A decent entry in the Conjuring Universe - 5.5/10

Verdict: Before getting into my review of the movie, I need to get something off my chest. I watched the newest entry in the Conjuring Universe on a Thursday afternoon, expecting a relatively not too crowded room. And even though there were slightly more people than I was expecting (about 25-30 moviegoers), I still thought that it was going to be a pleasant watch with not too many distractions. And boy was I wrong. People were taking pictures (with flash), screaming or laughing at every little loud noise in the movie, talking with each other out loud, taking phone calls and texting on their fully lit phones, turning on flashlights whenever they wanted to leave or enter the dark room... My viewing experience was an utter nightmare and it baffles me that there are still people that don't understand the most basic rules of courtesy in a movie theater.

Having said all that, I did manage to somehow enjoy what turned out to be a more than decent entry in the Conjuring Universe. It definitely wasn't perfect as it was dull at some moments and did rely a lot on jump scares, but I very much enjoyed the creepy atmosphere set by first-time director Gary Dauberman, whose camerawork was impressively effective at building tension in key moments of the film. The added possessed artifacts were a fun addition (despite the fact that they were most likely included in order to set up a bunch of spin-offs within the Universe), and the three main performances were mostly solid. The characters themselves sadly weren't as interesting as the ones portraying them and I had a hard time buying a lot of decisions they made.

"Annabelle Comes Home" for me was a clear improvement over "The Nun", "The Curse of La Llorona", or the first "Annabelle" film, but still was far from the quality of the two "Conjuring" movies. It was definitely flawed and never quite felt fresh, but it did what it was supposed to do in a pretty effective manner.