User:LancedSoul/sandbox/Annabelle Comes Home

"Great performances and production design all in the service of an endless series of monotonous jump scares that do little to progress the plot (or the point) of this universe."

- Chris Stuckmann

Annabelle Comes Home is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Gary Dauberman, in his directorial debut, from a script by Dauberman and a story by Dauberman and James Wan, who also acted as producer with Peter Safran. It serves as a sequel to 2014's Annabelle and 2017's Annabelle: Creation, and as the seventh installment in The Conjuring Universe franchise. The film stars Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, and Katie Sarife, along with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who reprise their roles as Lorraine and Ed Warren. It was theatrically released in the United States on June 26, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.

Plot
Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the possessed doll in the artifacts 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.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It basically furthers proof once again that The Conjuring Universe is going to be went downhill since Annabelle, aside of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.
 * 2) The film overuses of kickoffs for other prequels to the Conjuring Universe.
 * 3) A derivative story that is similar to Night at the Museum. Like The Curse of La Llorona, it is basically a run-of-the-mill and unoriginal horror film from the Conjuring Universe.
 * 4) Annabelle doesn't played a major role in the two previous installments.
 * 5) Despite having the dark tone, the movie has the less scares and frightened compared to the other films, since there are scenes that are more funny than scary. So overall, this movie was pretty bland.
 * 6) Although less, it still had overused of cheap jump scares, which is basically the same problem with The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona.
 * 7) In the first scene after the "one year later" card moves the action in 1969, Judy is seen watching Captain Kangaroo before school. But the show's intro is one that wasn't created until 1984, which is glaringly evident in its 80s-style graphics and theme song.
 * 8) Continuity error: The Crooked Man music box from The Conjuring 2 is seen in the Warren's museum, despite the fact that this movie take place before the events of The Conjuring 2.
 * 9) * Another error is that Annabelle Comes Home takes place in 1968 (the Warrens remove her from the nurses' house after interviewing them), yet we see Rory's music box from The Conjuring present in the artifact room, despite The Conjuring taking place 3 years later.
 * 10) False advertising: One poster and promotional home video cover features Annabelle with blue doll dress in the red background of all characters, but in the actual movie, she is actually wears white doll dress instead.
 * 11) The Black Shuck, a werewolf made of fog, is extremely aggressive. That said, it is also made of low-quality CG which makes it look unrealistic. It also does not seem to have the same omnipresence the other ghosts and spirits have. When Bob hid in the chicken coop, it did not seem to be able to find him. When Judy had to retrieve Mary Ellen's inhaler, while it could tear into the car roof easily enough, it could not get to her directly. Lastly, Bob was able to very temporarily incapacitate it by smashing his guitar against it. While the Black Shuck reformed almost immediately, it was still taken down by being smashed with a guitar.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Great acting, especially Mckenna Grace, since she was good job as Judy Warren.
 * 2) The setting, like other films, is still good. Plus, it actually tried to have dark tone, even if the movie is pretty bland, since its less scary and frightening.
 * 3) Just like other films in the series, Joseph Bishara's musical score is great.
 * 4) The CGI is still impressive than expected.
 * 5) Much like other films from The Conjuring Universe, the cinematography is still dazzling.
 * 6) At the end credits start of the movie, the film pays tribute to Lorraine Warren, who died in April 2019.
 * 7) Decent written and directing by Gary Dauberman, considering how he was the terrific writer of the horror films, like Stephen King's It. In fact, Gary Dauberman would direct the theatrical adaptation of Salem's Lot, since it was planned to release on September 9, 2022.

Reception
Despite Annabelle Comes Home received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the film for its atmosphere, performances, and musical score, but criticized the plot and scares compared to its predecessors, both audiences and fans have received mostly either negative or weaker reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 204 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Fun for fans even if it isn't as frightening as some of its predecessors, Annabelle Comes Home suggests there's still some life left in the Conjuring franchise.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews.". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 2.5 out of 5 stars, and a 42% "definite recommend". On Letterboxd, it got 2.6/5 score.

Chris Stuckmann gave this movie rating of D+. Angry Joe gave this movie a rating of 4/10.

Videos
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Trivia

 * There is the poster of Child's Play that alluding to Annabelle Comes Home, featuring Chucky brutally killing Annabelle the Doll, using the background of Annabelle.