Annabelle Comes Home

Plot

Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren confiscate the demonic Annabelle doll from nurses Debbie and Camilla. During the drive back home, the doll summons spirits to attack Ed. Annabelle is locked in a sacred glass case in the couple's artifacts room to ensure the evil is contained, with the help of Father Gordon.

One year later, the Warrens welcome Mary Ellen who will be babysitting their daughter Judy, while they travel overnight to investigate a case. At school, Judy notices a ghostly priest following her. Judy's birthday is coming up and she tries to invite her classmates who reject the invitation because they think Judy is a freak due to her parents' work. Mary Ellen decides to have an early birthday celebration for Judy. Her friend Daniela arrives uninvited to the Warrens' home. The real reason she came is to try and speak to her deceased father's spirit to apologize to him for a car accident that killed him, for which Daniela blames herself. (She had been driving but had not actually been at fault.) She sneaks into the artifacts room, touches nearly everything, opens Annabelle's glass case, and picks her up, which releases the Annabelle demon. The Annabelle demon releases other spirits such as the Ferryman, the Bride, a Feeley Meeley board game, and the Black Shuck, that start wreaking havoc around the house.

Mary Ellen's romantic interest Bob Palmeri arrives and is attacked by the Black Shuck. Judy and Mary Ellen are confronted by other spirits. Daniela sneaks back into the house to return the artifacts room's keys. She is locked inside and is tormented by the haunted objects. Upstairs, Mary Ellen is tormented by the Ferryman, whose last victim has a striking resemblance to Mary Ellen. She escapes and runs to Judy's room, where the young girl is being attacked by the Annabelle doll and the demon. The girls answer the phone and believe it is Lorraine until the voice instructs them to give a soul to Annabelle. They go into the artifact room, encounter Daniela, and rescue her.

Judy explains that they must lock Annabelle back in her case so that the other spirits can rest. Bob protects Judy from the Black Shuck while she retrieves Mary Ellen's asthma inhaler, and Daniela is possessed by the Bride. Mary Ellen and Judy find the doll when the ghostly priest, acting as Judy's guardian, guides them to the Ferryman, which has the doll in a locked closet. Judy finds the key to the closet in the Feeley Meeley board game, and Mary Ellen enters the closet to retrieve the doll. They have trouble getting the doll to the artifacts room: hands emerge from the Feeley Meeley board game that grab at them and Daniela attacks. Daniela is immobilized when Judy projects Ed's recorded footage of the Bride's exorcism on her. Judy and Mary Ellen bring the doll to the artifacts room and place it in the case, but the demon telekinetically prevents them from closing the case's door. A freed Daniela then arrives to help them close the door, and she also still has the key to lock it. After the case's door is locked, the disturbances cease.

Production

In early April 2018, Warner Bros. announced that a then-untitled film in the Conjuring Universe franchise would be released on July 3, 2019. Later that month, it was announced that the film would be another installment in the Annabelle series, with Gary Dauberman signed on to write and direct the film in his directorial debut, based on a story treatment written by Dauberman and James Wan. Wan and Peter Safran co-produced the project. During the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con, Wan and Safran revealed the film's events would take place after Annabelle and would focus on the doll after she had been placed in a glass case in the Warrens' museum. Dauberman later confirmed this, stating that the film would take place shortly after the beginning of The Conjuring where the titular character is introduced but also before many of the events of the first installment.

In September 2018, Mckenna Grace was cast in the film as Judy Warren, the Warrens' 10-year-old daughter (replacing Sterling Jerins, who played Judy Warren in The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2), and Madison Iseman as one of Judy's teenage babysitters. By October, Katie Sarife had joined the cast. That same month, it was announced Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga would reprise their roles as Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Principal photography had begun by mid-October in Los Angeles, with Michael Burgess serving as cinematographer. On December 7, Wilson announced that he had finished filming his scenes. A week later, filming officially concluded. In February 2019, Joseph Bishara—who composed the scores for The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Conjuring 2, and The Curse of La Llorona—was revealed to be scoring Annabelle Comes Home. On March 30, 2019, Kirk M. Morri was announced as the film's editor.

Release

Annabelle Comes Home was theatrically released in the United States on June 26, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. It was originally scheduled for release on July 3, 2019, but was later moved up to June 28 and then to June 26. The studio spent a total of $77 million promoting the film. The film is dedicated to Lorraine Warren, who died on April 18, 2019. Annabelle Comes Home was released on Digital HD on September 17, 2019, and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 8, 2019. It was released in a May 2022 Blu-ray collection with the other The Conjuring Universe movies.

Reception

Box office

Annabelle Comes Home grossed $74.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $157.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $231.3 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $64 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $30–35 million from 3,587 theaters over its first five days. It made $7.2 million on its first day, a Wednesday, including $3.5 million from Tuesday night previews, the third-best total of any Conjuring installment. It then made $3.6 million on its second day of release for a two-day total of $10.8 million. It went on to debut to $20.3 million (a five-day total of $31.2 million), finishing second at the box office, behind holdover Toy Story 4, and marking the lowest start of any Conjuring film. In its second weekend, the film dropped 52% and grossed $9.8 million, finishing in fifth.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 209 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Fun for fans even if it isn't as frightening as some of its predecessors, Annabelle Comes Home suggests there's still some life left in the Conjuring franchise." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B− on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 2.5 out of 5 stars, and a 42% "definite recommend".

Accolades

Two crew members were nominated for their work on the film. Leah Butler was nominated in the Best Costume Design category at the 2019 Fright Meter Awards. Gary Dauberman was nominated as Legion M Breakthrough Director at the 2019 Saturn Awards.

Future

Prior to the release of the film in June 2019, Dauberman commented on the possibility of another film in the Annabelle series: "I didn't look at this process ... going, 'What other stuff can we absolutely spin-off into other movies?' [It's about] what works for this movie, and then if people seem to dig it, then we'll go from there." Safran also commented on the possibility, stating that they will continue to develop and create films "as long as [they] keep having original stories to tell. The moment that you start repeating yourself and really diluting the good will that exists out there, then it's the beginning of the end."