'Annabelle Comes Home' is a definite step in the right direction for 'The Conjuring Universe'. It's not great, but it's a huge step up from the likes of the first 'Annabelle' (2014), 'The Nun' (2018), and 'The Curse Of La Llorona' (2019), proving that there may still be some life in this 'universe' after all. The biggest reason for this is that, unlike the aforementioned films, it doesn't solely rely on predictable jump scares, signposted by lengthy periods of silence, for its frights. Instead, it actually tries to build a scary and tense atmosphere and, while this isn't as successful as it could have been, it's still far more effective than obvious jump scares every two seconds. In several instances it actually plays on your expectation of this too, building you up for a jump but then subverting it, which shows that perhaps Dauberman knows where the series has been going wrong. The three leads all give good performances as well and their characters actually have some development, which has been lacking in the franchise for a while, so you care about them a bit more and are therefore further invested in the narrative. Saying that, there is a lot of build up to the actual 'haunted house horror stuff' which brings a lot of fake outs in the first half and this can get a bit tedious. Also, as the story and stakes are extremely small-scale, the scares aren't as tight as they should be, and in the end it sort of feels more like an over-extended 'Conjuring' short than a full feature length 'Annabelle' sequel. Thankfully though, it's well-made and decently entertaining throughout thanks to Dauberman trying something different with the scares, and the good characters and performances. It does, however, get a little repetitive, isn't particularly 'scary', and in the end doesn't really amount to much, but thankfully it's far better than I was expecting and shows that this franchise isn't as dead as I thought. That end credits song is a really bizarre choice, though. 6/10