Annabelle Comes Home - The Conjuring Universe
Quick Background
This is the fifth movie chronologically, as it takes place in 1972, but the seventh movie that was released. It has also been called Annabelle 3, as it is the third movie with the character’s name in the title. In this movie, Annabelle does indeed come home to the locked, blessed room in the Warren family’s home. However, we don’t see as much of Ed and Lorraine this time, as the story here revolves around their daughter Judy. Judy is played by Mckenna Grace, whose face is easily recognizable, as she has been in so many things in her young life. Mckenna is fantastic as Judy Warren; that being said, I’m not sure I’ve seen her in anything I didn’t like her in.
This story wouldn’t go very far if it were just about Judy, as she is smart enough to know the locked room is off-limits. Madison Iseman plays Mary Ellen, Judy’s babysitter, and Katie Sarife plays Daniela Rios, Mary Ellen’s best friend. I have to say that as familiar as Madison’s face is, I cannot figure out what I had seen her play, even after looking through her IMDB page. That said, she is great and may be a scream queen in the making. As for Katie Sarife, I knew exactly where I had seen her before; she had played a main character in the musical Supernatural episode. I cannot wait to see what else she does.
About The Movie
The movie starts with the actual journey of Ed and Lorraine bringing Annabelle home from the nurses’ apartment. An accident on the road detours them down a rural road past a cemetery, where the car stalls out. While Ed checks in on the engine, Annabelle seems to be drawing in the spirits. A near miss here shows us that Annabelle is reluctant to go home, as if she knows that once she is there, her fun is over. Once they arrive home, they try to figure out the best place to put her. This is when they decide to encase her in glass from a church, the priest blesses the case, and they lock it up tight. But the fun has just begun.
The story mainly follows Judy, who we find out is sensitive like her mother. Daniela comes over while Mary Ellen is babysitting, under the pretense that she found out it was Judy’s birthday and wanted to bring her a gift. She brings over roller skates and convinces Mary Ellen to take Judy around the block. While they are away, Daniela finds the keys to the locked room; she seems to know exactly what she is looking for but decides to touch pretty much everything in the room anyway. Now, if you’ve seen the other movies, you know that Ed has warned not to touch anything in the room because it can awaken the evil within. So clearly, Daniela plays the dumb girl role in this film.
When Mary Ellen and Judy return, Daniela starts asking a lot of questions about her parents’ work. Judy goes ahead and shows them to her parents’ office so they can read the case files for themselves. This is more so that we know what is coming for us. From here on out, there is a lot of jump scares and moments where you are yelling at the screen, like we did when we were younger and the stupid teen ran up the stairs instead of out the front door.
During all this mayhem, while different forces begin to attack and try to take or possess the girls, Annabelle gets loose. This part of the movie is complete mayhem; they even try calling Lorraine for help. While the voice on the other end sounds exactly like Lorraine, she starts to ask to speak with Annabelle. Completely freaked out, Mary Ellen and Judy hang up and have to fend for themselves.
The movie does end with some happy notes and a moment where you may get a little emotional. Because, let’s be honest, the series must continue.
Yay or Nay
As with all of The Conjuring movies, this one is also a YAY from me. The movie is full of action and “don’t do that” moments, like scary movies I used to watch as a kid; it was a bit of a break from the other movies in the universe. I will admit that I’m not as big of a fan of the dumb kid tropes in movies, but it was a good setup to show us what else Ed and Lorraine have been up to.