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Miss me?
~ A common note left by Annabelle.
YOUR SOUL!
~ Malthus, the demon, in Annabelle, disguised as Bee, threatening Janice to give her soul to it.

Malthus, more commonly known by its vessel Annabelle the Doll, is the secondary antagonist of The Conjuring Universe.

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.

Its true demonic form was portrayed by Joseph Bishara (who also portrayed Bathsheba Sherman in The Conjuring and the Lipstick-Face Demon in the Insidious films) and voiced by Fred Tatasciore in Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation. In Annabelle Comes Home, its demonic form was portrayed and voiced by Alexander Ward, who also portrayed the Addiction Demon and Kurt Barlow from 2024's Salem's Lot.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Malthus, like all other demons, was once an angel created to serve God. However, it followed an angel named Lucifer. God cast Malthus and the other angels who followed Lucifer out of Heaven. Lucifer became Satan and the fallen angels, such as Malthus, became demons. Malthus then went on to torment humanity.

Annabelle: Creation[]

The film opens in 1943, with successful toymaker 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 called Malthus, who masqueraded as Bee's spirit. Malthus then requests permission to transfer its 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, Malthus, who is a shapeshifter and takes on the form of Bee, 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 1955 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 Malthus and the doll. Janice, who is 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, controlled by Malthus, 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. Malthus, 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 does not answer her. After their flashlight shuts off, they see Malthus through their blanket, taking on a form of a shadowy figure representing their interpretation of Esther's appearance in their stories. Malthus then attacks the girls, grabbing Carol's face, before Malthus 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. Malthus then appears to Janice in Bee's form, and Janice asks Malthus what she wants. Malthus, in Bee's form, turns around with a demonic face, and declares that it wants "her soul." In complete fear, Janice attempts to flee from Malthus 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 Malthus to appear. Linda uses Bee's toy gun to detect the demon's presence by shooting its ball into the darkness. Malthus grabs the ball and snatches the toy gun away from Linda. When Malthus 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 is grabbed by Malthus.

The day after, when Sister Charlotte brings Janice outside for some sunlight, Janice is pushed into a barn by Malthus posing as a nun after Charlotte leaves. Janice struggles to get to her wheelchair, only for it to be destroyed, and is possessed by Malthus (posing as Bee again) when she vomits black ectoplasm out of 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 Malthus's true demonic form. Samuel attempts to repel it with a handmade crucifix, but Malthus 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 the Doll 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 Malthus, taking on a form of a Nun again, 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 Malthus'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. Malthus 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 Malthus 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 Malthus 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 Malthus'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/Malthus and the doll inside the closet.

The next day, after Sister Charlotte and the orphans have vacated the house, the 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, Malthus, possessing the doll, posing as the ghost of Higgins. Eventually, Malthus 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 being bought by Debbie's mom.

In between films, the Warrens were called in to investigate a case involving the Annabelle doll. The subjects were two girls and a young man who had bought her. 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. Ed and Lorraine take custody of the doll, but on their way home, the doll begins to affect the car, causing it to break down. As the Warrens are attempting to fix the problem, Lorraine notes that the doll is attracting spirits from a nearby graveyard, and even tries to kill Ed by taking control of a passing truck and swerving it to hit him. The two escape and bring the doll back to their house to bless it and seal it away, but the normal blessing does not contain the evil in the doll. Ed fashions a case out of the glass from a decommissioned church, and the evil is contained.

The Curse of La Llorona[]

Annabelle is mentioned in The Curse of La Llorona. When Anna Tate-Garcia goes to ask advice from Father Parez on how to rid her family of La Llorona's curse, he explains that he previously did not believe in the supernatural until he had a run-in with "a doll", and flashes back to Annabelle's attack on him. He then explains that it would take a while for the church to get involved, and directs her to a former priest named Raphael for help.

The Conjuring[]

In The Conjuring, 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 from her case. The two spirits, Bathsheba and Malthus, then terrorized the Warrens' young daughter, Judy, culminating in throwing a rocking chair at her, in an attempt to murder her. However, Ed arrived and rescued Judy before she could be seriously harmed. Annabelle was later returned to her case afterward.

Annabelle Comes Home[]

A year after acquiring the doll, Ed and Lorraine go out of town, leaving their young daughter Judy in the care of her babysitter, Mary Ellen, who has her friend Daniela Rios come join them. However, Daniela just suffered the loss of her father, and while Judy and Mary Ellen are absent, sneaks into the Warrens' occult museum to try and find some means of contacting her father's spirit. While there, Annabelle falls over in her case, so Daniela unlocks and opens the case to set Annabelle upright, but is distracted by a smoke alarm and forgets to lock the case.

As the girls prepare to turn in for the night, they are unaware that the Annabelle demon, Malthus, has attracted and amassed a group of dark and demonic spirits sealed away by the Warrens. Mary Ellen's boyfriend is attacked by the Black Shuck, Mary Ellen is attacked by a spirit known as the Ferryman, and Daniela and Judy are attacked by the violent Bride and Annabelle herself. Malthus targets Judy in particular attempting to steal her soul, manifesting as Bee, Janice/Annabelle Higgins, and finally as the demon itself. Daniela is locked in the occult museum, where the demon takes the form of her late father and blames her for his death, breaking Daniela down in an attempt to possess her.

Judy and Mary Ellen attempt to call Lorraine only to find out that Malthus has taken control of the phone lines. Judy knows they will have to find the doll and lock it back up if the assault on their house is to end, and goes looking for her. Daniela is possessed by the Bride, and the room where Malthus is hiding is protected by a possessed suit of samurai armor. Judy and Mary Ellen make it to the room, where Malthus taunts them by hiding in a locked closet protected by the Ferryman.

Mary Ellen manages to get in and get the doll, but the two are attacked by a possessed Daniela. 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 Malthus, 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 Malthus close in. Suddenly, a freed Daniela rushes in and helps close the case, sealing away Malthus and cutting the power from the other monsters once and for all.

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.

The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It[]

Annabelle is seen in her case towards the end of the film as Ed places the ritual chalice on a shelf in the occult museum.

Appearance[]

Malthus resembled that of a typical demon. It is a black ram-like humanoid demon with white (sometimes yellow, red, or green) eyes. In Annabelle (2014) and Annabelle: Creation, the demon appears to have four horns. The horns that appeared near its forehead resembled goat-like horns, while its other two curved horns resembled ram-like horns. The demon has sharp teeth, yellow sharp claws on its hands and feet, and has a body that resembled a humanoid. The demon also has a black goatee on its chin and black hair in between its goat-like horns.

Malthus is also a shapeshifter, able to take on any forms such as Annabelle "Bee" Mullins, Annabelle "Janice" Higgins, or as a black shadowy mass to move around. Malthus used these forms to terrorize or torment its victims. Malthus can also be visible or invisible to humans and can travel to different places as a shadowy mass of black smoke, thus this helps the demon to be in different places at once, such as possessing someone or tormenting a victim, as shown in Annabelle: Creation.

In Annabelle Comes Home, Malthus looks different compared to its previous appearances. In the film, the two goat-like horns on its forehead are gone, and its ram-like horns are much bigger than before. Its goatee and its hair are now gone, and his eyes are now green instead of red, white, and yellow. The demon moves very swiftly and fast, able to attack its victims at a fast speed. The reason for the demon's different design in this film has yet to be explained. It has presumably gotten stronger and changed its form since it has previously fed on Evelyn's soul, who'd sacrificed her soul to the demon in Annabelle (2014), to prevent Mia from sacrificing her own soul to save her baby daughter's life.

Personality[]

Malthus appears to be absent of any kind of mercy or remorse, often toying with its victims before attempting to kill them and take their souls. Malthus is also very sadistic, persistent, aggressive, and terrifying. It also takes pleasure to see its victims terrified or depressed, tormenting them by taking on forms of their loved ones, such as Annabelle "Bee" Mullins. It is also very violent, such as gouging out Esther's left eye and then years later, murdering her by chopping her body in half and then having the bisected upper half of her body crucified onto the wall.

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Demonic Possession: being a satanic doll she can possess the owner who is she interested in, she possessed Janice to kill her family and take their soul and haunting them in Bee's house.
  • Telekinesis: Annabelle is able to move and levitate the objects and the owner when Annabelle is time to take their souls and also Annabelle using this ability to throw an objects to an owner to get them an injury and she pushed the father who in church when the Father tried to excorsim experiment Annabelle.
  • Fear Inducement: in all movie version of Annabelle she induce the owners fear for creating a demons.

Gallery[]

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.
    • Additionally, a little girl wins a Raggedy Ann doll as a game show prize on television in Annabelle Comes Home.
  • The demon's name appears to be Malthus, which is shown when Mia reads a book on demonology in Annabelle (2014), where it shows an illustration of a ram-like demon looming his claws over a human infant. At the same time, the demon attempts to put Mia's baby daughter, Leah, in danger unless Mia sacrifices her soul to the demon to save Leah's life. Thus, this proves that the demon's name is truly Malthus.
  • The name Malthus is based on Malphas in The Lesser Key of Solomon, similar to Valak's name being based on Valac. In mythology, Malphas is a demon who is known as the mighty Great President of Hell, with forty legions of demons under his command, and is second in command under Satan. He appears as a raven, but if requested, will instead resemble a man with a hoarse voice. Malphas is said to build houses, high towers, and strongholds, throw down the buildings of the enemies, destroy the enemies' desires or thoughts (and/or make them known to the conjurer) and all that they have done, give good familiars, and quickly bring artificers together from all places of the world. According to the writers, Malphas accepts willingly and kindly any sacrifice offered to him, but then he will deceive the conjurer. In the film, Malthus appeared as a black ram-like demon instead of a raven-like demon, and it seeks to steal and feed on the souls of its victims, but only if they offered their souls to the demon.
  • The demon, Malthus, is invisible to the human eye, only becoming visible on occasion whenever it attacks or taunts and terrorizes its victims. It takes on many forms, such as Bee or Annabelle "Janice" Higgins, and it makes its presence known by making the porcelain doll move by itself. Also, whenever the demon's presence is felt, it makes a chilling deep rumbling sound around the room or the house. On occasion, Malthus takes on a form of black smoke in Annabelle: Creation, which terrified Janice. This would explain how the demon moves around quickly to terrorize its victims.
  • Many have thought that the nun that attacked Janice and pulled her wheelchair in Annabelle: Creation, is Valak. However, this is proven to be false, as it was Malthus, taking on Sister Charlotte's form, in an attempt to possess her. Malthus could have been inspired by Valak to take on the Nun form. Valak did make very brief cameos in the film, however, as Sister Charlotte has a picture of herself and her fellow nuns, where Valak itself was shown in the shadows of the photo. Valak also makes a cameo in the post-credits scene, roaming around the hallways of St. Carta's monastery in Romania, as a teaser for The Nun (2018).
  • Annabelle Doll makes her cameo appearance in both Shazam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods movie as one of children's toys.

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