I had no expectations for this movie. Annabelle was a lazy cash-grab of a movie, and I use "movie" in the loosest sense of the word. Annabelle: Creation at least had a plot, characters, and a decent director, but it was largely predictable and not very scary. Annabelle Comes Home has elements of both of its prequels.
The setup is well done. The opening sequence is the most effective in the movie: We follow Ed and Lorraine Warren driving the Annabelle doll back to their house, and their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It's pretty tense; you expect them to go for the easy jump scare, but they linger on unsettling shots instead to let the tension build. Once Ed and Lorraine exit the movie about 20 minutes in, it turns into a generic "people running around a haunted house" for the remainder of the film - the people in this case being the Warrens' daughter, her babysitter, and the babysitter's friend.
There's no real structure to it either. Gary Dauberman is a first-time director, and you can tell. He's not awful by any means, but a lot of the movie is flat-looking with no distinct visual style. There are a couple of creative ideas, like the reflecting TV and the color wheel that lights up the room, but they're not executed with any finesse.
There's never a sense of danger either. The babysitter's friend decides to go in the Warren's artifacts room and opens the glass box with Annabelle for some stupid reason. It's explained later on, but it's still such a dumb decision that you have a hard time feeling sympathy for her. Also, the demon can do literally anything. It can mess with electronics and move pretty much anything in the house. Basically, it could kill everyone at any point in time. But it doesn't because there needs to be a movie. So instead, the demon plays pranks on them for an hour before actively trying to kill them. There aren't any firm rules established on what the demon can and can't do, so we really don't know what to be afraid of. Unless you consider cheap jump scares scary that is, because there are plenty of those. Not as many as I expected, though, I'll give the movie that.
Overall, mediocre movie. Better than Annabelle 1, not as visually interesting as Annabelle: Creation - it's just blah. It's the horror movie version of empty calories.
The setup is well done. The opening sequence is the most effective in the movie: We follow Ed and Lorraine Warren driving the Annabelle doll back to their house, and their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It's pretty tense; you expect them to go for the easy jump scare, but they linger on unsettling shots instead to let the tension build. Once Ed and Lorraine exit the movie about 20 minutes in, it turns into a generic "people running around a haunted house" for the remainder of the film - the people in this case being the Warrens' daughter, her babysitter, and the babysitter's friend.
There's no real structure to it either. Gary Dauberman is a first-time director, and you can tell. He's not awful by any means, but a lot of the movie is flat-looking with no distinct visual style. There are a couple of creative ideas, like the reflecting TV and the color wheel that lights up the room, but they're not executed with any finesse.
There's never a sense of danger either. The babysitter's friend decides to go in the Warren's artifacts room and opens the glass box with Annabelle for some stupid reason. It's explained later on, but it's still such a dumb decision that you have a hard time feeling sympathy for her. Also, the demon can do literally anything. It can mess with electronics and move pretty much anything in the house. Basically, it could kill everyone at any point in time. But it doesn't because there needs to be a movie. So instead, the demon plays pranks on them for an hour before actively trying to kill them. There aren't any firm rules established on what the demon can and can't do, so we really don't know what to be afraid of. Unless you consider cheap jump scares scary that is, because there are plenty of those. Not as many as I expected, though, I'll give the movie that.
Overall, mediocre movie. Better than Annabelle 1, not as visually interesting as Annabelle: Creation - it's just blah. It's the horror movie version of empty calories.