By Brett Blake The fact that ANNABELLE COMES HOME actually has some legitimately borderline-great elements (more on these below) only serves to underline just how frustrating it is to report that its scares simply are not up to snuff. Director Gary Dauberman is clearly somebody who knows his way around a camera, and he executes what the script gives him. Unfortunately, he’s also the writer, and that is where the problem resides. The screenplay's attempts at fright are just an endless series of variations on the same scene: a character creeps around a room or a hallway, sees or hears something peculiar, and then a specter pops out at the camera. Virtually every jump scare is telegraphed, and virtually every jump scare gets its jump from a loud stinger on the soundtrack. This is where James Wan’s two proper CONJURING films distinguish themselves and leave the rest of the “CONJURING Universe” in the dust. His jump scares are always staged with a certain amount of inventiveness, a certain amount of quirkiness, which keeps them unpredictable and unusual. There is no invention here. No artistry. Sure, the scares are technically competent (they’re well-framed and shot), but it’s all so predictable. Wan knows how to make jump scares feel like breathless fun; Dauberman’s efforts just sit there with a feeling of dull inevitability. I’ve got nothing against jump scares when done well. Great ones can be extremely memorable and effective... but if that’s all you’ve got in the bag of tricks... you’re not likely to be crafting a lasting experience that will stick with people. Now, all of that said, if you set aside the scares issue, there is some high quality stuff in here. Its hook -- which posits that the evil entity clinging to the Annabelle doll is so malignant and malicious that it allows other dark spirits to manifest -- is a great one, and the decision to marry that with what is basically a “teenage girls’ spooky sleepover” sort of tale gives the movie an enjoyable R.L. Stine/GOOSEBUMPS sort of flavor. Like last year’s THE NUN, the film also looks very good. It’s genuinely moody, and features some quite intriguing usage of light and color. Also, the designs of the various ghosts and ghouls have a just-slightly-tongue-in-cheek quality to them that gives them a throwback vibe; if they were in a better-written movie that knew how to use them for anything other than jolting the audience, this would be a quite effective roster of creeps. It also at times feels like a souped-up version of a “TV Horror Movie of the Week” from the 1970s, and as a fan of a lot of those productions, I mean that in a good way. Despite the expanded roster of demons and creatures, it keeps the scale pretty restrained, and wisely resists trying to go “bigger” than THE NUN, which remains the most bombastic installment of the CONJURING series so far. It also has a leisurely pace that might be too slow for some but which worked for me... because the three central girls in this story are very good protagonists and worth spending time with. These characters are the reason to see the movie and sit through the lackluster scares. They feel real, are grounded in identifiable emotional territory, and they behave - for the most part - in ways that are plausible given what we know about them. McKenna Grace has a somewhat sad, haunted quality that makes it very easy to root for her, but she also displays surprising strength; opposite her, Madison Iseman and Katie Sarife take what could have been extremely standard “types” and invest them with just enough personality to make them memorable. The movie actually cares about these characters, and that’s refreshing to see when teenagers are so often used just for body count fodder in horror movies (fun though that may sometimes be!). So ANNABELLE COMES HOME is a mixed bag. The substandard scares are genuinely frustrating, but the characters and production around them are strong enough that I come down slightly on the positive side of things.
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