The Doll Gets Loose: Annabelle Comes Home

Annabelle Comes Home (2019) is a supernatural horror film written and directed by Gary Dauberman, in his directing debut, from a story by Dauberman and James Wan. It is the third Annabelle film, following Annabelle (2014) and Annabelle: Creation (2017), and the sixth film in the Conjuring Universe. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as Ed and Lorraine Warren, but they are away for most of the film. Their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) is left with two teenage babysitters on the night the Annabelle doll gets loose in the Warrens’ room of haunted artifacts and wakes everything else inside. Reviews were mixed. It grossed $231.3 million worldwide on a budget of about $27–32 million.

At a glance

Release date	June 26, 2019 (US)
Director	Gary Dauberman
Writers	Screenplay by Gary Dauberman; story by James Wan and Gary Dauberman
Based on	The Annabelle doll and the Warrens of The Conjuring
Starring	Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
Runtime	106 minutes
Rating	R (US), for horror violence and terror
Budget	$27–32 million (reported range)
Box office	$231.3 million
Franchise	The Conjuring Universe: sequel to Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation

Plot summary

The Warrens take the Annabelle doll from two nurses. On the drive home, it summons spirits to attack Ed. With the help of Father Gordon, they lock it in a blessed glass case in their artifacts room. A year later, Ed and Lorraine leave on an overnight case, and teenager Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) babysits their daughter, Judy. Judy is being shunned at school because of her parents’ work, and she has started noticing a ghostly priest following her.

Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) turns up uninvited. She blames herself for the car accident that killed her father, and she hopes to contact his spirit. She sneaks into the artifacts room, handles almost everything, and opens Annabelle’s case. The doll then frees the room’s other spirits, including the Ferryman, the Bride, a haunted Feeley Meeley board game and the Black Shuck. Mary Ellen’s admirer Bob arrives and is attacked by the Black Shuck, and the three girls are hunted through the house.

Spoiler section: the ending

A phone call that sounds like Lorraine tells the girls to give Annabelle a soul. Guided by the ghostly priest, who has been protecting Judy, they find the doll in a closet guarded by the Ferryman, with the key inside the Feeley Meeley game. Daniela is possessed by the Bride, and Judy stops her by projecting Ed’s film of the Bride’s exorcism. A freed Daniela helps them shut the case, and she has the key to lock it. The haunting stops at once. At Judy’s birthday party the next day, her classmates turn up after all. Lorraine passes Daniela a comforting message from her father.

Production and behind the scenes

In early April 2018, Warner Bros. dated an untitled Conjuring Universe film for July 3, 2019. Later that month it was announced as another Annabelle film, with Dauberman, the writer of the previous two, directing from a treatment he wrote with Wan. Wan and Peter Safran produced. At San Diego Comic-Con 2018, they revealed the story would follow the doll after it was placed in the Warrens’ museum. Dauberman set it shortly after the doll’s introduction at the start of The Conjuring, but before most of that film’s events.

In September 2018, Grace was cast as the ten-year-old Judy, replacing Sterling Jerins, who played her in the first two Conjuring films. Iseman joined at the same time, and Sarife by October. That month, Wilson and Farmiga were confirmed. Filming was under way in Los Angeles by mid-October, with cinematographer Michael Burgess. Wilson wrapped on December 7, and filming ended a week later. Joseph Bishara, composer for The Conjuring, Annabelle and The Conjuring 2, scored it. Kirk M. Morri edited.

Release and reception

Originally dated for July 3, the release moved to June 28 and then June 26, 2019. Warner Bros. spent a reported $77 million on promotion. Its $3.5 million in Tuesday previews was the third-best for a Conjuring film. But its $20.3 million weekend, $31.2 million over five days, was the lowest start in the series, and it opened second behind Toy Story 4. It finished with $74.2 million in the US and Canada and $231.3 million worldwide. Deadline estimated a $64 million net profit.

It holds 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus calls it “fun for fans even if it isn’t as frightening as some of its predecessors,” and says it “suggests there’s still some life left in the Conjuring franchise.” Metacritic gave it 53, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a “B−.” Dauberman was nominated for the Saturn Awards’ breakthrough director honor.

Legacy and influence

Annabelle Comes Home moved the Warrens’ artifacts room, first seen in The Conjuring, from the background to the center of a whole film. It added a roster of new haunted objects and spirits, including the Ferryman, the Bride and the Black Shuck, and put Judy Warren and her babysitters in the lead while her parents stayed mostly off-screen. The film is dedicated to Lorraine Warren, who died on April 18, 2019, two months before release. Before it opened, Dauberman said further spin-offs would depend on audience interest. Safran said the team would keep making films “as long as [they] keep having original stories to tell,” warning that repetition would be “the beginning of the end.”

Trivia

Dauberman wrote Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation, co-wrote It (2017) and wrote It Chapter Two.
Composer Joseph Bishara also scored The Curse of La Llorona, as well as earlier Conjuring Universe films.
Before release, it was projected to earn $30–35 million over its first five days from 3,587 theaters.
Leah Butler was nominated for costume design at the 2019 Fright Meter Awards.
The film was released on Digital HD on September 17, 2019, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 8.
PostTrak audiences gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars.