Although “Annabelle comes home” is yet another sequel this summer, it proves to be a welcome entry in the “Conjuring” universe of films. The movie is full of eerie events and scares without relying on an excess of gore.

The “Conjuring” series revolve around Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators who help people deal with demonic possessions, either of buildings or people. Their real-life adventures are fictionalized in this movie, as in the others in the series.

As this film begins, it is 1969. The Warrens have convinced a family to give them possession of Annabelle, a creepy-looking pig-tailed doll, who is evil. While driving home near a cemetery, the car stalls, and strange things happen thanks to having the demonic toy in their back seat.

Once home, they take Annabelle to their heavily locked and guarded (with various Catholic admonitions) room in their home. With the help of a priest, they perform a religious ceremony over her. Deciding that this is not enough to control the evil toy, Ed creates a chamber from the glass from a church and she is locked inside. It should be noted here that this room is a treasure trove of possessed artifacts, including what appears to be a TV, typewriters, a samurai outfit, a wedding dress, and a piano.

Flash forward one year to 1970. The Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are getting ready to leave on a brief road trip. Their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) is reading the local newspaper at breakfast and sees an article about her parents’ activities with the occult. The parents, concerned about how this will affect her at school, reassure her about her upcoming birthday party.

Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman), the high-school babysitter who will be watching Judy, arrives to take her to school. At school, Judy sees what looks like a dead priest and then is bullied by the other kids because of her parents.

After school, Mary Ellen is shopping at the local grocery store for ingredients for a birthday cake for Judy. She is accompanied by a friend, Daniela (Katie Sarife), who wants to come over to the Warrens as she is intrigued by their activities and what may be in the house. Mary Ellen does not have permission to invite her but is embarrassed into allowing it when Daniela threatens to reveal her secret love for the cashier Bob (Michael Cimino).

Later at the house Mary Ellen is preparing the cake when Daniela shows up with a present of roller skates for Judy. This is a ruse to get Mary Ellen and Judy out of the house so that Daniela can snoop. She finds the set of keys for the room of possessed objects and goes inside. Up to this point, she has seemed like a traditional troublemaker, but now we find out why she feels the need to contact the spirit world.

When nothing seems to happen, she sees the Annabelle display case. Then she hears a clunk as Annabelle has fallen forward to hit the glass. Foolishly, Daniela opens the case to push Annabelle into a sitting position but then is interrupted by the re-entry of Mary Ellen and Judy. She leaves the case unlocked with the keys inside the keyhole.
Predictably the cake has burned during Daniela’s wanderings, so they order pizza. The pizza guy convinces Bob to serenade Mary Ellen. Bob ends up under a window of the Warren home doing exactly that.

Now strange things start to happen. These involve manifestations of the various haunted objects, which are up to no good.

I will say that this film was a bit of nostalgia for me as it was set in the year when I was in 8th grade. So much of the interior décor, music, clothing and now-primitive technology rang true. The production and set designers did a great job in recreating the era. The costumer’s choice of jeans jackets and polyester knits were spot-on.

The music was well-chosen as well. Starting with Freda Payne’s “Band of gold” and including several cuts by the great Badfinger, they set the tone as did the old-fashioned turntable. The incidental music also was well-crafted to heighten the fear factor.

The four main leads all perform admirably and are completely convincing. Iseman as Mary Ellen adroitly conveys her inherent sweetness and common sense. Sarife gives a nuanced take on the troubled inner life of Daniela. Bob is all aw-shucks clumsiness as Cimino portrays a teenage boy in love. Grace continues her exceptional work as Judy, who is dealing with her spiritual gift inherited from her parents, but is also still a child coping with growing up. Wilson and Farmiga are little used in this installment, but Farmiga, as Lorraine Warren, has a moving scene at the end where she talks with Daniela.

The scares are the kind you would expect in a very good haunted house. Many of them are evoked by anticipation and then a jump in your seat. The apparitions and manifestations are satisfyingly frightening. There are a few scenes that show gore but these are rare and the movie does not rely on this effect for its horror.

One major drawback to the film is the lack of understanding of how these objects work and what their purpose in possession is. At one point, we are told that Annabelle needs a soul. Then why doesn’t she just take it and get it over with? Instead these various objects seem to waste time just tormenting the occupants of the house to who knows what purpose.

But concentrating on this flaw really misses the point of this movie, which is just to have some good old-fashioned scares, get some adrenaline flowing, and then achieve resolution. The ending may strike some as corny and unconvincing. I found it charming and hopeful, a perfect conclusion to this film.

I would not recommend this movie for younger children but it should be fine for teenagers. If you like a fun horror film with good frights, then this is the movie for you.

4 out of 5 stars

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends.

Starring: Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga
Directed by: Gary Dauberman
Screenplay by: Gary Dauberman
Story by: Gary Dauberman and James Wan