Starring: McKenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson

Directed by Gary Dauberman

Warner Bros., out now

 

Doll Annabelle is kept in a secure cabinet to prevent her from being a conduit to evil spirits, but when a mourning daughter wants to speak to her recently-deceased father, all hell is let loose.

Judging by the screams of the young audience watching this movie tonight, the latest instalment in the Conjuring universe’s Annabelle sequence hits the mark. And I’d concur that Gary Dauberman, making his directorial debut after creating the Swamp Thing TV series and writing IT, has fashioned a well-oiled ghost train of a movie. As well as having written the best forgotten The Nun and the two previous Annabelle instalments in 2014 and 2017, the director knows the ropes and tropes of crash-bang jump scare movies.

Of course, there’s nothing new here, not just because I’m jaded by my 40-plus years of watching horror movies, but also for those who have only been following product created this century. It follows a tried and oft-repeated formula. Everyone does really dumb things and deserves what they get, apart from McKenna Grace (the young Theo in The Haunting of Hill House) who is saddled with ineffective babysitters. The jumps are not subtle, and you know they’re coming, but they are loud and very effective.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as The Conjuring’s ghostbusters, the Warrens, but they’re soon out of the picture, leaving the young cast to cope with the terrifying doll, a knife-wielding bride, and various other nasties. But as intense as it gets (and the final scenes are full-on) there’s never a sense of sadism or mean spiritedness. Yes, we’re meant to be scared as the various traps are sprung on us, but it’s meant to be fun, and it really is.

Verdict: A third entry in the Conjuring spin-off series might have been a sequel too far, and I wonder where else you could take this demonic doll, but this far better than you might fear, and it absolutely does what it promises, making this old horror pro jump more than once. 8/10

Nick Joy

Click here to read our review of Joseph Bishara’s soundtrack