The people behind the massively successful horror film "The Conjuring" followed up with an "Annabelle" spinoff horror film, that delved into the history of the creepy doll featured briefly in the first film. What you might not know is that Annabelle actually exists, and you can visit her yourself. Be prepared though, the real Annabelle doesn't look quite as creepy in real life, but wait till you hear her story...
While many of the cases the Warrens worked on, like Amityville, were later outed as hoaxes, their ability to tell an excellent scary story can't be denied, and one of the creepiest of all had to do with a Raggedy Anne doll that they nicknamed Annabelle.
As the Warren's tell it, the antique doll was purchased from a hobby shop in the 70's as a birthday gift to a girl named Donna. Donna was in college, and shared a small apartment with her roommate, and Annabelle quickly became a beloved piece of decoration.. until the two girls began to notice the doll moving on its own.
Often times Donna would come to find the doll had moved from its spot in the living room to her bedroom, other times it would seem to cross its legs when people weren't looking, and sometimes the doll was even blamed for writing messages like "help us" in a child-like scrawl.
Eventually, Donna and her roommate called in the help of a medium who told them the doll was possessed by the spirit of a woman named Annabelle Higgins. According to the medium, Annabelle really liked the girls, and wanted to remain in their care. It was at this point that the Warrens got involved, and they had a feeling that Annabelle was a wee bit of a liar.
The Warrens built a glass case for the doll, and after having it blessed by a priest, placed Annabelle inside. Today, visitors to the Warren Occult Museum can see Annabelle in her glass case with a giant handwritten sign warning visitors not to touch. According to the Warrens, the last person to break that rule was promptly killed in an automobile accident.
"The Conjuring" was loosely based on the exploits of Ed and Lorraine Warren, self-proclaimed "demonologists" who made a career out of touring the country and solving paranormal mysteries through a combination of heavy Catholicism and psychic powers. Most famously, the couple were two of the first investigators in the infamous Amityville Horror case, another haunting that spawned its own series of films.
According to the Warrens' Case Files:
"The spirit or in this case an inhuman demonic spirit, was essentially in the infestation stage of the phenomenon. It first began moving the doll around the apartment by means of teleportation to arouse the occupants curiosity in hopes that they would give it recognition.Then predictably the mistake of bringing a medium into the apartment to communicate with it. The inhuman spirit now able to communicate through the medium, preyed on the girls emotional vulnerabilities by pretending to be a rather harmless, lost young girl with which during the seance, was allowed permission from Donna to haunt the apartment. Insofar as demonic is a negative spirit, it then set about causing patently negative phenomena to occur; it aroused fear through the weird movements of that doll, it brought about the materialization of disturbing handwritten notes, the symbolic drops of blood on the doll, and ultimately it even attacked Lou leaving behind the symbolic mark of the beast. The next stage of the infestation phenomenon would have been complete human possession. Had these experiences lasted another 2 or 3 more weeks the spirit would have completely possessed, if not harmed or killed one or all of the occupants in the house.
At the conclusion of the investigation the Warrens felt it appropriate to have a recitation of an exorcism blessing by Father Cooke to cleanse the apartment. "The Episcopal blessing of the home is a wordy, seven page document that is distinctly positive in nature. Rather than specifically expelling evil entities from the dwelling, the emphasis is instead directed toward filling the home with the power of the positive and of God." (Ed Warren). At Donna’s request, and as a further precaution against the phenomena ever occurring in the home again, the Warrens took the big rag doll along with them when they left." - Read more: http://www.warrens.net/Annabelle.html
