Annabelle (2014)

Annabelle (2014) is a supernatural horror film and the first spin-off from The Conjuring (2013), as well as the second film in The Conjuring Universe. It tells an origin story for the possessed Annabelle doll, which was inspired by a case popularized by the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. John R. Leonetti, the cinematographer of The Conjuring, directed it from a script by Gary Dauberman, with James Wan and Peter Safran producing. Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton play a young couple in 1967 California whose new doll becomes the focus of a demonic haunting after a cult attack. Critics panned it, but it was a huge hit, grossing more than $257 million on a $6.5 million budget.

At a glance

Release date	September 29, 2014 (TCL Chinese Theatre premiere); October 3, 2014 (US)
Director	John R. Leonetti
Writer	Gary Dauberman
Based on	The Annabelle doll case popularized by Ed and Lorraine Warren; characters from The Conjuring
Starring	Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard
Runtime	99 minutes
Rating	R (US), for intense sequences of disturbing violence and terror
Budget	$6.5 million
Box office	$257.6 million
Franchise	The Conjuring Universe: spin-off and prequel to The Conjuring (2013)

Plot summary

In 1967, in Santa Monica, California, medical student John Form (Ward Horton) gives his pregnant wife Mia (Annabelle Wallis) a rare vintage porcelain doll for the collection in their baby’s nursery. That night, after news reports about the Manson Family, the couple hear their neighbors, the Higginses, being murdered. The killers then attack the Forms. Police shoot the man. The woman, the Higginses’ estranged daughter Annabelle, a member of a cult, kills herself in the nursery while clutching the doll.

Strange events follow. After their daughter Leah is born, the Forms move to an apartment in Pasadena, but the doll John threw away turns up in a moving box, and the haunting gets worse. With help from a bookseller neighbor, Evelyn (Alfre Woodard), Mia learns that the cult was trying to summon a demon. Their priest, Father Perez (Tony Amendola), explains that demons can attach themselves to objects, and that this one wants a human soul.

Spoiler section: the ending

Father Perez tries to take the doll to the Warrens, but the demon attacks him before he can reach the church. The demon then abducts Leah to force Mia to give up her own soul, and Mia nearly jumps from the window with the doll before John and Evelyn stop her. Evelyn, who has long blamed herself for a car accident that killed her daughter, jumps in Mia’s place. The demon and the doll vanish, and Leah is returned. Six months later, a mother buys the doll in an antique shop as a gift for her daughter Debbie, a nursing student. That leads to the case that opens The Conjuring, and the doll ends up locked in the Warrens’ artifact room.

Production and behind the scenes

The project was announced in November 2013, with Leonetti attached as director. It was designed to stand alone while appealing to fans of The Conjuring, where the doll had appeared in the opening scene. Backstage.com described it as one of the first films in a new Warner Bros. and New Line strategy “that capitalizes on the built-in fan bases for successful films, allowing for smaller budgets and production time with a bigger payout on the back end.” Wallis, Horton, Eric Ladin, Brian Howe and Woodard were cast in January 2014.

Principal photography began on January 27, 2014, at The Book Shop in Covina, California. In late February, the 55-person crew spent several days at an apartment on South Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles County. The film was shot in sequence so the actors always knew where they were in their emotional arcs. Leonetti and Safran told reporters they believed the set was “haunted” and that “supernatural phenomena” had happened there. As in The Conjuring, the doll is a porcelain figure, not the Raggedy Ann doll of the Warrens’ story. The change was made partly to avoid trademark issues and partly to make the doll more menacing on screen. Joseph Bishara, who composed the score, also appears as the demonic figure.

Release and reception

Annabelle premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on September 29, 2014, and opened in 3,185 North American theaters on October 3. It topped the opening day with $15.4 million, but finished the weekend in a close second to Gone Girl, $37.1 million to $37.5 million, separated by just $378,854. That was still the biggest horror opening of 2014. It grossed $84.3 million in North America and $172.8 million elsewhere, about 40 times its budget. Reviews were negative. It holds 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus says it relies on “a string of cheap jolts,” and 37 on Metacritic, though audiences gave it a “B” CinemaScore. Variety called it “a cut-rate spinoff from James Wan’s superlative haunted-house hit,” and Deadline’s Pete Hammond said it left him pining for Chucky.

Legacy and influence

Whatever critics thought, Annabelle proved that The Conjuring films could support spin-offs. In October 2014, Warner’s Dan Fellman said a series was being considered. Dauberman returned to write Annabelle: Creation (2017), directed by David F. Sandberg, which went further back in time to the dollmaker who created it. In that film, an orphan named Janice is possessed and grows up to become the Annabelle Higgins of this film. Dauberman then made his directing debut with Annabelle Comes Home (2019). The doll also made cameos in Wan’s Aquaman and Sandberg’s Shazam!, and starred in the 2021 short Annabelle in Quarantine. All of this helped make the cracked porcelain face one of modern horror’s most recognizable images.

Trivia

The lead actress shares the doll’s name: Annabelle Wallis plays Mia Form.
The film was released in Russia on September 26, 2014, a week before its US opening.
Two $30 million October debuts in one weekend had happened only once before, in 2008, with High School Musical 3 and Saw V.
In 2022, the film was re-released on Blu-ray alongside every other Conjuring Universe film released up to that point.