Ep. 023: Annabelle Comes Home 2019

What else did you touch? … Everything. In our spooky Episode 023 of Horror Movie Weekly, your three late-night Horror hosts, Jay of the Dead, BillChete and Lady Phantom bring you a creepy review of Annabelle Comes Home (2019). We also award our two Blu-ray winners, and we briefly discuss Joker (2019) and The Turning (2020). Oh, and this week’s host intros were written by listener and friend of the show, Star Nerd! Join us!

On Horror Movie Weekly, your late-night Horror hosts Jay of the Dead, BillChete and Lady Phantom bring you one recent Horror movie review every Sunday. (We’re defining “recent” as any Horror movie released within the last five years.) And we always reveal next week’s pick at the end of every show, so you can watch along with us and be prepared for the following episode. Join us, and thanks for listening!


SHOW NOTES:

Introduction
— Host intros written by Star Nerd
— The loss of Kobe Bryant
— Grammy Awards and happy birthday to Gillman Joel Robertson
— Our website now has an Episode Archive
— Joker (2019)
— Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
— The Turning (2020)
– Lady Phantom’s pick for this week: Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Annabelle (2019) — Genre Classification: Horror / Supernatural / Evil Creepy Doll

Premise:
Ed and Lorraine Warren leave for a short trip, so they hire a babysitter to stay with their daughter, Judy. But the babysitter’s mischievous friend frees Annabelle from her protective case, unleashing all the evil that surrounds the doll…

Ratings and Recommendations: Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Jay of the Dead = 6 ( Rental )
BillChete = 5 ( Buy for 17 and under / Avoid for 18 and up )
Lady Phantom = 9 ( Buy it! )

Blu-ray Contest Winners:
Daybreakers (2009) = Fiendish Fitz
Otis (2008) = Chris Cook
Winners, email your mailing address to [email protected].

Next on Episode 024: Gretel and Hansel (2020) — Jay of the Dead’s pick!

Podcast artwork: Lady Phantom
Original podcast theme music: Jay of the Dead


Links for this episode:

Jay recommends these two new episodes from Considering the Cinema:
Ep. 018: Best Picture Overview and Dr. Shock’s Video Store Nostalgia
Ep. 019: The Turning and Countdown

Don’t forget to check out our episode archive: HorrorMovieWeekly.com/archive/

Don’t miss the recent Top 10 shows:
— NEW: The Top 10 Movies of the 2010s Decade – All Genres
— Jay of the Dead on Movie Podcast Weekly’s Top 10 Movies (All Genres) of 2019
— Jay of the Dead’s Top 10 Horror Movies of 2019 with special guest Lady Phantom!
— Jay of the Dead’s The Top 10 Horror Movies of the 2010s Decade, with special guests GregaMortis and Ron Martin!
— Jay of the Dead on Movie Podcast Weekly’s Top 10 Movies (All Genres) of 2019

Follow Horror Movie Weekly on Twitter: @horror_weekly
Website: Horror Movie Weekly.com

Follow Lady Phantom on Twitter: @LadyPhantom74

Jay of the Dead’s film blog / solocast: ConsideringTheCinema.com
Jay’s HORROR-only content: ConsideringHorrorCinema.com

Pyles Digital Media Podcast Production Services: Email Natalie at [email protected]


RECENT COMMENTS FROM OUR LISTENERS


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Lady Phantom
Lady Phantom
4 years ago

Eeeeeeeveryyyythiiiiinggggggg

Tony Smith
Tony Smith
4 years ago

Thank you Jay of the dead for using my words to introduce the hosts! I’m grinning from ear to ear so again thank you JOTD 🤘

Ps. Thank all you guys I’m glad you guys liked it.

Tony Smith aka Star Nerd 🌟

Lady Phantom
Lady Phantom
4 years ago
Reply to  Tony Smith

Thank you, Tony. It was really kind of you.

Lady Phantom, aka the queen of all phantoms.

Tony Smith
Tony Smith
4 years ago
Reply to  Lady Phantom

Haha i love it!!

Sean Smith
Sean Smith
4 years ago

Another great episode. This movie did not make my best of or honorable mentions lists for 2019, but I do own the blu ray and am a fan the Conjuring universe. There are many things to like about this movie. I enjoyed the way they explored the various artifacts in the room and how the haunting manifestations are realized. I liked the characters and performances and of course the Warrens. Totally agree about Vera and Patrick playing these characters. You can’t get enough of them, but they purposefully leave you wanting more. As usual, the technical aspects are all very impressive. It’s visual tone changes as the story progresses and the effect is very creepy.

I agree with Jay 100% in the ending of this movie is too upbeat. Every character is in this super happy state of mind and that’s great for a comedy, but it is unusual for a horror movie. There doesn’t have to be fatalities in order to be legitimate. The Warrens didn’t see many deaths in their cases. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and would stick with my original 6.5/10 and a rental recommendation.

Fyi, The Joker contained some of the most violent scenes I saw last year. The downward spiral of mental decay is pretty horrific. The killings themselves are quite brutal. The slasher sequence in the apartment, the subway executions and of course the point blank shot to the face contain more violence than 90+% of the so called correctly classified “horror” movies I saw in 2019.

Gretel & Hansel has nice costume design and visual aesthetic. Those are the only good things about this movie. It is a super slow burn with no payoff unfortunately. Os Perkins did The Blackcoat’s Daughter, but this movie is no where close to that one. It is a disappointment and further adds to the January shlock of bad horror movies in 2020. I really hope Fantasy Island can change this in a couple of weeks. Thanks Phantom, Bill and Jay and have a great week!

Lady Phantom
Lady Phantom
4 years ago
Reply to  Sean Smith

Hi Sean! I do love the Conjuring universe. And yes, the ending was pretty upbeat, but not all the endings in this universe have been bleak. It’s unusual for a horror movie, true. For a CU movie, not that much.

I wouldn’t count the subway deaths… maybe one. The others were cool and violent, but once again, Game of Thrones has 1000% more violence, and it doesn’t make it horror. But we’ll talk about that with Jay in his podcast one of these days.

I should have remembered that Gretel and Hansel was done by the same director who did The Blackcoats Daughter. I do remember that it was hard to follow, and I wasn’t a fan, really…

Sean Smith
Sean Smith
4 years ago

Good evening Phantom! Game of Thrones you say? Yes the TV show that has featured actual stalk and slash sequences, rape/revenge story lines and oh yeah, the undead who want to destroy humanity, but it’s not horror. It’s a simple sword and sandal fantasy show. I’m being facetious of course, but I really do think that horror is in the eye of the beholder and so then horror genre classification follows along those lines.

If a person wants to say that Tigers Are Not Afraid is a horror movie, I’m not going to agree because their is no prior evil, no revenge element, no supernatural/haunting elements, no zombies, no beastly freaks, no siege element, no home invasion etc. There are no horror tropes in this film and the violence comes from a pistol. However, if the film is a horror movie for the person who views it, who am I to say it’s not? I am in no position to invalidate that person’s experience with that movie. I say Joker is a horror movie, you don’t agree, but that doesn’t make it not a horror movie. Frankly, I wouldn’t even want to change your opinion on what is horror and what isn’t. I’m glad you don’t think Joker is horror. It means that I view movies differently than you and we all don’t need to have the same experience. It means that movies are getting better, when the argument revolves around genre classification and not story or entertainment value or the quality of performances. It means we are enjoying some of the most original and rich film making in any era of cinema.

At the end of the day, I’m just happy that a film like Joker exists and that I was able to see it in the theater. It is one of the very best movies of 2019 and deserves to be praised. Thank you for your comments!

Lady Phantom
Lady Phantom
4 years ago
Reply to  Sean Smith

Yeah, you’re right. The beauty of all this is that we are all different, and can have the same or different opinions on stuff.
As for Game of Thrones, I’m aware of all the “horror elements.” The thing is, they’re not the main thing. I can’t think of a more gory death than Oberyn Martell’s right now, but the episode was not about that. It was Tyrion’s plight. The point of episode 9 of season 1 was not that Ned Stark got beheaded, but that from there, you could see no one was safe and the game was way more than that. What u want to say is, all the horror serves the drama, but it’s not there to scare you. GoT is my favorite series of all time, but I call it a fantasy drama.
Anyway, I love when we agree, but disagreeing also gives us plenty to talk about. That’s the beauty of all this.

Sam from Snomonton
Sam from Snomonton
4 years ago

I’m not the biggest fan of the conjuring universe, but I really enjoyed this movie, minus the happy ending. Lady phantom, I am glad you enjoyed it as much as you did! I thought it did a great job of being creepy despite there being no consequences. I loved the girls in this, I felt they were great together. I saw it in theatres and haven’t revisited since, but I rated it a 7.5*. I think Bill rating it a 5 is actually higher than I thought it would be.

And I would not consider Joker a horror movie, Dark… very much so! Which is why I loved it. My number 4 movie of the year. Behind Dragged Across Concrete, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, and Parasite.

I loved Once… ! I was digging it from start to finish. And I think the tenseness of the whole Ranch scene was brilliant. I loved the cut scenes featuring Brad. Leo was brilliant, and the duo of them for so well. Ending was perfect.

Gretel and Hansel was easily the most bored I have ever been in a movie theatre. 3*. Which is a shame because I thought all the actors were great and did a great job for what was given them. Just Nothing was happening. I usually do not mind most art house type movies. But this, this was awful.

Lady Phantom
Lady Phantom
4 years ago

I did love Annabelle. I don’t see the happy ending as a bad thing, seeing as the whole movie was so tense. I know it has shortcomings, but I don’t think they affect the movie much. If you get spooked by supernatural stuff, it works.

I liked Joker, just not much. I think I’m finally putting my finger on why that is, and if we do go on Jay’s podcast, I’ll say why. It’s dark, no doubt, in the same sense that Happiness was dark.

Once upon a time… was SO great. Nuanced and subtle. Both Leo and Brad were impossibly good. I wish they both would win an Oscar, but I know it’s hard. It’s just that Leo’s performance was so on point and contained… and the ending!!! That’s the movie I never know I needed. I loved it!

GraveRobert
GraveRobert
4 years ago

Another great episode! I need to be more active in the comments on this site.
What I love most about the show is how unpredictable the hosts are, I can never guess how the conversations are going to go for each movie, so it keeps it exciting for me. I missed listening to hosts debate with Jay, and sometimes put him in his place haha. No disrespect to Jay (He’s one of my favorite podcasters), but sometimes he needs a little bit of that tough love 😀

I liked Annabelle Comes Home, but I still love Annabelle Creation much more over this (It’s my favorite Conjuring Universe movie so far).

I’m looking forward to the next episode to hear your thoughts on Gretel and Hansel, because I still don’t know how I feel about the movie, but I keep thinking about it, so there must be something there….