The Story Behind ‘Haunted’ Annabelle Doll’s ‘Escape’ From the Warren Occult Museum Sums up 2020
In the era of internet news, it’s no surprise that a trending topic on Twitter is that of the “haunted” Annabelle doll, in which two horror films are based. The real doll that inspired the movies is located in the Warren Occult Museum. However, on Aug. 14, rumors spread that the doll escaped from the museum on her own volition. And yes — this is real life.
The true story of the haunted Annabelle doll
Upon the first mention of the name Annabelle, horror fans might immediately associate it to the trilogy, Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle Comes Home. The movies were based on a real doll, owned by paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren.
“Looks are deceiving. It’s not what the doll looks like that makes it scary; it is what has been infused within the doll: evil,” Lorraine told USA Today in 2017.
Hobby shop creation, Annabelle, came to be in 1970 when gifted to a daughter from a mother as a birthday present. Soon after, they claimed the doll attacked people and “attempted strangulation of a family friend.”
The mother called on Ed and Lorraine. The two took Annabelle, deeming her “inhuman” and placed her in their occult museum.
‘The Conjuring’ first introduced Annabelle but not everything is based on real events
Annabelle is a star in her own right but she was first introduced in Hollywood through The Conjuring which tells the real-life backstory of the Warrens. But, in true entertainment fashion, the film depicts a far more sinister plot for entertainment purposes.
The real doll, a Raggedy Ann Doll, had a different experience than what the movies portray. She’d never been thrown in the trash, and “paranormal activity associated with the doll had never gotten bad enough that they wanted to throw the doll away prior to passing it along to researchers Ed and Lorraine,” according to History vs Hollywood.
The Warrens stated that the doll did, in fact, move positions and even rooms. And those messages written by the doll in the movie? The Warrens say that is true. Same with blood found on Annabelle in the movie — which Ed and Lorraine also stated as fact. They then contacted a medium to hold a séance.
Aside from noises overheard in empty rooms, the doll may have been responsible for “at least one death,” Ed explained in a video tour of the museum. He told the story of a man who crashed his motorcycle after mocking Annabelle during a visit.
“Many of the objects in this room here have had dire effects on people. People have been maimed, have been killed. People have wound up in mental institutions because of many of the things that are right in this building here,” he said.
“You have the voodoo dolls, you have the Raggedy Ann Doll, which was responsible for the death of a young man who came in here one time, who challenged the doll to do its worst and it did.”
Did Annabelle escape the museum?
With Twitter users running amuck at the mere thought of an evil doll lurking around — as if 2020 needs any more stress — everyone can rest assured that Annabelle did not escape the occult museum.
The rumors began after an interview didn’t translate correctly from Chinese to English and a user posted to YouTube. Peaky Blinders star Annabelle Wallis spoke about convincing Tom Cruise to run with her on The Mummy.
“I got to run on-screen with him, but he told me no at first,” Wallis told The Hollywood Reporter about Cruise. “He said, ‘Nobody runs on-screen with me,’ and I said, ‘But I’m a really good runner.’ So, I would time my treadmill so that he’d walk in and see me run. And then he added all these running scenes.”
Ironically, Wallis played Mia in the first Annabelle. The real Annabelle can be viewed in Warren’s Occult Museum in Connecticut despite the passing of both Ed and Lorraine.
“We have a priest come in and bless the museum, including Annabelle,” Lorraine Warren said in the same USA Today interview. “These are prayers that bind the evil — much like an electric fence for a dog.”
