Annabelle 3 review

When Annabelle 3 was first announced, it left me very excited but also nervous. Annabelle has always left me with chill with just once glance at her but also because the conjuring franchise has had some hit n miss films. I do love Annabelle 1 and The Nun but I'll agree they're not the best installments of the franchise and after seeing Annabelle Comes Home, I am majorly happy with what I saw.

Annabelle still has the ability to be scary just by looking at her. When the film forces you to look at her, you start theorizing what could be about to happen. In this film, McKenna Grace steps up as the Warrens daughter Judy being babysitted whilst the Warrens are away. Unfortunately things go wrong when the babysitter, Mary Ellens friend manipulates her to invite round to the house.

Daniela is first seen as a nosy teenager who wants to cause trouble but it's soon revealed she has an ulterior motive for wanting to go to the Warrens house which is actually really unstandable. She blames herself for her dad's death and wants to contact his spirit to apologise but ultimately she causes all the events that happens. For this movie, the scares are at times predictable but other times genuinely surprise you. The Warrens house is perfect for the movie because at night, especially in there secret artefacts room, it's so atmospherically chilling. Just imagining being on your own in that room really gives you the creeps.

The acting is fantastic and very believable. McKenna Grace is perfectly cast as Judy and the other main stars get a chance to show what they can do. Gary Dauberman does an impressive job at delivering these scares very creatively and by the final act, he has a lot to juggle around but he does a very good job. Not as good as James Wan but good enough. Now as much as it pains me, there were some missteps.

First off, the character of Bob was extremely pointless. He's nice but dull. Bob provides nothing interesting to the movie and it's a wonder why he was even given an extended role. The movies biggest flaw though is, although it doesn't seem possible, Annabelle gets overshadowed in her own movie. At times, this doesn't feel like an Annabelle film. It feels more like another conjuring film with Annabelle in it and introducing all the spirits from the Warrens cases, it makes them more intriguing and interesting than Annabelle herself. I really wanted to see more of the fairyman, the wedding dress demon and that samurai armour.

Generally this is a very good horror film with plenty of scares and a good plot but as well as Annabelle brings this film up, she also drags it down. 3/5 stars.