ANNABELLE

Title : Annabelle

Language : English

Release Date : September 29, 2014 (TCL Chinese Theatre)

October 3, 2014 (United States)

Directed By : John R. Leonetti

Distributed By : Warner Bros. Pictures

Annabelle is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed by John R. Leonetti, written by Gary Dauberman and produced by Peter Safran and James Wan. It is a prequel to 2013's The Conjuring and the second installment in The Conjuring series. The film was inspired by a story of a doll named Annabelle told by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The film stars Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, and Alfre Woodard.

Annabelle premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on September 29, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014. The film received generally negative reviews from critics but was a box office success, grossing over $256 million against its $6.5 million production budget. A prequel, titled Annabelle: Creation, was released on August 11, 2017.

Plot

In 1967 at Santa Monica, John Form, a doctor, presents his expectant wife Mia with a rare vintage porcelain doll as a gift for their first child to be placed in a collection of dolls in their daughter's nursery.

That night, the couple are disturbed by sounds of their next door neighbors, the Higgins, being murdered during a home invasion. While Mia calls the police, she and John are attacked by the Higgins' killers. The police arrive and shoot the man dead while the woman commits suicide by slitting her own throat inside the nursery while holding the porcelain doll. News reports identify the assailants as the Higgins' estranged daughter Annabelle and her unidentified boyfriend, both of them were members of a cult.

In the days following the attack, a series of paranormal activities occur around the Form's residence. Afterwards, Mia gives birth to a healthy baby girl. She and John name their child Leah. The family rents an apartment in Pasadena and, after finding the doll that John had discarded since Annabelle's previous attack in one of their boxes, another set of paranormal events plagues Mia and her daughter. The next night, Mia is haunted by a malevolent presence in her apartment, believing to be Annabelle's ghost. During a storm, Mia encounters an enigmatic figure in the building's basement who begins pursuing her before she escapes.

Mia calls back Detective Clarkin to gather information about Annabelle and the cultist, learning that the cult intends to summon supernatural beings. With the help of bookseller and fellow tenant Evelyn, Mia realizes that the cult practiced devil worship which summoned a demon who followed the family after they moved to their apartment in order to claim a soul. Upon returning home, Mia and Leah are attacked by the demon who reveals itself while manipulating the doll. Mia and John contact their parish priest, Father Perez, who informs them that demons sometimes attach themselves to inanimate objects as an advantage to accomplish their goals and that a human soul must be offered for a purpose. Without any hopes of exorcising the demon out of the doll, Father Perez decides to take it away to seek help from the Warrens for investigation. But before he can enter the church, the demon impersonating Annabelle's spirit attacks him and grabs the doll.

The priest is hospitalized on the next day and when John checks on him Father Perez warns the latter that, after sensing its powerful presence, the demon's true intention is to claim Mia's soul. That night, while Evelyn is visiting Mia, the demon uses Father Perez's physical form to sneak into the apartment and abduct Leah in exchange for her mother's soul. To spare her daughter, Mia attempts to jump out of the window with the doll but John arrives in time along with Evelyn to stop her. Evelyn decides to take her own life in Mia's place instead, as atonement for causing a car accident that resulted in the death of her daughter Ruby years ago. The demon vanishes along with the doll and the entire family is reunited to move on with their lives.

Six months later, the doll is bought from an antique shop by a mother as a gift for her daughter Debbie, one of the nursing students from the prelude of the first film.