In the sprawling universe of The Conjuring , few objects are as deceptively mundane yet spiritually volatile as the television screen. While Annabelle Comes Home (2019) is ostensibly a haunted house film centered on a doll, its most unsettling sequences occur not in the darkness of a closet, but in the flickering glow of cathode-ray tubes. The film uses video not merely as a period-appropriate prop of the 1970s, but as a sophisticated narrative device that explores how recorded media acts as a conduit for grief, a trigger for supernatural intrusion, and a metaphor for the inescapable nature of trauma.
The film’s central thesis regarding video is established early through the character of Judy Warren (Mckenna Grace), the daughter of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Unlike her peers, Judy does not fear the dark; she fears the silence of the living room. In one crucial scene, she watches an old television broadcast featuring a medium. The screen is not just a source of information; it becomes a portal. When static—the visual representation of “dead air”—fills the screen, the Annabelle doll uses that white noise as a frequency to manifest. Here, director Gary Dauberman aligns video static with spiritual interference. The logic is terrifyingly simple: if ghosts manipulate energy to speak through radio static, why can’t they manipulate light to walk through television? annabelle 3 videa
The film’s most memorable sequence weaponizes the home movie. As Bob (Michael Cimino) and Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) search the Warrens’ artifact room, they inadvertently trigger a projector. The wall becomes a screen showing archival footage of the Warrens’ previous exorcisms. This is not exposition; it is a trap. The video lures the teenagers into a false sense of documentary safety—"this is just history"—until the images bleed into reality. The Ferryman, a ghost from the footage, steps off the wall and into the room. In this moment, Annabelle Comes Home argues that video is a snare. The past captured on film is not dead; it is merely waiting to be reanimated by the right combination of fear and belief. In the sprawling universe of The Conjuring ,
Furthermore, the film cleverly subverts the “found footage” genre it implicitly critiques. Unlike The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity , where the camera is a survival tool, the cameras in Annabelle Comes Home are catalysts for disaster. When Daniela (Katie Sarife) uses a Polaroid camera to document the artifact room, each flash does not illuminate safety; it announces her location to the demonic entities. The development of the photograph acts as a countdown. For a moment, the image reveals something that the naked eye cannot see—a ghost standing behind the viewer. This reversal of the camera’s purpose is brilliant: usually, we look at photos to remember the past. Here, the photos show the future attack. Video and photography become prophetic, stripping the characters of their agency. The film’s central thesis regarding video is established