The world has a fascination with the Annabelle Doll that I believe has officially crossed over into obsession. Between the Annabelle trilogy, appearances in The Conjuring films, and dozens of real-life accounts of unexplainable activity coming from the doll’s REAL LIFE counterpart (now owned by Matt Rife)— this child’s toy has been capturing our attention for over 50 years. But why?
Is the doll really haunted? Or does the Hollywood machine know just how to exploit the simplest of ghost stories for our entertainment and hard-earned cash? Well, today, we find out. Let’s talk about the world’s obsession with the Annabelle doll — which, by the way, looks like this in real life… not as scary, is it?
Folks, the world is obsessed with haunted artifacts. Whether it’s a spooky music box that celebrity ghost hunters paid obscene amounts of money for, an entire house believed to hoard evil spirits and creatures of the night, or even a $10 Raggedy Ann doll that sparked a media frenzy in the 1970s and is STILL raking in billions of box office dollars every couple of years.
The Annabelle doll was originally created as part of the Raggedy Ann line of children’s dolls in 1915 by toymaker Johnny Gruelle. The simply stitched-together doll was among the most popular children’s items in any household with an adolescent in it. The company continued making the dolls into the ’20s and ’30s, leading up to Johnny Gruelle’s death. By that point, the dolls had already seen over 3 million happy customers — which, of course, meant there was money to be made — and production continued.
The dolls were beloved for their cute and friendly appearance and were widely collected and kept as keepsakes from childhood that could be passed down, as the toys were cloth and mostly considered unbreakable. Such was the case for Donna, a 27-year-old college student who was given a Raggedy Ann doll by her mother as a gift for her birthday in 1970. Completely oblivious that this would be the beginning of a paranormal and cultural phenomenon that would live on forever. A cute, unassuming child’s doll that Donna’s mother called… Raggedy Ann. Yeah, we’ll get to how Annabelle got her name soon.
Now, these are the earliest reports of Annabelle being haunted:
1970–1971, Hartford, Connecticut.
Donna was living in an apartment boarding house with her roommate Angie. The pair shared a space closely as broke college students. Throughout their time living together, Donna and Angie independently reported strange happenings that seemed to have started as soon as Annabelle arrived.
You can probably guess what we’re dealing with here, right?
The doll was allegedly moving on its own without being handled, knocks on the walls and floors at night, inexplicable lights flashing, and even a low, eerie growl that would emit from the doll on occasion.
This went on for over a year, with Donna and Angie growing increasingly disturbed by these phenomena.
Donna didn’t know what to do. She believed something was wrong with the doll but was completely ill-equipped to handle it — eventually causing her to take the doll to local Connecticut ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. Heard of them? Well, if you have, then you know exactly what happened next. The Warrens were quick to deem the doll possessed by an evil spirit and explained the students’ paranoia and spooky experiences as “hauntings.”
In 1971, Lorraine Warren claimed to have taken the doll to a psychic who informed her that the cause of the haunting was the spirit of a little girl who used to own the doll. A little girl named… Annabelle.
Donna wanted nothing to do with this. Officially buying into the Warrens’ claims, she surrendered the doll to them to be placed on display in their home museum of haunted artifacts. And Annabelle now had new owners.
From 1971 all the way up until Lorraine’s death in 2019, the doll sat in a glass case, isolated from other artifacts, as Ed and Lorraine believed it was demonic and unsafe to be in any of the home or museum’s common areas. During Annabelle’s time in the Warrens’ possession, they reported things like physical assault and something Lorraine called “psychic slashes,” which was Annabelle’s ability to cut victims without moving or being physically handled.
I know what you’re thinking — “why not just toss that cursed doll into a hot fire and be done with it?”
Ohhh, you naive little goblin. They tried that! Apparently.
According to Lorraine Warren, the couple attempted to burn the doll to no avail. It wouldn’t burn. It wouldn’t even scuff or char… I call bullshit. And of course, there’s no photo or video to validate this claim.
And somehow, despite no evidence to prove that this doll was anything other than a simple child’s toy, the media attention ran wild. This led to the beginning of the frenzy that became our obsession. In 1980, Gerald Brittle, a novelist and occult hobbyist, made an exclusive deal with Lorraine Warren for the rights to Annabelle’s story to be included in his book The Demonologist. In this book, Annabelle’s “powers” were ramped up to a degree that certainly made for a good ghost story — but wasn’t exactly the “true story.”
The one thing I do understand is the decision to change the design of the doll. See, the Raggedy Ann doll would have required a licensing contract to use, and of course, Raggedy Ann’s makers would not want their product tainted by a horror franchise. And above all, it just isn’t scary. My mom had one of these in the house when I was a kid, and I used it as a giant that tried to kill my wrestling action figures.
So in an attempt to make the doll look scarier, the movies opted for a more uncanny porcelain doll — the kind you’d find in your grandma’s banquet room. They’re much scarier than the real Annabelle doll, for sure.
And folks, that’s the trend we need to look at with this doll. The way this simple spooky story became a trilogy of movies with lore that WB proudly claims is “based on a true story” is so far from the truth, I’m surprised Annabelle herself hasn’t sued them for defamation. Did you know that nobody knows who — or if — there was even a real “Annabelle” who owned the doll? It was one line that one local palm reader said to Lorraine Warren in 1971 that became its own dedicated origin story film. Honestly, it’s my favorite of the Annabelle movies though.
In The Conjuring lore, Annabelle is haunted and possessed by a demon after the real little girl dies in a paranormal frenzy. This led to the Warrens taking possession of the doll, and since then, she’s just gotten her spooky cameos in all the movies. But what’s fascinating is that, of all the creepy stories the Conjuring movies dive into, THIS doll became the face of the franchise.
One odd thing, though, is that all of the reports of activity from the real doll are basically the same. Donna’s experiences and reports are almost identical to everyone else who’s ever claimed to interact with the doll — which kind of makes you think there could be something real there, just because the story has stayed mostly consistent for five decades. That’s pretty cool.
Except where the movies milk the origin of Annabelle by lining it up with the Manson murders and working that evil into the doll’s backstory — which, by the way, never happened. Or at least there’s no proof.
In 2020, just after Lorraine Warren’s death, the museum — along with the entire estate of the Warrens — was signed over to Dan Rivera, a former business partner who toured with the doll from 2020–2025, giving appearances at conventions and events. This kept the Annabelle legacy in the public interest while Warner Bros. continued exploiting the doll in movies.
Unfortunately, this year Dan Rivera also passed away of non-Annabelle-related causes. And this left the Warren estate and everything in it (including the haunted museum) up for grabs to the highest bidder.
I know what you’re thinking — Zack Baggins DEFINITELY bought it, right? Well… NO. Actually, despite many notable public figures being interested in acquiring the estate, it ended up being sold to comedian and B-list actor Matt Rife, who apparently is interested in the occult? I don’t know.
And this means, folks, that any cinematic future this doll may have will include notoriously cool and funny comedian Matt f*cking Rife in some way. With reports of a Conjuring prequel movie and TV series coming soon, it’s safe to say that we’ll likely see Annabelle again on the big and small screen with seemingly no new stories to tell. Unless Matt finds himself slipping into madness and being haunted by a Raggedy Ann doll — which, honestly, could be hilarious to read about. Here’s hoping we get that story sooner rather than later.
I’m imagining Matt Rife playing young Ed Warren now and it’s VERY funny to me.
So this leaves the question: WHY ARE WE ALL SO OBSESSED WITH THIS DOLL?!
Well, because much like EVERYTHING in the Conjuring franchise, the Hollywood version of the story is a thousand times more fun than the actual story. And as long as WB keeps claiming these are “based on true stories,” we won’t be able to resist wondering how much of it is real, and how much is just good old-fashioned horror movie magic.
So, what do you guys think? Is this doll haunted? Is it just a sensationalized toy like Chucky that will live on long after you, me, and its creators? Or is it literally just a trend that’s gone on for over a decade, bringing us back to the movies simply to see what she’ll do next? We don’t know. But if I had to guess, I’d say this doll (much like the Warrens themselves) is nothing more than a tall tale.
