The movie, Annabelle, is based off a real doll, but instead of a scary porcelain doll she was a Raggedy Ann doll.

The story begins in 1971, when Donna received a Raggedy Ann doll from her mother on her 28th birthday. She lived in an apartment with her roommate Angie, and her fiancé, Lou. They soon started noticing strange paranormal activity occurring through the doll. Donna stated she had left the doll on the couch only to later come home and find it on her bed with the bedroom door closed. Lou stated he “had a bad feeling about the doll and told Donna to get rid of it.” Donna didn’t listen, even after finding little pieces of parchment paper with messages such as “help us” and “help Lou” scribbled in a child’s handwriting.

One day, after noticing drops of what appeared to be blood on the doll’s chest and hands, Donna and Angie decided to contact a medium, who conducted a séance, which revealed a seven year old girl named Annabelle Higgins living inside the doll. The medium said Donna and Angie made Annabelle feel loved, and that the spirit wanted to stay. Donna felt bad for the spirit and gave her permission to live inside the doll.

Lou was not as accepting as the others and one night, Lou woke up to a sensation of paralysis. He looked down at his legs and saw Annabelle who crawled up his body and started to strangle him. In the morning, he was convinced the encounter had not been a dream. Another day Angie and Lou were preparing for a road trip when they heard a loud wrestling noise in Donna’s room. When he went to investigate, Lou found no one in the room other than Annabelle who appeared to have been tossed on the floor. As he approached the doll, he felt a sharp pain on his chest and blood seeped into his shirt. He opened his shirt to reveal claw scratches across his chest. Lou’s chest healed almost immediately and all signs of the claw marks disappeared in two days.

Donna finally decided to contact a priest who then contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens determined the doll was not actually possessed, for inanimate objects are not able to hold departed spirits. Instead, Annabelle was being manipulated by an inhuman demonic spirit. According to the Warrens, the demon was only but a few weeks from completing its infestation, which could have resulted in the death of all three occupants.

A priest performed a exorcist blessing on the home and the Warrens removed Annabelle from the apartment. While driving the doll back to their house, the Warrens claimed the car would swerve on its own and that the brakes would fail. At the Warrens’ house, the doll continued to act up, moving throughout the house on its own and even levitating out of Ed’s office chair.

While visiting the Warrens, Father Jason, a Catholic exorcist, reportedly picked Annabelle up from the chair and said, “You’re just a rag doll  Annabelle, you can’t hurt anyone” then threw her to the ground. Lorraine told Father Jason to be extra cautious on the road. Three hours later, the Warrens received a call from Father Jason saying, “my brakes went out on an intersection and my car is totaled.”

Annabelle is currently kept in a glass case at the Warrens’ Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, and is not open to the public after its closing in 2019 due to zoning violations.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/annabelle-doll

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