, good.

On one hand, it did feature our favourite protagonist of all time, so that’s definitely a plus point. And also, it did feature a wide diversity of horror tricks that’s sure to have something for everyone.

But I had one gripe: the scares were lacking. Not in quality maybe, but definitely quantity.

The ‘Way-Too-Little-Till-You-Leave-The-Cinema-With-A-Bad-Taste-In-Your-Mouth’ quantity.

As such, I had no real idea why the movie was so well-received on Rotten Tomatoes, when there were honestly better films with a way lower score on the platform. But hey, I guess taste is indeed objective, and one man’s trash could be another’s treasure. You know, the works.

Though you can rest assured of one thing:

I’m not alone.

Final score

Annabelle: Homecoming might be a treat for ardent fans of the franchise, but it’s hardly going to appeal to the horror veterans of the cinema-watching industry. So do drop by if you fancy another look at Annabelle or are itching for a slight horror fest, but if you’re looking for a real scare with trauma in toll…

You might be better off looking elsewhere.

Final score: 3/5

Interesting aspect: In the movie, the real Annabelle doll played a ‘cameo’ on the silver screen. Doesn’t look that terrifying, but I’m still not touching it with a ten-foot pole and Ironman’s gauntlet.