Annabelle Comes Home stars reveal the movies that scared them

The Conjuring universe film Annabelle Comes Home will be toying with audience’s nerves when it is released June 26. But which horror movies have terrified the movie’s stars? Your writer put just that question to Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, and young actress McKenna Grace when EW visited the film’s set last year on the highly appropriate date of Oct. 31.

“I was forbidden to watch horror films as a child,” said Farmiga. “It wasn’t until my teen years in high school where I could get away and sneak into the theaters and pay for my own ticket. If you’re asking which do I appreciate? Repulsion. Polanski. The scares are more psychological. It’s about a woman whose mind is deteriorating, who’s going mad.”

“I sort of put them in times of my life,” said Wilson. “As a kid, I was terrified of Salem’s Lot because of the scratching on the window, and then I went back and watched it and it was like, okay, not so scary. The Shining does freak me out. Poltergeist, because I remember my house got robbed when I was away watching that film, so it’s always timed with that. Silence of the Lambs. I don’t scream in a horror movie, I look at it more like a thriller. So for me, probably Silence of the Lambs, because that’s something I can watch all the time, because it’s so good, it’s structured so well, they’re so good.”

“Favorite scary movie, The Shining,” said Mckenna Grace. “It’s not too scary, it’s more like a psychological scariness, which I really enjoyed. But I really love anything from the Conjuring or Annabelle universe. [Laughs] I just love scary movies!”

In Annabelle Comes Home, Grace plays Judy, the daughter of real-life alleged paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are portrayed by Wilson and Farmiga. The onscreen version of the couple brings the malevolent doll Annabelle back to their house, placing the toy in their room of haunted artifacts for safety. Alas, Annabelle is unleashed thanks to Katie Sarife’s Daniela — a friend of Judy’s babysitter (Madison Iseman) — who recently lost her father.

“Annabelle’s presence causes all these other things to come to life,” says the film’s writer and director, Gary Dauberman. “Annabelle is the orchestrator of the madness.”

Watch the trailer for Annabelle Comes Home, above.

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