Yahoo News Annabelle Comes Home: Everything you need to know
The team crafting The Conjuring universe shows no sign of slowing down, as scary doll Annabelle will be creeping back into cinemas this summer.
Director/producer James Wan has said he'd be up for bringing all the spooky characters together in an Avengers-style mash-up movie, but as we await that super-evil-team-up, we have the third Annabelle movie to tide us over.
Here's everything you need to know.
Annabelle Comes Home release date: When's it out?
The creepy threequel will be released in cinemas on June 28 in the US and July 10 in the UK, ahead of the expected release of The Conjuring 3 in 2020
We also now have an official title for the movie: Annabelle Comes Home.
On June 28, #AnnabelleComesHome pic.twitter.com/yrdmXA0Vuu
- WBHorrorUK (@WBHorrorUK) March 18, 2019
Annabelle Comes Home trailer: When can we expect it?
The creepy first trailer for Annabelle Comes Home landed on March 31, teasing that the Warren household will be tormented by more than just Annabelle.
"The doll, it's a beacon for other spirits," says Lorraine Warren ominously, which is just what you want to hear.
And we got another creepy trailer for the threequel on May 28 that showed more of the Warrens.
Not to mention more Annabelle hijinks.
Annabelle Comes Home plot: What's it about?
The first two films have already given us some lore about the possessed doll. Annabelle (2014) described a cult member with the same name who killed her parents before slitting her own throat while holding the doll.
Annabelle: Creation (2017) then acted as a prequel to Annabelle (itself a prequel to The Conjuring), establishing that the doll was already super haunted way before those events. That's thanks to the dollmaker and his wife, who invited the spirit of their dead daughter into the toy, only to find out it was really a demon that possessed the doll.
The cult member from the previous film turns out to be a girl possessed by that demon, 12 years later. It was a little bit of a movie retcon, but it worked.
The ScareDiego event at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 revealed that the third Annabelle movie is a sequel to the 2014 movie Annabelle (although confusingly it's still technically a prequel, as it's set before the first Conjuring movie).
The official synopsis for the movie was released in November 2018 and fit with the rumours about the movie's plot, centred around the Warrens' daughter and her babysitter.
"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," it read.
"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 is the Warrens picking up where they bring Annabelle home after we see that in The Conjuring, after they visit the nurses' apartment. It happens a little while after that, so they bring it home and they're aware of the doll's evil, and sort of worry about her presence among the other artifacts. So before Conjuring 2, after [the beginning of] Conjuring," writer Gary Dauberman told CinemaBlend.
Related: The Conjuring Universe explained
"It's really bringing Annabelle back home... It's the artefact room; it's the Warren's house so it's sort of in suburbia. It's a horror movie happening inside the Warren's house where there's this room in their basement that houses all these kinds of evil and horror. So we kind of have a lot of fun and a lot of scares with that."
While the movie starts after the prologue of The Conjuring, the movie will then move forward a year after The Conjuring.
"It all takes place over the course of one night, involving [the Warrens'] daughter Judy, her babysitter, and the babysitter's best friend (Katie Sarife)," explained producer Peter Safran.
Because of the setting, Wan has teased that the threequel "feels more like a Conjuring film" compared to the others.
Annabelle Comes Home cast: The Warrens are back
The plot outline teased that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga were going to be back as Ed and Lorraine Warren and it was confirmed in October 2018 that the duo would reprise their roles.
In early November, Wilson revealed to Digital Spy that he'd finished working on the threequel, only a couple of weeks into filming, so don't expect them to have a major role.
Their daughter Judy Warren has been recast for the threequel with Marvel star Mckenna Grace taking over from Sterling Jerins in the role.
Katie Sarife has also landed a lead role as Daniela, the friend of Judy's cousin and babysitter Mary Ellen, who will be played by Jumanji star Madison Iseman.
Related: The 15 scariest horror movie dolls ever, from Chucky to Puppet Master
Annabelle Comes Home is released on June 28 in the US and July 10 in the UK.
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