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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Annabelle Comes Home (Blu-ray) (2019)

Annabelle Comes Home (Blu-ray) (2019)

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Released 9-Oct-2019

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror / Thriller Featurette-Behind The Scenes-x3
Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Artifact Room and the Occult
Featurette-The Light and the Love
Deleted Scenes
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2019
Running Time 106:05
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Gary Dauberman
Studio
Distributor
Roadshow Home Entertainment 		Starring Mckenna Grace
Madison Iseman
Katie Sarife
Michael Cimino
Samara Lee
Vera Farmiga
Patrick Wilson
Case Standard Blu-ray
RPI $24.95 Music Joseph Bishara


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Atmos
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Hindi Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 2.40:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian for the Hearing Impaired
Portuguese
Spanish
Arabic
Bulgarian
Cantonese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Korean
Mandarin
Norwegian
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian
Swedish
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish 		Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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Plot Synopsis

    The second Conjuring-Verse feature of 2019 (after The Curse of La Llorona), Annabelle Comes Home caps off the first trilogy within this larger franchise, and demonstrates that these spin-offs are still worthwhile in the hands of the right filmmakers. Once again scripted by veteran Gary Dauberman (It, The Nun), who also grasps the directorial reins this time around, Annabelle Comes Home is a far cry from 2017's relentlessly dark and sinister Annabelle: Creation, as this sequel will not exactly scare the living daylights out of you. Instead, Dauberman concocts a suspenseful, ominous follow-up which plays out as more of a funhouse-style thriller, though it's still armed with an adult rating for good measure. In addition, a surprising and welcome sense of heart complements the scares, instantly elevating this above 2018's repetitive, soulless and forgettable The Nun.

    To contain the relentless evil of the cursed Annabelle doll, demonologists Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) lock her inside a glass case within their secured artefact room. Months later, when the Warrens head out of town for an overnight trip, they leave their young daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) in the care of responsible teenage babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). However, their quiet evening of cake-making is soon interrupted by the arrival of Mary Ellen's friend Daniela (Katie Sarife), who seeks to snoop around the Warrens' supernatural possessions, desperate to find a way to make contact with her recently deceased father. Ending up in the artefact room, Daniela ignores all warnings and opens Annabelle's case, in turn unleashing the doll's supernatural malevolence on the three vulnerable girls.

    The Annabelle doll continues to function as a spiritual conduit, more or less a WiFi Hotspot for demonic entities, awakening the artefact room's various haunted items. Dauberman delights in dreaming up inventive scenarios for the characters to endure, including an unplugged TV that displays what will happen thirty seconds into the future, while Mary Ellen's poor would-be boyfriend Bob (Michael Cimino) is stalked by a werewolf outside the house. Creature and demon designs are inventive, with Dauberman even making use of The Ferryman, who looks wonderfully creepy with coins over both eyes. Dauberman never goes bonkers with the adult rating, with the movie feeling PG-13 for long stretches (this is the only Annabelle film to be rated M, as opposed to MA15+), but the edge in terms of violence and language is appreciated. It's all beautifully captured with slick cinematography courtesy of Michael Burgess (The Curse of La Llorona), while frequent James Wan collaborator Joseph Bishara (Insidious) devises an idiosyncratic, effective original score. However, some obvious CGI mars the experience. The movie is undeniably more agreeable during set-pieces featuring elaborate make-up and practical effects.

    Despite the misleading trailers, Annabelle Comes Home is not an unofficial Conjuring 3, as the Warrens only appear in bookend sequences at the start and end of the movie, and we do not get to finally see the demonologists properly battle the Annabelle entity. Admittedly, too, the stakes never feel overly high since Dauberman refrains from actually killing any of the girls, but there is an appreciable sense of tension nevertheless, and Annabelle does her best to terrorise her victims to ensure they will never sleep again. Refreshingly, there is no hostility or resentment among the leads; Mary Ellen genuinely likes Judy, while Daniela and Judy quickly bond through activities and chat. Furthermore, although Daniela's actions are careless, she has a genuine reason for venturing into the Warrens' artefact room beyond pure curiosity or simply wanting to point and laugh, as she blames herself for her father's death and is desperate to relieve her guilt. Some clichés are present, such as Mary Ellen's romantic interest, but Dauberman happily avoids many of the hoarier genre tropes.

    With Judy being given a meaty role for the first time in the franchise's history, Mckenna Grace is actually a replacement for Sterling Jerins, who plays the Warrens' daughter in the main Conjuring films. Although a re-cast seems unnecessary, Grace (late of 2018's The Haunting of Hill House) is effortlessly charming, vulnerable and keenly intuitive, justifying her presence in the movie and showing that she's a talent to watch. Alongside her, Iseman (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) is agreeably down-to-earth and amiable, while Sarife capably handles the emotional requirements of her role. It's easy to care about the trio, thanks to effectively concise character development as well as the actors' innate likeability. Meanwhile, it's a pleasure to see Farmiga and Wilson reporting for duty, reprising their respective roles for the first time since 2016's The Conjuring 2.

    Admittedly, Annabelle Comes Home is a touch long at 106 minutes, and begins to wear out its welcome before the end credits begin to roll. After all, these types of funhouse horror flicks are usually more agreeable at a taut 90 minutes, but at least Dauberman adequately builds the main characters before Annabelle escapes her case. All things considered, this threequel easily bests 2014's Annabelle but falls short of the legitimately inspired Annabelle: Creation. In spite of its shortcomings, this instalment is fun, creepy and unexpectedly heartfelt, even if it doesn't necessarily make a lasting impression or get under your skin like the best horror movies can.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Another Conjuring-Verse movie, another horror title bizarrely relegated to standard 1080p Blu-ray despite being completed with a High Dynamic Range grade. Alas, just like the previous Annabelle movies, if you want to experience Annabelle Come Home in 4K with HDR, you'll have to stream it via iTunes. Debuting on Blu-ray courtesy of Roadshow Entertainment, the 106-minute Annabelle Comes Home is placed on a dual-layered BD-50 with many additional audio tracks competing for disc space, mastered with an adequate average video bitrate of 27 Mbps. The resulting presentation is about as good as can be expected from a 1080p encode of the digitally-shot source - not a standout by any means, but a perfectly satisfying and eminently watchable transfer, even if a 4K Ultra HD disc would have been preferable.

    Unsurprisingly, Annabelle Comes Home was filmed digitally. (No camera information is available via IMDb, but behind-the-scenes images feature Arri camera bodies.) The movie therefore looks nicely textured on Blu-ray for the most part, with frequently top-notch clarity and sharpness, while only a mild amount of source noise coats the picture, which is more evident in some scenes than others. Due to the resolution and the compression, the noise isn't as well-refined as one might hope, taking on a slightly chunky appearance, but at least it's not distracting. This aside, there is plenty else to admire about the transfer. Particularly when lighting is generous, there are standout moments of precise texturing and sharpness - just see the shot with Judy in the foreground at 16:15. Also see the scenes in which Judy feeds the chickens and talks to Daniela at around the 35-minute mark - the sweaters in particular look extraordinary from a fine detail perspective. Faces take on a slightly smeary appearance throughout, though the movie looked similar on the big screen during its theatrical run - it's therefore likely a result of heavy, deliberate make-up application, as opposed to representing a shortcoming of the source or the encode. Highlights remain respectable in daytime lighting, such as the scene at the grocery store, when the girls snoop around the Warrens' office, or the birthday party at the end.

    As to be expected from the limited dynamic range and colour space of 1080p, highlights are lost when harsh light sources are used; for instance, when a police officer shines a torch in the Warrens' car early into the movie, their faces subsequently look overly smooth and lacking in specular detail. Moments like these, as well as skies and other harsh shots with harsh lighting, carry more specular detail and look more refined in 4K HDR (I compared a few scenes on this Blu-ray to the 4K HDR iTunes presentation). In addition, textures sometimes lack precision under dim lighting, for instance during the shot at 2:10 of the Warrens in their car. This continues throughout the movie, though there are no outright terrible-looking shots, and the presentation still looks respectable from start to finish. While the palette lacks the definitive "pop" afforded by HDR, colours are nevertheless impressive, from the bright colours of Daniela's jumper to lush greenery outside, and the blood adorning the demonic bride. In addition, skin tones are neutral as opposed to overcooked. Contrast is also respectable but not perfect, as blacks are unable to attain definitive inkiness, though image depth is mostly very good - only rarely does Annabelle Comes Home possess a flat digital look.

    Fortunately, no encoding anomalies arise as a result of the compression - I was unable to detect any unsightly macroblocking, banding, aliasing, or anything else to tarnish this Blu-ray presentation. Darkness understandably pervades the frame during the dark set-pieces, and there's a few moments of minor crush, but it's nothing to be too concerned about. On the whole, this is a perfectly respectable Blu-ray presentation.

    Subtitles are available in a variety of languages. Sampling the English (for the hearing impaired) track, I could find no formatting issues.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    No surprises here - Annabelle Comes Home comes to home video with a robust Dolby Atmos soundtrack, with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core. A dozen additional tracks are included on the disc, including an alternative English Dolby Digital 5.1 mix (luckily, the disc defaults to Atmos). For the purposes of this review, I solely concentrated on the Atmos mix. First things first, this is another contemporary horror film for which dialogue is deliberately mixed a bit low compared to the sound effects, prompting you to crank up the volume which makes the jump scare sounds all the louder. This is problematic from time to time - for example, when Lorraine announces "The evil is contained" after Annabelle is placed into the locked glass case in the pre-title sequence. The dialogue is clear, and it's not drowned out by other sounds or pieces of music, but it's nevertheless unfortunate that it's mixed so low. Meanwhile, clarity is fine, as the Atmos track doesn't sound unnecessarily compressed, and I was unable to detect any hissing, clicking, popping or drop-outs, nor are there any sync issues to report.

    Admittedly, some sound effects sound slightly hollow, such as when Bob hits the werewolf apparition with his guitar, but the majority of the movie sounds fine. Great subwoofer activity is evident when loud bangs occur during the scary moments, such as the door aggressively banging at 40:30, or subsequent footsteps coming up behind Judy. The surround channels are mostly reserved for perfunctory expansion of the soundscape, with music and ambience coming through cleanly, but there is evidence of separation - see 68:08, when the monkey squawk is isolated to the rear channels, or when werewolf growls emerge from the rear channels at 82:10. Joseph Bishara's original score is immaculately rendered, much like the use of the song "Dancing in the Moonlight" during the end credits which comes through with pleasing clarity. It's not a reference Dolby Atmos track, but Annabelle Comes Home mostly sounds terrific on Blu-ray.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    In keeping with the other movies in the Conjuring-Verse, we have a small selection of featurettes and some deleted scenes. Nothing too substantial.

Behind the Scenes (HD)

    A three-part behind-the-scenes look at Annabelle Comes Home, which zeroes in on the various creatures that appear. These can only be played individually, as there is no "Play All" function.

The Artifact Room and the Occult (HD; 5:07)

    Here we have a behind-the-scenes tour of the Warrens' artifact room, showing callbacks to the other movies, as well as new items, including an Aquaman Easter Egg. On-set footage is mixed with various interviews, including a brief interview snippet with the real Judy Warren. Franchise godfather James Wan also teases exploring more of the artifacts in future films.

The Light and the Love (HD; 4:26)

    This last featurette focuses on the relationship between Ed and Lorraine Warren, which is a somewhat bewildering inclusion given their minimal screen-time in this particular instalment.

Deleted Scenes (HD; 11:28)

    Seven deleted scenes, which can either be watched individually, or via a "Play All" function. The scenes all look virtually finished, with music and sound effects added.