The Tale of Annabelle

Welcome back to 2019's Month of Horror, and today we're looking at something from one of the most important horror franchises of recent years. The Conjuring was groundbreaking in the horror genre for making ghosts scary once more, and for being a genuinely good scary movie - although technically it could be rated PG-13 in the US it was deemed too scary so was given a R rating. One of the most iconic entities to come from the franchise, very loosely based off of real-life, is the doll Annabelle. Sceptics, like myself, doubt that Annabelle is anything other than a doll, spirit and doll enthusiasts love the story of the doll. Today we will look at the story of Annabelle, perhaps the world's most cursed doll. The inspiration for this post, and where I got some of my information from, is the fantastic Buzzfeed Unsolved video about the doll, which you can watch here. I would definitely recommend watching it. I have also used the Warrens' own website for information, you can find it here.

The Warrens and N.E.S.P.R

Lorraine and Ed Warren

To discuss Annabelle we have to discuss Ed and Lorraine Warren - the protagonists of The Conjuring and some of the other movie entries in the series. The Warrens were a Catholic couple from Connecticut who became a married couple of paranormal investigators and demonologists. According to Ed he grew up in a haunted house which, if true, would explain his future career, and Lorraine has apparently been a medium for years before becoming a paranormal investigator. In 1952 they formed the New England Society for Paranormal Research (NESPR) for them to undergo the research of alleged ghost, demon, and other supernatural phenomena. Among some of their stories, which unsurprisingly offer a plethora of plots for future The Conjuring movies, include fighting a spirit manifesting itself as a werewolf; the Smurl haunting where spirits and a demon sexually assaulted Jack and Janet Smurl; the Enfield Haunting, 'Britain's Amityville', (although their influence was not as much as presented in The Conjuring 2); and the most famous ghost story of the Amityville Haunting. Since the initial story of the Amityville haunting there have been a staggering 17 movies which feature it! The Warrens eventually opened a museum at their home in the 1980s which contains a range of possessed and demonic items ranging from a shadow doll that can infiltrate your dreams to a vampire's coffin. How real are these haunted items? Personally, I doubt it - I find it hard to believe that the Annabelle Doll cannot really be that dangerous if you can book a dinner with it - but others do believe that the Warrens have the largest collection of demonic items.

Annabelle

Unlike in the movies, Annabelle is not a porcelain doll, but instead a Raggedy Ann Doll - director James Wan changed her to a porcelain doll as she would look scarier. In 1970 a mother bought her daughter Donna a Raggedy Ann Doll; as Donna was graduating with a nursing degree it could possibly have been bought as a nostalgic gift. However, something was wrong with the doll. Her flat mate, Angie, and friend, Lou, got uneasy vibes from the doll, and the three soon realised something was not natural about it. The doll would be found in different poses, and seemed to move around the flat - sometimes they came home and found it behind closed doors. Then notes written in childish handwriting saying 'Help Us' and more disturbingly 'Help Lou' started appearing. A medium was called in who said that the doll was being possessed by the soul of a 7-year old girl called Annabelle Higgins who felt loved when she was in the doll. The caring flat mates granted Annabelle the right to stay, but that unleashed something far more sinister.

The paranormal activity became worse after they had given permission for Annabelle to stay. Lou woke up seemingly paralysed and found Annabelle crawling up to his face. She began strangling him and he passed out. The next day he was adamant that it was not a dream. The trio were preparing to go on a road trip, and Lou and Angie thought they heard an intruder. Lou entered a room to find Annabelle in the corner of the room; when he went to pick it up he developed seven deep claw marks on his chest which soon healed. They feared that Annebelle was much more than a possessed doll, so they called Father Hegan, a local priest, who managed to contact the Warrens for help.

The Warrens and the Doll

Lorraine with Annabelle

When the Warrens arrived they soon realised that the doll was not possessed at all - they said that human spirits can only possess actual humans, not objects. Instead the doll was possessed by a demon which was pretending to be a young girl to lull the students into trusting her. It had been manipulating the doll and creating the notes to create a negative atmosphere in the flat which it could feed on. The Warrens even said that the marks carved into Lou had been the Mark of the Beast. The demon was breaking them down so it could possess, or possibly kill, one or all three of them. Another two or three weeks it could have succeeded. A Catholic priest performed an exorcism and the Warrens took it away, but the demon tried to put up a fight. The Warrens' car kept swerving across the road until Ed did the sign of the cross and threw holy water onto the doll. At the home it kept moving around the house until Ed Warren built a specific case to house it in - a priest was called in to also bless the case. The doll still seemed to have power. Father Jason Bradford apparently said to the doll, 'You're just a doll Annabelle. You can't hurt anyone.' Later that night he was almost killed when his car was totalled. Another time a couple made fun of the doll until they were told to leave. They set off on their motorcycle, and when they were laughing about the doll the motorcycle apparently started losing control. They crashed and the boyfriend was killed. Even today, the doll's case bears a sign asking visitors not to touch it.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook page or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.