The story behind the 'evil' and 'dangerous' Annabelle doll
By NANCY LYNCH
Annabelle, the spooky doll from the films 'The Conjuring' and 'Annabelle,' 'lives' in Monroe, Conn. at the Occult Museum, which is curated by the Warren family. Lorraine Warren and her late husband, Ed, have investigated hauntings for decades. They have probed some of the world's most notorious haunted sites including the New York murder scene depicted in the iconic 1979 'Amityville Horror' film. Warren, who is a devout Catholic, told AOL.com she would never go back to the Amityville home, which she calls "the worst [she's] ever been involved with."
At 87 years old, Lorraine is still going strong with her son-in-law Tony Spera by her side. Tony helps Lorraine run the museum, and visitors from all over the country come to see the supernatural relics the Warrens have collected over the last 60 years.
The sweet-looking Raggedy Ann doll with big button eyes persists as the main attraction. Legend has it that the doll is 'fine' unless it is challenged -- and that's when she unleashes her wrath.
Some accounts say that car accidents and even physical attacks have been traced back to encounters with Annabelle. The doll has been stored in a wood and glass case since 1979 because there were too many 'near miss' incidents while it was displayed at the museum without protection around it.
Spera says that a Catholic priest lives on the grounds and blesses the doll daily to counteract its purported evil forces. 'The prayers act as a barrier to the evil within,' he explained to AOL.com in an interview. 'In the case of the Annabelle doll, certain prayers are recited, which act to bind the evil. Much like an electric dog fence, where the dog only goes so far then stops, the prayers work in much the same way. The evil can only go so far, then is stopped. Annabelle is a dangerous doll.'
Spera went on to recall one spooky incident that stands out in his memory.
"I will never forget the day when Annabelle moved inside glass and wooden enclosure,' he said. 'At one event, a woman took several pictures of the doll. In the first photo, Annabelle's hands were touching each other. A few moments later, she took a second photo -- this time her hands were separated -- about one-and-a-half to two inches apart!'
Moviegoers were first introduced to 'Annabelle' in the blockbuster movie 'The Conjuring' back in 2013, and earlier this month, New Line Cinemas released 'Annabelle' where viewers learned a little more about about the doll's dark past.
In the film, John Form gives his expectant wife, Mia, a vintage doll dressed in a wedding gown. One night, the couple become the victims of a horrific crime, and the frightening legacy of Annabelle begins to take shape.
Lead actor Ward Horton approached his role in the new thriller 'Annabelle' like his other roles in 'Law and Order', 'I Hate Valentine's Day' and 'The Mighty Macs' -- that is, until something spine-tingling happened when he started shooting the film.' Horton explained: "When I opened my script for the first time, a medicine cabinet fell off the wall." It happened not once, but twice.
Those weren't the only strange things that happened on the movie set. When actor Christopher Shaw walked onto the set for his first day of filming and saw the demon for the very first time a light fixture fell onto his head, knocking him to the ground, Horton revealed.
During a press junket for the film, 'Annabelle' director John Leonetti recounted the first time he visited the apartment that was going to be used in the movie. The apartment, formerly owned by Clark Gable and Ronald Reagan, has sat vacant for 15 years.
The first night he walked in with members of the crew, he told the interviewer, there was a bright full moon shining through the window. The glow of the moon off-set what appeared to be tracks of three fingers that had been dragged thru the dust on the window. Coincidentally, the doll in the movie only had three fingers.
'It was all kinda creepy,' Leonetti admitted.
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