The Ferryman

"Pay his toll, or he'll take your soul."

- Common saying among the Ferryman's victims.

The Ferryman is an antagonist in the The Conjuring franchise, first appearing in the 2019 film Annabelle Comes Home. It is a dark spirit rumored to be the one to take souls to the afterlife for a price, but instead collects and tortures them.

Past
The Ferryman was first investigated by demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren after the death of a young girl by its hands. They interviewed those affected by the entity, who told them that the Ferryman demanded a "toll", or else it would take the souls of the departed. Ed and Lorraine were able to collect coins from corpses that were cursed by the entity, and had them blessed and locked away in their occult museum.

Annabelle Comes Home
Many years later, the Warren's daughter Judy is at home being babysat by a girl named Mary Ellen and her friend, Daniela Rios. Daniela Rios had just suffered the loss of her father, and waited until the other girls were absent to sneak into the occult museum and try to find a tool to contact her late father. While inside, she touches several haunted and cursed items, including the coins taken from the corpses. She unlocks and opens the case of Annabelle the Doll, but forgets to lock it back up when she leaves. With the demon now set loose, it draws energy and brings the Ferryman and other spirits to its aid.

The girls find the Warren's case files, and read up on the Ferryman and its case.

That night, as Mary Ellen is trying to watch television, she is disturbed by the sound of voices. She investigates, but is unaware of the tortured souls of the Ferryman's victims around her. She discovers the voices coming from recordings of the Warren's interviews with the Ferryman's victims. However, after shutting it off, she hears and follows the sound of coins falling, and suddenly encounters the Ferryman in the kitchen. She tries to run, but is pulled back by an unseen force. Just before the Ferryman claims her soul, she shines a light on it and makes it vanish, then escapes.

Judy and Mary Ellen try to figure out what to do, all while the Ferryman and the other spirits are hunting them down. Judy realizes they must lock the doll back up to defeat them. After making their way past a a possessed suit of samurai armor, they come across a locked closet with the Annabelle doll inside. After managing to find the key and go inside, Mary Ellen finds it transformed into a hallway lined with coffins, each containing a corpse of a victim of the Ferryman with coins over their eyes. Mary Ellen finds a coffin with a girl that looks just like her in it, holding the doll. She takes the doll and throws it to Judy, but is attacked by the corpse. She escapes, but then is attacked by Daniela, possessed by the Bride. Judy turns on a video of her father exorcising a spirit to damage the Bride as she runs to the museum and attempts to put Annabelle back. However, she is attacked by the demon, who begins to steal her soul. Judy fights back with a crucifix and manages to get the doll back in the case, but is unable to close it as the Bride, Ferryman, Samurai, and Annabelle demon close in. Suddenly, a freed Daniela rushes in and helps close the case, sealing away the demon and cutting the power from the other monsters.