Annabelle Comes Home

Annabelle Comes Home is a 2019 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Gary Dauberman, from a story by Dauberman and James Wan, who also acted as producer with Peter Safran. It serves as a sequel to 2014's Annabelle and 2017's Annabelle: Creation, and as the seventh installment in The Conjuring Universe. The film stars Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, and Katie Sarife, along with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who reprise their roles as Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren.

Annabelle Comes Home was theatrically released in the United States on June 26, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. It grossed over $231 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, who found it less frightening than its predecessors.

Synopsis
The Warrens have brought the Annabelle doll to a place where she can no longer wreak havoc: their Artifacts Room. Annabelle awakens the room’s evil which sets its sights on a new target: the Warrens’ ten year-old daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace), her babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) and her friend Daniela Rios (Katie Sarife). All together they deal with Annabelle’s chaos.

Plot
In 1968, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren decide to bring the Annabelle doll to their home after claims from two nurses, Debbie and Camilla, that the doll would often perform violent activities in their apartment. It just so happens that the Annabelle doll summons demonic spirits to attack the Warren family during the drive home, however he survives, and Annabelle is locked in a glass case in their artifact room and ia then blessed by Father Gordon to ensure that the evil is suppressed.

Four years later, the Warrens greet Mary Ellen, who is in charge of babysitting their young daughter, Judy, while they work on a case overnight. Shortly afterward, at school, Judy sees the spirit of a priest, and it begins to follow her, becoming attached. Mary Ellen's friend Daniela shows up uninvited to the Warren home, curious about potentially speaking to the deceased after suffering through the death of her father. Searching throughout the house, she eventually finds the keys to the artifact room in the Warren's home office and sneaks inside. She starts touching interesting and sensitive artifacts, trying to determine the best one to contact her dead father. During her escapade, she accidentally leaves Annabelle's glass case unlocked, and the horror begins shortly afterwards as the ghostly spirit of Bee Mullins is released. During the night, Annabelle also releases other spirits, including the Ferryman, the Bride, a set of possessed samurai armor, a haunted Feeley Meeley board game, and the Black Shuck. After a boy named Bob, Mary Ellen's crush, comes by to see her, he is attacked by the Black Shuck demon and hides in the backyard. Then, Mary Ellen is attacked by the Ferryman spirit and Judy is confronted by Annabelle. Daniela also becomes trapped in the artifact room and starts being tormented by a spirit-possessed monkey toy and an old CRT television that can allegedly predict the future.

Terrifyingly, a bloody and screaming future Daniela appears on this television after answering what seems to be a cursed telephone. As the present Daniela reaches to answer the phone, Judy and Mary Ellen burst in the nick of time and stop her from doing so. The everything was controlled and the cursed typewriter writing the words "Miss Me?". The trio then escape from the room, and Judy explains that they have to lock Annabelle in her glass case once more so the other spirits will return to rest. However, once they attempt to retrieve the doll, Daniela becomes possessed by the Bride. Mary Ellen and Judy find the cursed doll after the good priest's spirit, who became attached to Judy after meeting each other at the school. acted as her guardian, and showed them the way. Daniela finally recovers from her possession once Judy plays Ed's recorded footage of the Bride's exorcism. The group then manages to retrieve the case key after being attacked by the Feeley Meeley board game. Finally, Annabelle is locked in her case once more, and the disturbances and other spirits return to their ghostly resting places. The trio is then also reunited with Bob, who also survived.

The following morning, the Warrens return and are told by the trio about the eventful night. Daniela apologises profusely to Lorraine, who then gives Daniela a message she received from Daniela's father.

Cast

 * Mckenna Grace as Judy Warren
 * Madison Iseman as Mary Ellen
 * Katie Sarife as Daniela Rios
 * Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren
 * Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren
 * Michael Cimino as Bob Palmeri
 * Samara Lee as Annabelle "Bee" Mullins
 * Steve Coulter as Father Gordon
 * Paul Dean as Mr. Palmeri
 * Luca Luhan as Anthony Rios
 * Anthony Wemyss as Mr. Rios
 * Alison White as Mrs. Faley
 * Stephen Blackehart as Thomas
 * Sade Katarina as Camilla
 * Kenzie Caplan as Debbie
 * Gary-7 as Late Father Michael Morrisey / priest spirit
 * Natalia Safran as the Bride
 * Douglas Tait as the Black Shuck
 * Alexander Ward as Annabelle's demon / the ram

Development
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 late 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.

Filming
Principal photography commenced 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 wrapped. 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.

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 review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 206 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical 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."