We’ve all heard our share of urban legends. Countless ghost stories have been told around campfires on dark nights for century upon century. These tales have formed the basis for innumerable horror novels and films. However, these tales are sometimes rooted in truth. The facts may have become distorted over the years or changed entirely in the case of some films. Even then, the notion that there is at least some kernel of truth to these tales tends to make them that much more eerie… and that much more compelling.

While many viewers enjoy these films simply for being horror, there’s little doubt that the words “Based on a true story” have some sort of magnetic pull on many filmgoers or they wouldn’t have been used so many times. Even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre claimed that “What happened is true.” However, unlike Leatherface, today’s horror icon actually exists, although she does look much different than her screen counterpart. 

Melody Vena returns to the Halloween Horrors series today, having become an annual contributor since her debut back in 2018. Over the years, Melody has treated us to her thoughts on Trick R Treat and smashed It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, among other topics. This year, she joins us for this look at the 2014 film that introduced the film world to another pint-sized terror, 2014’s Annabelle.

 

In Santa Monica, California, John Form, a medical student, gifts his expectant wife, Mia, an extraordinary vintage porcelain doll, to be displayed in their daughter’s nursery collection.

The night is shattered by the terrifying sounds of their neighbors, The Higgins’, home invasion, leaving Mia and John in a state of utter terror. Amid the chaos, they are attacked by the Higgins’ killers, leaving them fighting for their lives. The police arrive to find one killer dead and the other taking her own life in a gruesome act of desperation. The truth behind the attack is later revealed to be rooted in a twisted family drama involving the Higgins’ daughter, Annabelle, and her cultist boyfriend.

In the aftermath of the assault, a chain of blood-curdling paranormal events occurred at the Forms’ residence, sending chills down their spines. Following the birth of Leah, a healthy baby girl, the family relocated to a Pasadena apartment, but their relief was short-lived. The discovery of the discarded Annabelle doll sparked a new wave of unsettling occurrences that terrorized Mia and her daughter, causing them to fear for their lives.

Mia uncovers a dark truth when she calls the detective who handled the original case, learning that the cult aimed to summon a malevolent demonic spirit. With the help of Evelyn, a bookseller and fellow tenant, Mia discovers that the cult practiced devil worship, which unleashed a demon that continued to haunt her family in their apartment, seeking to claim a soul.

Upon returning home, Mia and Leah are viciously attacked by the demon, who reveals its true form while controlling the doll. Father Perez explains that demons often use inanimate objects to achieve their sinister goals, but an innocent soul must be offered in exchange. Despite his efforts, Father Perez is hospitalized, and the demon impersonating Annabelle’s spirit relentlessly pursues Mia and her family. That night, the demon uses Father Perez’s body to sneak into their home and abduct Leah, demanding Mia’s soul in exchange. In a desperate attempt to save her daughter, Mia tries to jump out of the window with the doll, but John and Evelyn intervene just in time. In a heart-wrenching sacrifice, Evelyn offers her own life to the demon in atonement for her past mistakes, disappearing along with the doll and ending the horror that had haunted Mia and her family.

Six months later, the haunted doll is purchased from an antique shop by a mother as a gift for her daughter, Debbie, a nursing student. It is later locked away in a glass case in the Warrens’ artifact room, where it remains as a chilling reminder of the supernatural forces that lurk in the shadows.

The real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll believed to be haunted, currently housed in the closed occult museum of renowned paranormal investigators Ed (Sept 7,1926- August 23, 2006) and Lorraine Warren (Jan 31, 1927- April 18,2019) following alleged hauntings in 1970.

The Warrens reported that, in 1970, a student nurse was given the doll, which they claimed demonstrated paranormal activity. According to a psychic medium, the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a deceased girl named ‘Annabelle.’ Despite attempts to welcome and nurture the spirit-possessed doll, it allegedly exhibited threatening and frightening behavior, leading the Warrens to proclaim it demonically possessed and move it to their museum in Monroe, Connecticut.

The Warrens’ doll served as the inspiration for the Annabelle character in “The Conjuring” Universe, a horror film series that includes Annabelle (2014), Annabelle: Creation (2017), and Annabelle Comes Home (2019). To create a more unsettling appearance for the doll, the filmmakers chose not to use the Raggedy Ann likeness, instead opting for a disfigured porcelain design. This terrifying doll makes its first appearance in James Wan’s The Conjuring (2013) and goes on to make brief appearances in The Conjuring 2 (2016) and The Curse of La Llorona (2021), as well as The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2020).

The doll was displayed in a wooden box, with a warning attached: “Positively do not open”, with a Devil Tarot card attached to the glass. Circumambulation (praying) was regularly done by a priest to bless the area in the room where the doll is kept. That was until the museum was shut down due to zoning violations, and permanently closed in 2019. Annabelle and other haunted objects were left behind, and are sometimes brought out for a convention or two… but you have to ask yourself, “are the blessings still happening? Or is Annabelle lying in wait for a body to inhabit?” Lorraine Warren once said “The evil attached to Annabelle needs a body to go into. If you’re vulnerable, it would be you.” I’ve always been a fan of all things Warren, and it disappointed me to learn that the museum was closed before I could go in and pay my respects, especially to Annabelle, as I love Raggedy Ann dolls for that reason. My husband has often been heard saying “no need to go when they made a movie to watch safely from the couch”, which from the number of accidents that have happened to patrons who did not pay the proper respect, I feel many movie goers would agree, to watch safely from home… I’m not one of them, one day I will get to see her up close (famous last words).