Get ready to be scared out of your seats on June 28 as the sinister doll from the Conjuring universe is all set to return to the big screen with “Annabelle Comes Home”. This is the third installment of New Line Cinema’s hugely successful “Annabelle” films which will be released pan India by Warner Bros Pictures in English Hindi Tamil and Telugu.
Gary Dauberman, the screenwriter of the “Annabelle” films, “IT” and the upcoming “IT Chapter Two,” and “The Nun,” makes his directorial debut on the film, which is produced by Aquaman producer Peter Safran who has produced all the films in the “Conjuring” franchise, along with “Conjuring” universe creator James Wan who has produced the last five films’s under his Atomic Monster banner.
The story on this Annabelle outing has demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (reprised by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) 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 in order to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc. But, a year later, an unholy night of horror awaits the Warrens’ ten-year-old daughter, Judy, and her friends after a visit to the room awaken Annabelle…and all the evil spirits residing there.
Ed and Lorraine’s daughter Judy is played by actress Mckenna Grace. Talking about her character, she says, “My character has powers kind of like her mom; she can see visions, and I think she is a little insecure about it, because it’s very frightening, seeing all these images in her head. Or maybe they’re not just in her head. She is also dealing with being a little ostracized at school as the community is just now getting a sense of what her parents do via their work being written up in the local newspapers. She feels a bit like an outcast because kids at school tease her or don’t want to be her friend.”
Grace herself is very involved at school and, in fact, she says, “I found out I got the role while I was at cheerleading practice and I had to sit out for a minute. I knew it was going to be challenging because there’s a lot of crying and screaming…basically the whole movie. But I was so excited!”
Part of her enthusiasm stemmed from being a huge fan of the genre herself. “My dad and I like to watch horror movies together on weekends, and I just think that they’re really good and James Wan is a genius. I really like the adrenaline. Beforehand, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is going to be so scary, I’m so excited but I’m scared.’ And then afterward you can laugh and think, ‘Wow, that was crazy, I want to watch it again!’”
