Annabelle Comes Home: A Haunting Night

Annabelle returns.

Annabelle Comes Home - can be in your home - since October 8.

It’s on Blu-Ray Combo Pack and DVD. The Digital format appeared early on September 17.

CONJURING

Annabelle Comes Home is the third installment for the sinister doll. This is, of course, part of the expanding Conjuring Universe with New Line Cinema. Home follows Annabelle (2014) and Annabelle: Creation (2017.)

Annabelle was first introduced in The Conjuring (2013). When Ed and Lorraine Warren crossed paths with the doll. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise the two Warrens here.

The timeline gets a little fuzzy. It seems like Annabelle Comes Home takes place between Conjuring 1 and 2. Essentially, bringing the Annabelle movies full circle, back to the home of the Warren’s.

The Warrens were real people, there is a real Annabelle doll. But the story for this particular movie is just for the thrills. (The Conjuring movies are more grounded in true/recorded events.)

Annabelle Comes Home grossed over $226 million at the worldwide box office. This is the weakest result of the three Annabelle movies. Although it was the second-best rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 65%. (The first Annabelle for comparison was just 29%)

The rest of the small cast includes Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman and Katie Sarife.

Gary Dauberman is the screenwriter for the Annabelle films, IT and The Nun. Annabelle Comes Home is his directorial debut. He wrote the screenplay. It is a story he hatched with the Conjuring Universe creator, James Wan.

TAKE

Would I buy this film? With Halloween on the horizon, I would say yes.

I think it’s a bit more effective if you have seen The Conjuring or at least one of the Annabelle movies.

The opening sequence of Comes Home is like an extension of The Conjuring. The Warrens drive home with the doll and figure out how to contain Annabelle.

Although it is cool that the Warrens are a part of the movie, they are not the driving force of this story. Out of the 106 minutes, they might appear in, maybe, 20 minutes of the run time.

But.

The story is simple - basically, a house becomes haunted. It may not be so difficult for a newbie to follow along. The Warrens have a locked room of artifacts they collected from cases to contain the evil. Including Annabelle.

Mary Ellen is ready to babysit the daughter of the Warrens, Judy (Judy is still around in real life, too.) A recent article about Ed and Lorraine draws mostly negative attention for Judy. But piques the interest of Mary Ellen’s friend, Daniela. She is determined to see inside the house.

Daniela soon makes the eye-rolling decision to unlock the artifact room. (Her motive is driven by emotion.) Mayhem and chaos soon descend on the house. The three girls must find a way to make it through the night.

Like past Conjuring Universe movies, Annabelle Comes Home is quite good with the creepy atmosphere. Quite a few scenes have no dialogue at all. And the movie plays with ‘scare’ expectations a handful of times. A jump scare coming? Some are obvious. A few are not.

The buckets of blood levels are always low too, which I don’t mind. Haha.

Does Annabelle Comes Home get me to want to see more? I’ll most likely be watching The Conjuring 3 in 2020!

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

The special features are minimum compared to some movies. These last almost 30 minutes.

Deleted Scenes (11 minutes, 28 seconds.)

The most interesting one is the alternate ending. A sequence is slightly different from the movie. It’s intriguing the little changes that are featured. And the changed for the final reel.

The Artifact Room and The Occult (5 minutes, 7 seconds)

This is a closer look at some of the artifacts that are featured or hidden in the room. A few that may be used as stories for potential movies.

The Light and the Love (4 minutes, 26 seconds)

A discussion of Ed and Lorraine Warren. How The Conjuring/Annabelle can be just as much as a horror story, as it is a love story.

Behind the Scenes

The Ferryman/Demon (5 minutes, 18 seconds.)

The Bloody Bride (2 minutes, 57 seconds.)

The Werewolf (3 minutes, 7 seconds.)

A closer look at some of the supernatural in the movie. The make-up, backstories, acting, that went into it. A lot of it is practical effects over special effects.

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment 

Shaft 2019: Not Shaft 2000. Not Shaft 1971.

Shaft has been around since 1970.

Shaft returns to film with the Blu-Ray Combo Pack and DVD. It arrived on September 24. The Digital format appeared early on September 10.

DETECTIVE

John Shaft’s beginnings started in novel form. The book was published in 1970 by Ernest Tidyman and inspired the 1970s trilogy of films with Richard Roundtree in the lead role. He has appeared in every film.

Samuel L. Jackson became Shaft in 2000. This new 2019 chapter for Shaft makes the fifth in the series. They make a reference to the 1970s and 2000 Shaft in this new movie as to why there are three Shafts.

Shaft 2019 didn’t make a big impression for the summer movie release. It made just over $21 million at the domestic box office. It received an international release on Netflix. On that Tomatometer, it earned just a 32%

This New Line Cinema’s action-comedy was directed by Tim Story. Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow were the writers of the screenplay

Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree both return. The cast is rounded out with Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp, Matt Lauria, Titus Welliver and Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith.

TAKE

Would I buy this film? No.

I am someone who has never seen anything of Shaft before. It would never have been a movie I would rush out and see.

Also, I may not know what I am talking about. And if you are a fan of Samuel L. Jackson, it may be worthwhile just for him.

Was it a great movie? Not really. It has an ok mystery, that made it watchable for me for the 111 minutes.

Jessie T. Usher is JJ - aka John Shaft Jr. works for the FBI. When his best friend seems to die under mysterious circumstances, JJ decides he needs the help of a man, he hardly knows. His dad - John Shaft.

As the investigation unfolds, the senior Shaft may have an agenda of his own for helping his son.

It’s not a movie for everyone. It’s R-rated after all. There’s plenty of Samuel L. Jackson’s colourful language. Some violence and sometimes the movie tries too hard to be funny, and some people may just find it offensive.

(Rogerebert.com was so unimpressed it was 0.5 out of 4 stars as one example.)

It's also hard to deny, for nearly 50 years that Shaft has been around. There's certainly some appeal. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OVERVIEW

Can Ya Dig It? The Making of Shaft (10 minutes, 36 seconds)
- The behind-the-scenes-reel for the making of the movie. Talk of shooting locations, trying to stay true to Shaft, but adding into the man's point-of-view of today. 

A Complicated Man: The Shaft Legacy - Part One: A Bad Mother Born (15 minutes, 41 seconds.)

A Complicated Man: The Shaft Legacy - Part Two: No Questions Asked (14 minutes, 34 seconds.)

A Complicated Man: The Shaft Legacy - Part Three: A Legend of His Time (13 minutes, 57 seconds.)

- Surprisingly in-depth of the character of Shaft. Discussions include the novel and how the character of Shaft came to be. The trilogy of movies of Shaft with Richard Roundtree and making a movie in the 1970s. The director Gordon Parks. The knockoffs that tried to replicate Shaft with the blaxploitation genre of film. Why the genre of the movie seemed to have stopped. The music of Shaft, and these new Shafts with Samuel L. Jackson. 

Deleted Scenes (2 minutes, 54 seconds)
- Most scenes don't last longer than a few seconds. Don't really add a whole lot if they were included in the movie.

Gag Reel (4 minutes, 53 seconds.)
- Gag reel silliness. Maybe funny, I didn't find it all that funny

Warner Brothers Home Entertainment