Annabelle
Tony Spera/USA TodayThe Annabelle doll inside the Warren’s Occult Museum.
For the creepy true story behind 2014’s horror flick Annabelle, you need only to turn to two familiar sources: Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The couple evaluated the doll after its 28-year-old owner suspected that something was terribly wrong with it. The woman had received the doll as a gift and noticed that it started to change positions on its own.
She and her roommate then began to see mysterious notes written on paper that they didn’t keep in the house and that said things like, “Help me, help us.”
Once the doll began to leak blood and pop up in different rooms of their house, the women called a medium. That medium told them that the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins was occupying the doll.
YouTubeThe Annabelle doll in her case at the Warrens’ Occult Museum.
The real-life doll that terrorized the woman and her roommate bears little resemblance to its cinematic version. The Raggedy Ann doll is sweet and child-like and gives no indication about the potential evil that controlled it.
“Looks are deceiving,” Lorraine Warren told USA Today in 2017. “It’s not what the doll looks like that makes it scary; it is what has been infused within the doll: evil.”
The Warrens agreed with the medium and said that “an inhuman presence” possessed the doll and was looking for a human host. They sprinkled holy water on the doll and placed her safely inside a glass case in their Occult Museum with a sign that warns anyone against touching the innocent-looking doll.
“We have a priest come in and bless the museum, including Annabelle,” Warren said. “These are prayers that bind the evil — much like an electric fence for a dog.”
Paranormal horror movies based on true stories have the Warrens to thank for yet more inspiration.
