With the horror genre on the rise due to Halloween getting closer, ‘Annabelle Comes Home’ gets lost in the mix with its generic and unoriginal story.

            This film marks the directing debut of Gary Dauberman, who also wrote the screenplay. He has previous writing credits on both It movies, but his talent is lacking with this project.

            My main problem with this film was the lazy writing. Modern horror movies fall prey to cheap jump scares, and this was no exception. It builds scene after scene up for a jump scare with loud, startling music. At least some films scare you with cheap jump scares, but this film is not scary.

            One character who falls victim, not to any scary spirits, but to unoriginal writing and cliché plot points is Daniela. Because of the unintelligent writing, Daniela was unlikable, which made it hard to root for them.

            One positive aspect of this film is that it brings back Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in their roles as Ed and Loraine Warren from the Conjuring series. Annabelle Comes Home is automatically better when these two actors are on screen, so it’s sad that they did not have a more prominent role.

            The film is centered around Ed and Loraine’s daughter, played by Mckenna Grace. Grace is an amazing childhood star who continues to shine in every film she works on. She does not disappoint in this movie.

            What makes the Conjuring series so good is that the filmmakers make you care about the characters in the movie. They set up a story around the characters so when we need to care, we do. This film, and all the other spin-offs, do not set the characters up for success.

            The filmmakers are too concerned with making you jump that they forget to tell a compelling story along the way.

            If you like the easy jump scares found in basic horror films, or just basic movies in general, you will probably like this one. It has a lot of potential, but it does not deliver.

Because the Warrens keep items in their house that have spirits attached to them, there are various spirits in the movie. I found a few to be less enjoyable than some. There is a selection of spirits that you can also find pleasing rather than just having one that is mediocre.