Annabelle: Creation

Annabelle: Creation is a 2017 American supernatural horror movie that serves as a prequel to the 2014 film Annabelle and is the fourth entry in The Conjuring Universe. Directed by David F. Sandberg, with a script by Gary Dauberman and production by Peter Safran and James Wan, the film explains how the possessed Annabelle doll came to be. The cast includes Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, and Miranda Otto. Development on an Annabelle follow-up was confirmed in October 2015, and it was later announced the project would be a prequel rather than a sequel.

Sandberg, who directed Lights Out, took over directing duties from John R. Leonetti, while Dauberman returned to write and Safran and Wan remained as producers. Filming took place in Los Angeles, California, from June 27, 2016, to August 15, 2016. The movie premiered at the LA Film Festival on June 19, 2017, and hit theaters in the United States on August 11, 2017. It earned $307 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

A sequel, Annabelle Comes Home, followed on June 26, 2019. The plot follows dollmaker Samuel Mullins and his wife Esther, who are grieving their seven-year-old daughter Annabelle, called Bee, who died after accidentally stepping in front of a car. Twelve years later, they take in Sister Charlotte and six orphan girls whose home closed. Despite being told to stay out of Bee’s locked bedroom, Janice, a polio-disabled orphan, finds a note saying “Find me” and enters the now-unlocked room.

She discovers a key to Bee’s closet, where she finds an eerie porcelain doll, accidentally releasing a powerful demon that terrorizes the girls. The demon appears to Janice as Bee, demanding her soul. Janice tries to escape via a stairlift, but the demon hurls her to the ground floor, severely injuring her and confining her to a wheelchair. Her friend Linda, now sleeping alone, is tormented.

The demon, disguised as Sister Charlotte, wheels Janice to a barn, where it attacks and possesses her. Linda notices Janice’s changed behavior and tells Samuel, who finds a possessed Janice now able to walk. Janice kills Samuel, and Sister Charlotte discovers his body. Linda throws the doll into a well, but a noise nearly drags her in until Sister Charlotte saves her.

Sister Charlotte learns from Esther that after Bee’s death, they prayed to any entity to see their daughter again. An entity answered, and they transferred its essence into a doll, but it was a demon seeking a human host. It gouged out Esther’s eye, and priests blessed the house while the doll was locked away. Opening their home to orphans was an attempt to repent, but it gave the demon a chance to find a host.

The demon kills Esther and attacks Sister Charlotte. The orphans flee, but Linda hides in Bee’s room. The possessed Janice finds her, but Sister Charlotte locks Janice and the doll in the closet. Police later find only the doll and remove it.

Janice escapes through a hole in the closet wall and goes to a Santa Monica orphanage, where she renames herself “Annabelle” and is adopted by Pete and Sharon Higgins. Twelve years later, now a grown-up devil worshiper, Annabelle murders her adoptive parents, awakening neighbor Mia Form. The cast includes Stephanie Sigman as Sister Charlotte, Talitha Bateman as Janice, Tree O’Toole as grown-up Janice/Annabelle Higgins, Anthony LaPaglia as Samuel Mullins, Miranda Otto as Esther Mullins, Lulu Wilson as Linda, Grace Fulton as Carol, Philippa Coulthard as Nancy, Samara Lee as Annabelle “Bee” Mullins, Tayler Buck as Kate, Lou Lou Safran as Tierney, Mark Bramhall as Father Massey, Adam Bartley as Officer Fuller, Lotta Losten as the adoption agent, Joseph Bishara as the Annabelle Demon, Fred Tatasciore as the demon’s voice, Brian Howe as Pete Higgins, and Kerry O’Malley as Sharon Higgins.

Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton appear in archive footage from Annabelle as Mia and John Form, and Bonnie Aarons reprises her role from The Conjuring 2 as the demon nun Valak in an uncredited appearance.