Annabelle Comes Home

One would say that after the terrible first installment, we managed to stand on our feet with the second part and will not get into the same shit again. Well, behold, it's not entirely certain, and I have déjà vu again of wanting to leave the cinema during the first part. Why does someone need to make such brutally boring movies? I, for example, am absolutely not interested in leading dialogues of pubescent girls who spend half the movie discussing who likes whom more. Seriously, horror creators can't even write a screenplay at least a little bit on a reasonable level and feel the need to bore the audience to death, or make them laugh at pathetic digital tricks that already reach an authentic level these days? This part was maybe even much worse than the first one, but Dauberman is lucky that I prefer to forget about it. Scenes totally shit, atmosphere zero, acting should have improved, and the whole feel around it seemed pretty cheap to me, without any effort to at least once impress with something new. There was probably only one jump scare worth mentioning, but otherwise, you will bite the boredom. I don't understand why they even got Farmiga and Wilson for this. A waste of money. (2019-09-05)

The opening scene with the Warrens gives a good start to the third Annabelle, lending it the true Conjuring drive. The rest of the film is a masterfully crafted ghost story with child characters, which works well with the environment, especially the Warrens’ basement containing a collection of haunted artefacts. However, the ghosts are overly harmless - even the werewolf turns into smoke when slapped with a guitar and the threat has passed. This “safe” haunting makes the movie accessible to a larger audience, which is nice, but it may be a drawback for some. (2019-07-05)

All the spin-offs of The Conjuring will always have their fans and their detractors. I'll probably be one of the more extreme fans, but I don't think I'll be devouring it like crazy. The great thing about Annabelle 3 is that the doll is not not the only one doing the haunting, it leaves room for a plethora of other boogeymen who finally have a chance to shine on screen, and some of them definitely deserve their own solo movie. Those four stars are part of the "gold standard" that the franchise simply has and deserves, even though its ambitions are not and probably won't be higher, it's only here to scare people in the cinema and simply be "seen". The film builds a certain atmosphere from the start and there weren't many scares, but one really made me jump out of my seat, and I've seen a lot of them, so thumbs up for me. Another good thing are the sometimes comical and funny scenes, which worked really well. Although it's slightly above average, I personally don't think there's much more to get out of Annabelle and after this entry I would move on to another character. It was worth going to the cinema; it’s a film that neither offends nor delights, like all its predecessors in this franchise. (2019-07-03)

The spin-offs of the Conjuring basically just keep the brand going (there is a demand) and no one really expects a great film from them. The most popular Annabelle hasn't quite decided yet whether to go the prequel or sequel route (I expect the inevitable fourth will go back in time again), but I basically only have words of praise for its third installment. While there are situations replicated here that we've seen many times before, visually there is still plenty to look at and surprisingly, the atmosphere with an abundance of scares is well maintained, especially in the final act. And besides, there is my favorite Patrick Wilson, who simply never disappoints. For those unfazed, there probably won't be any extraordinary discovery; those with weaker constitutions will surely be more frightened than, for example, with last year's Nun. (2019-06-26)

Why is this even happening? Gary Dauberman makes his debut in the 3rd entry in the Conjuring Universe and it's the weakest link, much like this year's La Llorona. Nothing happens for an hour and once the creatures start coming to life in the final third, it's at least watchable, but there's no atmosphere or thrills to speak of. It was filmed in an almost made-for-TV way and I hardly enjoyed it at all. 40%. (2019-08-28)