Annabelle Comes Home

The third installment of the Annabelle series, Annabelle Comes Home follows three suburban girls (Mckenna Grace’s Judy, Madison Iseman’s Mary Ellen, and Katie Sarife’s Daniela) as they’re pursued by evil spirits after the titular doll is released from its protected case. First-time filmmaker Gary Dauberman delivers an entertaining and engaging opening stretch that seems to hold plenty of promise, as the movie kicks off with a pre-credits sequence detailing Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren’s (Vera Farmiga) initial acquisition of the series’ malevolent doll – although it’s not long before the movie settles into its (Farmiga and Wilson-less) narrative proper devoted entirely to the less-than-engrossing exploits of the aforementioned girls. The picture’s more-of-the-same midsection seems to consist entirely of a repetitious series of paranormal encounters with various evil spirits, with the hands-off nature of this stretch compounded by a growing realization that these ghosts are mainly interested in scaring the protagonists (ie there’s never a point at which we get the sense that any of them are in real danger). The loud, larger-than-life climactic stretch grows exhausting and headache-inducing long before the upbeat conclusion rolls around, and it’s ultimately impossible not to label Annabelle Comes Home the weakest entry within a decidedly (and aggressively) erratic saga.

*1/2 out of ****