In 2013, James Wan’s The Conjuring introduced audiences to a lot of things: the real-life case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the terrifying clap-happy ghost Bathsheba, and a creepy, freckled-faced Raggedy Ann doll locked in a glass case. That doll was on screen for less than two minutes, yet she stole the entire movie.
The final scene—where a priest arrives to take the doll away, only to have the Warrens (in a brief cameo) lock it in the artifact room with the warning, "Don't touch her"—cements the film's legacy. This wasn't a story about defeating evil. It was a story about learning to live with a caged monster. Annabelle 1
The biggest miss is the antagonist. The male cultist survives his car crash and returns as a goat-hoofed demon named "Ram." While the makeup is gruesome, he lacks the silent, creeping elegance of the nun or the crooked man. Despite its mixed reviews (29% on Rotten Tomatoes), Annabelle was a $37 million budget film that grossed over $257 million. Audiences showed up for one reason: the doll herself. In 2013, James Wan’s The Conjuring introduced audiences
