The Real Annabelle Doll Looks Very Different From The One Seen In The Movies
The Warrens’ Occult MuseumThe real Annabelle doll in the Warrens’ occult museum.
While the movie version of the Annabelle doll draws inspiration from vintage porcelain dolls and features evil-looking glass eyes, the real Annabelle is a simple Raggedy Ann toy that’s permanently housed in a glass case at Ed and Lorraine Warren’s occult museum in Monroe, Connecticut.
On the surface, it seems innocuous, with a smiling face and mop of red hair. But below the display lies this message: “Warning, positively do not open.”
The Warrens claimed the doll was at the center of a string of demonic activities stretching back to 1970, including near-death experiences and a fatal accident. According to the story, the doll was a birthday gift to a nurse named Donna from her mother. Donna lived with another nurse, Angie. At first, Annabelle appeared harmless, sitting on a sofa as any toy might.
But soon, things escalated, as the doll purportedly began moving on its own. Donna would place Annabelle on the living room couch before going to work, only to return and find her in the bedroom, with the door closed.
More disturbing were the notes that supposedly started showing up. Donna and Angie said they found parchment-paper scraps reading “Help Me,” even though they didn’t own any such paper. One afternoon, Angie’s boyfriend Lou said he heard strange noises, as if an intruder had broken in. He then said he found the doll lying face-down on the floor — and suddenly felt unbearable pain in his chest and discovered bloody claw marks on it.
The wounds reportedly disappeared just two days later.
Rich Fury/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesThe Annabelle doll that The Conjuring movies used, inspired by supposedly true stories about a haunted toy.
In a panic, the two young women hired a medium who conducted a seance and claimed the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a dead girl named Annabelle Higgins. According to this medium, Annabelle’s body had been discovered on the same site where the apartment now stood. She also claimed that Annabelle’s spirit was peaceful and simply wanted love.
However, not everyone accepted the medium’s assessment. An Episcopal priest named Father Hegan heard about the case and referred it to his superior, Father Cooke, who reached out to Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The Warrens did not believe the spirit was innocent.
Rather, they warned Angie and Donna that the spirit within the doll was demonic and seeking out a human host, using the doll to gain attention. They cited signs of demonic activity: the doll’s apparent ability to move on its own, the strange “Help Me” notes, and the claw marks on Lou.
“Spirits do not Possess inanimate objects like houses or toys, they possess people,” the Warrens’ case notes read. “An inhuman spirit can attach itself to a place or object and this is what occurred in the Annabelle case.”
Shortly after that, Father Cooke performed an exorcism in Angie and Donna’s apartment, and the Warrens removed the doll from the home, placing it in their occult museum and warning visitors not to touch it.
While both the real and movie Annabelle dolls were blamed for demonic possession and brutality, the movie toy was arguably even more violent, moving from home to home, viciously attacking families and young children, possessing members of Satanic cults, and terrorizing the Warrens’ home.
