The latest entry into the Conjuring horror franchise, Annabelle Comes Home, introduces a curious timeline-based plot hole into the mix. Between Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring, James Wan is a man of many franchises. While he leaves the directing up to others now, having graduated onto blockbusters like Aquaman, he still stays active as a producer and sometimes writer on The Conjuring entries. This held true for Annabelle Comes Home, with Wan not only producing but writing the story alongside director Gary Dauberman.
If anyone would be able to keep the Conjuring universe’s timeline straight, one would think it would be Wan, but in this case, not even his involvement could keep Annabelle Comes Home from introducing a noticeable plot hole. To be fair, both the Conjuring franchise and its Annabelle sub-series tend to jump around to different time periods all the time. For example, the first Annabelle spinoff was a prequel to the events of The Conjuring, but was followed by Annabelle: Creation, which was a prequel to Annabelle. To add to the confusion, The Nun spinoff is set after Annabelle: Creation, but before The Conjuring. It’s enough to make a fan’s head spin.
Unfortunately, Annabelle Comes Home does nothing but add to the franchise’s timeline confusion by creating its own plot hole involving the first Conjuring film. As first noticed by Digital Spy, the beginning of Annabelle Comes Home screws things all up, time-wise. The film opens with another look at the scene where the Warrens come into possession of Annabelle, then take her back to their locked room full of haunted goods. This is specifically noted in The Conjuring as taking place in 1968. Annabelle Comes Home then cuts to one year after the Warrens acquired the possessed doll, setting the rest of the film in 1969. Only, that doesn’t make sense.
The bulk of the original Conjuring movie concerns the Warrens investigating the case of the Perron family, which is based on a purportedly real supernatural happening that took place in 1971. Yet, when the character of Daniela snoops around in the Warrens’ locked room of haunted and cursed objects early in Annabelle’s third outing, the music box the Warrens acquired during the Perron case is clearly seen. A music box they didn’t acquire until two years after the events of Annabelle Comes Home.
Obviously, someone only casually familiar with the Conjuring franchise might not think too much of this discrepancy, but many hardcore fans are sure to notice it, and once they do, they won’t be able to stop noticing it. While this type of timeline error by no means ruins Annabelle Comes Home as a film, it’s the type of thing that one hopes would be caught by the continuity department on a multi-million dollar studio franchise like this one. Perhaps there’s a deleted scene that would serve to clear up the error, or maybe there was a change during editing that caused the timeline weirdness. For now, the case of the time-traveling music box remains unsolved.
More: The Best Conjuring, Annabelle & Nun Movie Viewing Order
