Canary Duty - Annabelle Comes Home

Quick disclaimer before I start; I'm not quite up to date with the whole Conjuring-Universe thing; I didn't get round to seeing The Nun or The Curse of La Llarona, so if there are extra references to those in Annabelle Comes Home, they went right past me.  That's for the one of you reading this who has Marvel levels of respect for the continuity of this franchise.  Now the Annabelle films form a variable little series, or should we call this a sub-series.  I was actually at the UK press screening for the first Annabelle, which at the time seemed quite novel, creating a full shared universe from a new horror property.  In the end though, the scariest thing from the finished film was the paper masks we all got given.  Annabelle Creation though was a lot better, with a more interesting story, a better period setting, likeable characters, and the daring to put the children in a horror story in actual danger.  About the only real niggle I had with it was the slightly forced elements to fit the events of that one in with the events of the first Annabelle (and a heavy-handed bit foreshadowing for The Nun).  So now we have this one, which isn't quite a prequel like the others, from what I can tell it fits in between the first and second Conjuring movies.  So how does this one stack up?

Pretty well actually.  Now there's a major change to series tradition in this one, as those have the haunting/possession/whatever take place over a longer time, with a bit of an investigation bought in.  This one is mostly focused on one night of major supernatural shit going on.  While that doesn't sound like much of a change, it does affect the pacing of things to a great degree, giving everything a greater deal of immediacy and it means that the characters are more aware of what's going within a faster timeframe, rather than having you wonder "why are they still sticking around this haunted house for so long?".  Speaking of character awareness, something that screenwriter (and director this time) Gary Dauberman wisely bought over from the previous movie was focusing on younger protagonists, as it makes a lot of the horror movie bad decisions in here a lot more forgivable, because kids/dumb teens.  That being said, whilst the storyline is set of by one teen girl making a spectacularly bad move, the film does give a very solid, human reason for her doing this.  Overall, of the three Annabelle movies, I'd say this one has the strongest script of the bunch, not least for having a solid focus on three main characters, and some genuinely funny moments to break the tension at the right moments.

As for the direction, that's pretty well realised too, Dauberman has learned quite a few things from the previous directors.  Also, given the visuals (which have a great mid-seventies feel), he seems to have also taken notes from classic horror too.  There's a light in little Judy's room which I think of as "The Suspiria lamp" given what it does to the lighting, the end credits have the sort of polarised imagery familiar from many an Italian horror trailer, one sequence outside in particular feels extremely Evil Dead.  What's more, the film knows full well that we've seen these sort of things before, so it has a lot of fun setting up moments that resemble jump scares we know full well (like when a character holds up a map in front of a window), only to go a different way.  The film fully embraces its status as a ridiculous ghost train ride, and definitely delivers on that level.

One interesting note though is that it still has a bit of a nod to the whole "based on a true story" origins of this franchise, with even a dedication to the real Lorraine Warren who passed away this year at the end.  Thing is, while it acknowledges the "factual" basis for this franchise (by which I mean the Warrens' bullsh- erm, carefully recorded investigations), it's very clear that the franchise is just going all out there in throwing near ideas and ridiculous in there.  For example, there's a big new demon to face in here called The Ferryman, which I'm pretty sure wasn't really based on any actual investigations.  Also, yes the Warrens did look into a supposed werewolf case in Essex... in 1989, so the fact it turns up in here means that strict accuracy isn't the number 1 priority anymore (unless the Warrens actually went time travelling... which given what else they've claimed, and later developments in another similar horror franchise, I wouldn't put past that happening in here sometime!).  There's even a ridiculous haunted boardgame, a real one by MB called Feeley Meeley, which looks like that tree scene in Flash Gordon the game. I wonder if that was thrown in as a nod to the Hasbro-owned Ouija franchise?  It seems like the goal in this one was to go a bit like Cabin in the Woods, and have as many monsters called up by the things in the Warrens' home as possible, to work out what to make a spin-off about.  Personally, the one thing from this I want to see again?  The pizza delivery guy who turns up for one scene; I'd love to see a whole film of him facing a haunting!

Annabelle Comes Home has moved this series far from the very srs bsns haunting the first Conjuring was, but that's no bad thing when the end result is this much fun.  If you're wondering, no you really don't need to have seen the other ones to enjoy this film, apart from a few little nods to some of the other entities and such that have used Annabelle as a "vessel".  It's a roller-coaster of a fright flick, that's not a whole lot deeper than just a scare ride (although there is a little nod to an idea of facing death in here), but is ideal for a fun night out, or when it comes out on streaming/disc for a video night.  I'd say see it at the cinema if you can, as some of the more subtle background gags work much better on a big screen.  Just don't buy into much hype around the Warrens, utter charlatans the pair of them!

Fun fact; this is the second time I've seen Annabelle in a feature film this year; she has a real "blink and you'll miss her" cameo in Shazam! since it was directed by Creation's director David F. Sandberg.  I also found out today he does filmmaking tips on his YouTube channel; pretty neat!