Annabelle Comes Home

The Conjuring-verse is a weird set of films – based on the various contemporary folk-myths told by Ed and Lorraine Warren of the various demonic entities they’ve encountered, the main two films have an integrity that the spinoffs haven’t quite been able to recapture – partially, perhaps, it’s that James Wan is a master of the horror form and Patrick Wilson and Vera Famiglia are deeply endearing performers who get us invested in the whole mystical flim-flammery about ghostly possessions, while the related films lean a bit more towards the cardboard-cutouts and to springing up random jump scares whenever the pace flags a bit. “Anabelle Comes Home” attempts to bring this back to basics, with much of the action taking place in the Warren’s home as their daughter, her babysitter and her friend are menaced by the various haunted totems that occupy their room of mystical objects, including the titular doll. But with both Warren’s away for most of the movie, the replacement trio are never quite as fascinating as they might be – yes, the 70’s décor of the house is a nicely cheezy location to explore, and McKenna Grace as the daughter has a decent sense of solemnity to her, but there just isn’t very much to this tale – it’s very much a conventional runaround that never really comes up with any new bits or variations on the formula. It’s a very soft-edged horror movie, too, with few outright scary sequences – it’s maybe trying for creeping dread but it never really gets out of first gear. Maybe suitable for someone who wants to see a horror movie that doesn’t scare them very much, but why bother?