Here comes the 8th entry in the Conjuring universe, equally insipid and tired yet benefiting from an entire trove of cursed items, creatures, and inevitable demonic franchise-starters to unleash upon a boring cast. While the titular doll has certainly exhausted whatever initial creepiness a demonic doll inspires, the addition of this menagerie allows this film to go completely wild in the last act, ludicrously justifying reapers, spectres, werewolves, and cursed board games (unrelated to the surprisingly decent Ouija films). While moderately better than La Llorona, this movie is far from good. The hook here is the inclusion of the Warrens, but they basically show up to provide opening and closing framework playing phoned in versions of comfortable characters, simultaneously dispelling any notion that the series could even pretend to still be based in reality. The rest of the cast are a bunch of fairly decent younger actors, burdened with an excess of plot-mandated stupid character decisions and bad dialogue. The major problem here is that nothing is remotely scary, although the imagery and atmosphere of the Warren’s demonic treasure trove is excellent. I might have at some point been fascinated by a series or sequence where they delve into the history and horrors of the Warren collection, but this movie sufficiently kills that interest. The ad-nauseum telegraphed jump scares are boringly rehashed from earlier films, and aside from one or two memorable visuals there is nothing much interesting here. If you are a fan of the Conjuring series, this takes the last vestiges of credibility and gleefully stomps on it, if you’re not a fan this movie will concretely demonstrate why the series should end.
Annabelle Comes Home