Edit Bay Visit: We Talk Annabelle Comes Home with Gary Dauberman!

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Dolls are scary. For many, this is just a simple fact. The way their eyes watch your every move. Or when they make those creepy little noises that sound like a disembodied ghost of a child. Simply put, there is a reason many people have a fear of dolls. And now we have one of the most terrifying dolls of all thanks to The Conjuring Universe. With an appearance in THE CONJURING, as well as her own franchise, this spirited little plaything is back with ANNABELLE COMES HOME. Arriving in theatres on June 26th, the sequel brings a bit of familiarity to the franchise, and as the title suggests, brings this lovely doll back to where she has spent a majority of time… in Ed and Lorraine Warren’s collection.

Ed and Lorraine bring Annabelle home

Last year, a group of journalists gathered together for some spooky viewing as we were given an early look at the new film. ANNABELLE COMES HOME writer and director Gary Dauberman was in attendance to discuss his latest. And more importantly, give us a glimpse at what appears to be another scary chapter in this cinematic universe. The first scene we were shown gave us a couple of familiar faces, as both Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return for a moment to help scare the crap out of fans. While on the road, the Warren’s must take an unscheduled detour with their new friend sitting in the backseat. You can see part of this sequence in the new trailer, but you probably guessed that something more happens than what is revealed. It’s one hell of an opening that fans will probably enjoy quite a bit.

Once the doll arrives home, we find that the focus of the film is on Judy Warren (Mckenna Grace), her babysitter Mary Allen (Madison Iseman) and Mary’s friend Daniella (Katie Sarife). And this time, the frights take place in one night. After getting a taste of the return of Ed and Lorraine, Mr. Dauberman sat down to discuss Vera and Patrick, brining the story back around to their daughter, and what we can expect when it comes to scares, mood and what nightmarish horrors Annabelle has to share. After the scene, Gary took a few questions and expanded on the initial premise behind ANNABELLE COMES HOME.

Gary Dauberman: [In regards to the plot] Once the doll arrives home, the focus is on Judy Warren, their daughter, and her babysitter Mary Allen and her friend Daniella.

[There are] hints at what Judy's going through during the movie, of just what it must be like to be the daughter of Ed and Lorraine Warren which is something I thought a lot about as I was writing it. As a kid, we would be anything but different and when you have parents like Lorraine, it's hard not to be looked at as different.

For me, there's kind of a HALLOWEEN vibe going on here, the original film. I'm feeling just the mood and the idea of it revolving around a babysitter and on one night.

That's the best thing you could ever say to me so thanks… [Laughing]

You got it!

That's one of my favorite horror movies of all time, you know the course of the movie takes place in the course of one night. A lot like Halloween, so, it has that same kind of build. You know what I mean, where we're sort of building towards something and we get some character moments early on and people get settled in. And then we're off to the races kind of thing.

I thought that was a just sort of unique take that we haven't done yet in The Conjuring Universe. A sort of, really sort of confined sense of time, as opposed to over a week or couple of days, or a couple of nights. It's just from a day in the life, and night in the life of our girls. 

So how integral is the parent child dynamic to this film because it seems to be something that's like, at the essence of almost all THE CONJURING films.

Yeah, its pretty important. It’s Judy trying to sort of, you know, wrestle with who her parents are and how they are being viewed. As we learned in THE CONJURING 2, not everybody believes what they do, or think they're… In THE CONJURING, they're called the kooks. And they're her parents. They're the ones who make her go to bed on time, and love her and all that stuff. So, I think that's got to be so tough for a kid. And as more and more people start to discover what they do it just gets harder and harder for her so it's really about … Will she come to accept what they do? Kind of asking those questions. It's pretty centric. 

How much are you using of the Warren’s actual story in this? How much reality of their life with their daughter are you putting into this or is it completely fictionalized? 

I don't, you know, it's… I talked to Judy a lot, the actual Judy Moore when she came on set, just what it was like to be their daughter and what, they were gone all the time. I think about it in terms of my own kids and stuff. Just being away a lot and just f*cking stuff you deal with as a parent. 

There are things, like I wrote that scene in the car where I wanted to see them just as parents or just as a married couple as opposed to these paranormal investigators that we see in any other movies, and see what that relation was like. I wrote the scene about Ed's poor sense of direction, before I learned from Judy, that Ed had a terrible sense of direction. That's a conversation they would have. She remembers that a lot. I wanted to ask about the things that I couldn't find out in the books. The countless books that have been written on them and by them. The fact that they love diners. They would seek out what's the best diner in town. Things like that. I love that they felt that I was getting secrets or something that they didn't know our people knew. There's a nice peep behind the curtain of what their family life is like. Yeah.

That's cool.

Yeah, but it was great to actually spend time in their house. The movie takes place in their house and hopefully becomes it's own kind of character. Instead of a horror movie in the Warren house, there was a lot you could do and there's a lot to add its own set of challenges and limitations too. 

So, we've seen that scene with Lou and the original owners of Annabelle, speaking to Ed and Lorraine like several times in the Annabelle movies but we haven't really gotten the real story behind them. So, is that going to be any more relevant now?

The nurses? You talking about the nurses?

Yeah, the nurses.

Yeah. I feel like we got that. I personally feel like we got told that story in the opening of THE CONJURING. They kind of just did that with the interview with the Warrens and stuff.

So you're not planning to ever fill in that more?

No. That just kind of kicks us off. I felt like the story we didn't hear about was the ride home and bringing it all home. Because there was, a couple events that happened while they were on their way home that we wanted to sort of dig into.

How much more will we see of what you just revealed to us about the ride home?

That scare goes on for a bit.

Cool.

We got to see. I remember as a kid falling asleep, you're in bed and, when your parents are out for the night. You're hearing the squeak of the brakes and you kind of sit up and you’re sort of woken up out your slumber and you can see your parents coming, and you can hear the hushed whispers and stuff. I thought like, "Oh that's interesting!" What if you ever poked your head out and they were f*cking bringing this doll home. What must that be like through the child's point of view from Judy. And that's something that happened to her quite a bit right, with not just a doll but all the artifacts. So, we get to see what that's like. That sort of helps kick off the rest of the movie. 

How much time have you actually spent with the real doll?

The actual-actual Annabelle doll?

Yeah.

Uh oh. Uh-uh, no. 

I'm just dying to see it that's all!

Um, I'm going to go. I've decided early on in this process, working on these movies to go after the movies are over. Yeah, I don't know if I ever… like is she pissed at me? Is she happy with the notoriety? I don't know. I don't know if I want to attempt to stay there.

This is your first time directing, as well as writing so how different is it to be able to bring your own vision to life?

Well … The short answer is, very different. But it was my time to be a short hand with the writer because, I could, I didn't have to be so different in the script because I could just email the people that needed to be in. The script felt like an on-going conversation with myself with these sort of fleshed out ideas, and as these great collaborators come on board like, Burgess. Michael Burgess the V.P. Of course, working with James Wan, and Peter Safran, and the guys at New Line, and Atomic Monster. It just feels like, and it always feels like an ongoing conversation, but sooner or later the director always in the past has taken over the conversation so to steer it towards the, whatever they want it as their point of view, and this time I was able to sort of just, keep chugging along on my own. Which was nice.

What has James' involvement been in this? I know that he created all of this, but how much did he step in with this film in particular?

He's always very involved from the story stand point. From the get-go we talked about the initial idea. He's reading scripts. He's having ideas. He comes to set. He comes to the edit room. He's always very involved. This worked out to my benefit, because he was back from Australia. You guys were back whenever you were back, well last year I guess. He was finishing editing while I was shooting, so it was great because they’re editing here a lot. So it was like, “James, what do I do?!" Whatever. But he's just super-super involved. More stars of the franchise.

I assume you're sticking with an “R" with this one. 

I'll be honest with you. I don't know. We're not at that stage yet, so they gotta watch it and then they, you know…

Do you go gory with it? I mean the last one with an R was pretty gruesome. Like what happened with Miranda Otto's character.

Yeah, it was pretty f*cking gory.

Yeah, that was really f*cking gory!

We don't shy. If it calls for it we'll go blight. If there's blood, I like a lot of it. So we'll see what happens with the rating when it comes to that stuff. It's very, that is a science I don't understand when it comes to rating movies.

Neither do they I don't think.

Yeah, I'll be fine with whatever as long as it comes out.

Exactly!

Daniella Gets Spooked!

After the conversation, we went back to watch yet another sequence in the film. This one involves Daniella, and a death that has occurred in her family. While at the house, she makes it clear that she is very interested in what the Warren’s do. Thus, while making herself a guest of the home with Mary Allen, she makes her way into the room with the Warren’s haunted collection. While there, she comes face to face with someone familiar to her. However, like much of what we find in The Conjuring Universe, it’s something that is far more sinister than what she expected. The scene is certainly creepy, yet it also has an underlying heartbreak to it. Yes, this definitely feels close to what we’ve come to expect from THE CONJURING in the best of ways. After the footage, the conversation continued.

I like that you let there be things in the background that we already get to see. You're not relying solely on jump scares. Obviously there's that, too, but first we get the atmospheric buildup. 

Yeah, that's something that was important to me. I know it's just an aesthetic, something that James does so well. Because we have such a varied selection of artifacts, we were able to do that with our scares, too. You know, sometimes a jump scare, sometimes just do something creepy, sometimes don't do any at all, which is nice, too. So yeah, we get to play around with, hopefully, more of the less expected rhythms and setup and punches or of scares. 

When we were on THE CONJURING 2 set visit, we saw the scene with all the crosses turning upside down. And it was all done practical. I'm getting a sense that you're going the practical route for this, for much of it. 

Yeah, that's something that's really important to me, and James, and everybody, and Peter. I just go practical when you can and do it, do CG when you can't. I really wanted to just get a feel where it's more real and I don't know, I just prefer that. It also helps on the day too, you know. When someone's watching the footage in there and you get a reaction that's sort of video village or something, oh okay, that feel like, moving on. We're good.  So that's always nice as opposed to going like, it'll work once we get all the stuff in. Which is nice. For first time filming goes, you know, it's always great too. 

How do the actual Warrens feel about you guys adding things that aren't actual facts, and kind of just doing it for the movie? Are they on board with that?

They're on board. I mean, I wouldn't want to do anything to upset them. They've been so great to us, and I think we've been pretty good to them in terms of just getting their story out there. So it's been a nice back-and-forth. But they're very open to that stuff and, you know, they'll certainly share the real story with us, and I think that, I guess it will get people to ask them those questions where they can share the real story with them or what happened and all that. I think there hasn't been any issues on that, at all. You know, thank God.

What is the most… I know obviously you can't say, but is there one thing that you really wanted to accomplish in this film that you were able to do?

You know, overall what I wanted… I really like moments of levity in my horror movies, because I feel like that it's scary… it's much scarier, because you have that much more distance to go, if that makes sense at all? So that was something I was really hoping I could achieve. Just having some bits of humor before we can get them scared. For me the best thing is if we can get them laughing and then right away it's just BOOM you hit them with a scare.

So I'm not a huge fan of horror comedies, but I like comedy in my own horror. So that was something I just wanted to try to get at, and sneak in where I could. So I think there's a couple moments where I've managed to do that.