A babysitting gig goes awry in ‘Annabelle’

A babysitting gig goes awry in ‘Annabelle’

“Annabelle Comes Home”

Rating: R for horror violence and terror. R

Running time: 2:00 Grade: Two and a half stars out of four.

By JAKE COYLE

AP Film Writer

If movie theaters are starting to feel as cluttered as a kid’s play room, that pileup is nothing compared to the growing collection of movies from the extended Conjuring-verse. There have been eight films in the franchise in the last six years, with offshoots for “The Nun” and “The Curse of La Llorona.”

Almost as a rule, the “Conjuring” movies are slavishly devoted to horror clich s, and it can feel like they’re simply going down a list: Creaking doors, check. Possessed playthings, check. Lots of crosses, check. How about a ghoulish bride? You got it.

Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) leave their 10-year-old daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) in the hands of her teenage baby sitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Judy is a sweet young kid who has inherited some her mother’s spirit senses but, due to her parents’ reputation, is shunned by many of her classmates.

She and Mary Ellen are having a fine time together, but trouble comes in the form of Mary Ellen’s friend, Daniela (Katie Sarife), who shows up uninvited and mischievously curious about the Warrens’ work. She’s also hiding her own grief, having recently lost her father in a car accident. Yearning for some connection to what’s beyond the grave, she’s drawn intractably to the locked room and, naturally, to Annabelle.

You can pretty much guess how things go from there. Pandora’s box gets opened and the three girls suddenly find themselves in a haunted house teeming with all manner of terrors.

Gary Dauberman, making his directing debut after scripting the previous “Annabelle” films and the hit Stephen King adaptation “It,” patiently lets things unspool, soaking up the night’s dim and foggy atmosphere and the ’70s wallpaper while steadily increasing the number of jump scares.

What makes “Annabelle Comes Home” rise above its well-trod narrative are the actresses and Dauberman’s sensitive attention to each of them. Grace, in particular, is a standout with an obvious maturity beyond her years. And Sarife artfully combines a teenager’s rebelliousness with heartache.

It’s never much in doubt how things will turn out. The evil will, once again, be “contained.” That’s what makes “Annabelle Comes Home” and some of its “Conjuring” ilk oddly soothing. “All the evil in here reminds me of all the good out there,” Lorraine says of the Warrens’ room of artifacts. But she’s also articulating the underlying heart and ethos of these horror films. I’m not so sure. Out here, it takes more than a display case and a prayer to lock evil away.