Many horror fans are waiting for the continuation of the story about the Annabelle doll. However, hardly many people know that the plot of the film is based on real events that began to take place in 1970.
Gift from mom
In 1970, my mother bought her daughter Donna a handmade doll for her birthday. At that time, the girl was studying to be a nurse and lived with her friend Angie. Donna was delighted with the gift from her mother, but soon the doll began to show its true nature, becoming a real nightmare for girls. According to the girls, at first Annabelle made minor movements with her hands - things that can be easily explained. Donna and Angie did not attach importance when they saw that the doll was lying on the floor near the chair - most likely it just fell. However, strange movements became more frequent, and soon the logical explanations for the girls ended. Annabelle began appearing in other rooms by unknown means. The girls stated that the doll levitated and began to attack them.
Annabelle's attacks
A close friend of the students, Lou was very nervous about the doll, believing that she was possessed, but the girls just shrugged their shoulders - for them it was just a toy. However, strange events happened more and more often. For example, notes on parchment began to appear around the apartment from nowhere. Each one had the words “Help Lou” or “Help Us” written in childish handwriting. Donna suspected unclean things when she returned from work and noticed the doll had blood on her hands. Annabelle was in her usual place on the bed, but the red spots on her arms caught the eye of the nurse-to-be. The red liquid seemed to be exuding from the doll itself. This was the last straw and Donna turned to the medium.
Promotional video:
Session and the spirit of a dead girl
The medium quickly dotted the I's by telling a story about a seven-year-old girl who died in the 60s. According to him, the residential quarter was built on the place where the corpse of a child was once found. When the doll appeared in the house of the students, the spirit of the girl entered the toy, and the dead girl Annabelle Higgins became Annabelle's doll.
The students began to think about how to help Annabelle, because they felt sorry for the spirit. However, the sympathy did not last long. Several bad dreams and visions for the girls seemed unconvincing, but when the doll attacked Lou, the friends again needed the help of specialists.
Merciless Doll Attack
Lou woke up one night in a cold sweat. Lately, he has often had the same nightmare, but this time it was different because Lou couldn't move. The guy looked around the room, and saw nothing, but when he looked down, he noticed Annabelle, who was slowly sliding up the body and stopped on his chest. According to the young man, after a second the hands of the small doll were on his neck and began to strangle him. Lou's eyes darkened and then he woke up the next morning. The guy didn't know if it was a dream or reality, but soon he received an answer.
Lou and Angie were looking at the map and preparing for the trip when they heard a noise in Donna's room, which was not at home. Lou looked into his friend's room, but saw no one. Except that the doll was sitting on a chair, and not on the bed, as usual. The guy approached the toy, but felt a strange sensation enveloping his body. Suddenly he saw cuts on himself, as if someone had scratched him hard. There were seven wounds in total: three vertical, four horizontal, and they seemed to be burning with fire. In panic, Lou looked around the room again, but there was no one there. He had no other explanation - it was Annabelle.
Explanation?
Mysteriously, the scratches disappeared the very next day. The skin looked as if there had never been any wounds. Donna called the priest Father Hegan, but he said that he would not be able to exorcise such a strong spirit. Then the girl contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren. The couple were a kind of "ghost hunters" and specialized in various occult matters. They quickly diagnosed the doll as "an inhuman demonic spirit." The Warrens determined that the doll was not possessed, but controlled by a spirit. The apartment was cleaned, and Ed described the process as follows:
After the session, Donna wanted to get rid of the doll. The Warrens agreed to pick it up and place it in their museum. During the trip, the doll tried in every possible way to prevent them - in the car, the brakes, then the steering control failed. As a result, Ed sprinkled holy water on the doll, which calmed her. Arriving home, the man sat Annabelle in a chair near his desk.
One day a priest came to the Warrens. Seeing the doll in the chair, he lifted Annabelle and told her right in her face that she was just a doll and could not harm anyone. After that, the minister of the church threw the toy aside. Before leaving, the Warrens asked the Holy Father to call when he got home. The priest dialed only a few hours later: his car's brakes failed at a busy intersection, and he himself barely survived. After that, the Warrens placed Annabelle in a glass box, protecting its walls with spells and prayers.
When it seemed like it was over, it turned out that Annabelle shouldn't be pissed off. Lorraine Warren told what happens when a doll is mocked:
Annabelle remains locked in her drawer to this day. After the death of her husband, Lorraine returned to her home, but still cannot look at the doll, believing that it is the worst thing she has ever seen.
Why the filmmakers used a different doll
While the doll's visuals are enough to strike fear into the heart of any horror fan, director James Wan and producer Peter Safran, who worked on The Conjuring, knew they couldn't use it:
Igor Cheptsov