Annabelle the Doll

''This is about the film version. For the real-life doll, see .''

Annabelle the Doll is the secondary antagonist of The Conjuring, and the titular main antagonist of its prequels Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation. It is a powerful demonic entity that, despite being able to exist independently, frequently latches onto a porcelain doll to torment those who own it.

It is one of the artifacts taken by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren during one of their cases. Annabelle is considered to be their most dangerous and haunted item, and has a habit of moving around unseen.

Annabelle: Creation
The film opens in 1943, with successful toy maker Samuel Mullins creating his very first porcelain doll, which he would give to his daughter, Annabelle, nicknamed "Bee". One day, on the way back from church, when Samuel and his wife, Esther, pull over their car to fix a tire, Bee runs onto the road and dies when she is hit by a passing car. Out of grief, the Mullins couple prayed to anything that could bring their daughter back. As a result, they unknowingly summoned a demon, who masqueraded as Bee's spirit. The demon then requests permission to transfer it's essence into one of Samuel's porcelain dolls, in order to use it as a temporary vessel. Initially, the Mullins were overjoyed at the sight of their daughter, but they eventually realized that they had been deceived by a malevolent spirit that was searching for a human host. Soon after, Annabelle attacks Esther, gouging her left eye out. The Mullins couple then takes Annabelle and seals her inside Bee's closet, covering the walls in Bible pages, before reaching out to the church to bless the household.

Annabelle would remain dormant until 12 years later in 1957 when the Mullins couple opens their home to provide shelter for Sister Charlotte and the orphans of St. Eustace after the closing of their orphanage. When night falls, Janice, a young girl crippled by polio and one of the orphans, is awakened by a noise. She decides to investigate where the noise came from, and discovers a note, saying "find me." Janice sneaks into Bee's room, which has somehow been unlocked, despite Samuel's warning to not enter. Janice finds a key within a dollhouse, and unlocks Bee's closet, unintentionally freeing Annabelle. Janice creeped out by the doll, shuts the closet, only for it to open again. Janice then locks the closet again, locking it this time, but Bee's closet opens again. She then throws a bedsheet over the doll, but Annabelle gets up from her chair and slowly approaches Janice as the bedsheet slips off, revealing nothing underneath. Janice looks out the windows and runs back to the room, after seeing Samuel about to reenter the house. Annabelle, now released from Bee's closet, begins terrorizing the girls throughout their stay at the Mullins farmhouse, primarily focusing on Janice.

On the second night, when Carol and Nancy stay up to gossip and tell stories about Esther in the girls' bedroom, they hear her bell ringing for Samuel's assistance. As Esther's bell continues to ring, Carol and Nancy wonder why Samuel doesn't answer her. After their flashlight shuts off, they see Annabelle through their blanket, as a shadowy figure representing their interpretation of Esther's appearance in their stories. Annabelle then attacks the girls, grabbing Carol's face, before the demon disappears when Kate turns on the light.

On the third night, Janice hears "My Sunshine" playing on the gramophone in Bee's room. After Janice turns it off, her best friend, and another one of the orphans, Linda enters the room. Janice tells her about Bee, and Linda accidentally shoots Annabelle with a toy gun, resulting in the doll glaring at her ominously. After Linda leaves the room and goes back to bed, Janice reads Bee's diary, and the door shuts. Annabelle then appears to Janice in Bee's form, and Janice asks Annabelle what she wants. Annabelle turns around with a demonic face, and declares that she wants "her soul." In complete fear, Janice attempts to flee from Annabelle via a stairwell, only for the latter to catch her and throw her down from the second-floor landing to the first floor, confining her to a wheelchair.

On the fourth night, Linda, after comforting Janice, opens the door to Bee's room and notices that Annabelle is absent from her chair. Linda waits in her and Janice's bedroom, anticipating Annabelle to appear. Linda uses Bee's toy gun to detect the demon's presence by shooting its ball into the darkness. The demon grabs the ball and snatches the toy gun away from Linda. When Annabelle starts to approach her rapidly, Linda frantically runs to her bed and hides under her covers. After the lamp shuts off, Linda sees inhuman footprints leading to her bed. She checks the left side of her bed and sees the doll looking at her before it's grabbed by the demon.

The day after, when Sister Charlotte brings Janice outside for some sunlight, Janice is pushed into a barn by a figure posing as a nun (possibly Valak) after Charlotte leaves. Janice struggles to get to her wheelchair, only for it to be destroyed and is possessed by Annabelle (posing as Bee again) when she vomits black ectoplasm in her mouth. Linda notices changes in her behavior and tells Samuel that Janice had gone into Bee's room. Shortly after this, Samuel enters the dining room and finds Annabelle sitting in one of the chairs. Samuel is then approached by Janice, who then contorts into Annabelle's true demonic form. Samuel attempts to repel her with a handmade crucifix, but Annabelle telekinetically snaps his fingers backward, forcing him to drop it, before mercilessly killing him off-screen as the camera pans towards the doll. Sister Charlotte hears his screams, and rushes to his aid, horrified upon finding his corpse.

At night, Linda takes Annabelle away from Janice when she's asleep and goes outside to dispose of the doll. Charlotte sees Linda from her bedroom window and follows her. Linda opens the well, and Sister Charlotte asks what she's doing. Linda tells her what she plans to do, and drops Annabelle down the well. When Linda and Charlotte start walking back, Linda hears whispering coming from the well, and Annabelle attempts to pull her down the well with what appears to be human hands. Charlotte grabs Linda and pulls her away from the well, before closing it. Linda and Charlotte run back to the household, only to find the doll in Janice's place on the couch in the living room. Charlotte tells the girls to find Janice, while she takes the doll with her. Sister Charlotte speaks with Esther, who wears a porcelain mask to hide her scars from Annabelle's attack on her, and the latter informs Sister Charlotte of the evil doll's origins. Carol, Nancy, and Tierney find Janice and the Annabelle doll that somehow got in Bee's room. Janice cuts Nancy's left arm, and the girls run downstairs to Charlotte for help. Charlotte tells Carol to call for help, and the girls call the police. Afterward, they run over to Esther's room to help her escape with them, only to find the bisected upper half of her corpse crucified onto the wall. Charlotte finds Linda and Kate in the girls' bedroom, and Janice enters behind her. Charlotte utters a Latin incantation, as Janice levitates her and slams her against a mirror, rendering her unconscious. Linda and Kate run from Janice, but the former trips and is dragged across the corridor.

At Linda's request, Kate runs to get help, while Janice searches for Linda, who attempts to escape via the dumbwaiter. Meanwhile, the other girls run to the barn, with the door shutting in front of Nancy, Kate, and Tierney, separating Carol from the other girls. The demon then emerges from the scarecrow inside, and it begins to destroy the light bulbs, one by one, with Carol struggling to keep the last one intact. When Annabelle destroys the last light, Carol runs into the room where Samuel makes his dolls. Nancy comes to rescue her through the windows and the two of them escape unharmed. Linda exits the dumbwaiter and enters the Mullins couple's bedroom, where Annabelle briefly possesses Esther's corpse to scare her. Linda runs back to the dumbwaiter and uses it to go back up, but it abruptly stops. Linda glances down to see Janice chasing her below before the demon's hands attempt to pull the dumbwaiter down. Linda uses the rope attached to get back into the room and sees Janice downstairs. When Janice resumes pursuing Linda, she runs into Bee's room and hides in the closet. Janice finds her and throws her outside the closet, and attempts to stab her with a knife. Sister Charlotte arrives to save Linda, locking the possessed Janice/Annabelle and the doll inside the closet.

The next day, after Sister Charlotte and the orphans have vacated the house, police arrive to investigate and find the Annabelle doll in the closet, which they remove as evidence, while Janice had escaped through a hole in the closet wall the night before, and relocated to St. Joachim, another orphanage in Santa Monica. When the Higgins family adopts her, the still-possessed Janice introduces herself as "Annabelle". 12 years later, Annabelle has formed a cult known as The Disciples of The Ram and kills her adoptive parents. A pregnant Mia Form is awakened by the screams of the Higgins couple next door, and her husband, John, goes to investigate, setting the events of the first Annabelle film into motion.

Annabelle
Originally, the doll was a gift that John Form gave to his then-pregnant wife, Mia Form. Later, after Mia received the doll, Annabelle Higgins and her boyfriend, members of a satanic cult called the Disciples of the Ram, break into the Forms' house, invade it, turning the doll back into a conduit for evil when Annabelle commits suicide in order to vacate Janice's body. Since then, the Forms had been terrorized by the demon possessing the doll, posing as the ghost of Higgins. Eventually, the demon threatened to take the soul of Mia's daughter, Leah, unless Mia gave her soul. At first, Mia was going to sacrifice herself to save Leah, but her friend Evelyn took Mia's place and saved Leah via suicide by jumping off the ledge of an apartment window. It disappeared from near Evelyn. Later it was seen at the store getting bought by Debbie's mom, setting before The Conjuring.

The Conjuring
Annabelle first came into possession of the Warrens when they were called in to investigate a case involving her. The subjects were two girls and a young man who had bought the doll. They explained that Annabelle had tricked them into thinking the doll was possessed by the spirit of a young girl, and that after they allowed Annabelle to move in, the doll had begun terrorizing them. The Warrens explained that Annabelle was truly possessed by a demonic entity, and revealed that it had intended to possess one of its owners. Annabelle was promptly taken in by the Warrens and kept in a glass case, not to be opened.

3 years later, Annabelle was released from her case by Bathsheba Sherman, a spirit who was involved in the haunting of the Perron family. Bathsheba had sought revenge against the Warrens for investigating the house, and went to the Warren household and released Annabelle. The two spirits then terrorized the Warrens young daughter, Judy, culminating in throwing a rocking chair at her. However, Ed arrived and rescued Judy before she could be seriously harmed. Annabelle was later found mysteriously back in her case afterward.

The Conjuring 2
At the end of the film, as Ed places the Crooked Man music box on a shelf, in the background, Annabelle is seen in her case, smiling as usual.

Trivia

 * Unlike the doll that Annabelle is based on, which was a Raggedy Ann doll, the film version is a porcelain doll. The change had to be made for copyright and publicity purposes.
 * As an easter egg to the original, Janice-Annabelle's new parents gave her a Raggedy Ann-like Doll in Annabelle: Creation.