Annabelle Comes Home

                 ‘Positively do not open,’ reads the warning sign etched in bold capital letters on the sacred closet, holding the evil doll Annabelle. You don’t need to be a horror fan to know that somehow, the exact opposite will happen. Clearly, unpredictability is not among the strong points of Annabelle Comes Home. However, for a debutant, director and writer Gary Dauberman delivers quite handsomely in dishing out many delicious jump scares at a consistent pace. At the heart of it is his excellent camera control and the strategy to generate constant scares.

The film opens with the daredevil duo Ed and Lorraine bringing the doll home. They lock it up in their basement, along with a host of other creepy memorabilia from their infamous cases. The room is packed with ghostly goodies waiting to be fiddled with for all hell to break loose. Meanwhile, their daughter Judy is having a hard time with school bullies because of what her parents do for a living. This part is sensitively handled. But the narrative quickly gets into the action mode, as the couple goes away for a weekend, leaving their daughter with a young but responsible babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). All is well, until her bestie Daniela (Katie Sarife) goes snooping around the house, hoping to find some connect with her dead father. Another well-executed plot point to bring in the emotional connect with a character and justify her actions. What follows is a spookfest that will transport you into a house of horrors. The background score is very effective and adds to the impact when used with some novel ideas to induce fear. And once the ghostly business begins, there’s hardly a dull moment. Dauberman throws in some comic relief too, when a nerdy neighbor - the young Bob (Michael Cimino) besotted by Mary Ellen, tries to woo her, but gets caught in the crossfire.

Performance-wise, child star Mckenna Grace does a fine job with her restrained act even during the most horrific turn of events. Rest of the cast plays along well. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson have limited screen time, but with so much nonstop action, their absence is hardly felt. The Victorian setting of the Warren home and the subtle dark colours add oodles of spookiness to the proceedings. Overall, 'Annabelle Comes Home' is a textbook scarefest that delivers on its promise to haunt, without being complicated or preachy about Gods and demons.