Annabelle 3 Gets Title, Teaser Trailer, New Release Date
Home is where the abject terror is.
Warner Brothers and New Line have finally announced the title for the third entry in the Annabelle series, and it is as simple as it is ominous: Annabelle Comes Home. A very short, detail-free teaser trailer has also been released, revealing the flick's new release date of June 28, pushed up from the previously announced date of July 3. (via Collider)
The title of the film has been a mystery ever since it was announced in July of last year, but now that it's been revealed, it lines up perfectly with what we know about the plot. This time around, it'll reportedly be firmly centered on Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), whose spooky cinematic adventures began with James Wan's The Conjuring in 2013. This brief synopsis was released in November of last year: "Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her 'safely' behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest's holy blessing. But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target — the Warrens' ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends."
This makes Annabelle Comes Home the first film in the series to be set in the present day. The first, 2014's Annabelle, was set in the '60s and depicted the series of ghastly events which befell the Form family, Mia and John, after crossing paths with the doll; while not critically well-received, it made big bank at the box office, making a sequel a foregone conclusion. That sequel, 2017's Annabelle: Creation (directed by Lights Out's David F. Sandberg), reached back even further in time to the '50s to explore the origins of the possessed doll. Creation fared significantly better with critics and scared up even more cold, hard cash; Warner Brothers rewarded Sandberg with a plum gig directing Shazam!, the DC Extended Universe entry set to fly into theaters next month.
This time around, the creepy proceedings will be presided over by veteran Conjuring universe scribe Gary Dauberman, who will be making his directorial debut. Dauberman is about as hot a talent as there is in the horror genre at the moment; in addition to scripting the first two Annabelle flicks as well as Conjuring spin-off The Nun, he wrote 2017's It: Chapter One (currently the reigning all-time horror box office champ) and its sequel, which will be released in September of this year. He also penned the upcoming feature Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and is a credited writer on streamer DC Universe's soon-to-drop Swamp Thing series, which he is co-producing with The Conjuring and Aquaman director James Wan.
In addition to Wilson and Farmiga, the cast of Annabelle Comes Home includes hot young actress McKenna Grace as Judy. She was recently featured in a prominent role in the hit Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, and appeared as a younger version of Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, which is currently burning up the box office; it's safe to say that hers is a star on the rise. Also among the cast are Madison Iseman (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Emily Brobst (The Highwaymen), Katie Sarife (Twisted Sisters), and Stephen Blackehart (The Belko Experiment).
The Conjuring universe has proved to be a cash cow of the highest order for Warner Brothers and New Line. Each of the five modestly-budgeted films in the series has broken the $250 million dollar mark at the worldwide box office, racking up a grand total north of $1.5 billion dollars so far. The behind-the-camera presence of Dauberman, one of the architects of the entire enchilada, would seem to bode well for this latest entry, and there's more on the way: the as-yet-untitled Conjuring 3 is expected to hit theaters sometime in 2020.
Until then, get ready for one more go-round with your favorite demonically possessed porcelain doll (and if you have a second favorite, we're not sure we want to know about it). Annabelle Comes Home will have a bit of competition: it will open against fellow horror sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and the Child's Play reboot and Pixar's Toy Story 4 open the previous weekend. Somehow, though, we have a feeling it will acquit itself nicely.