I’ve been on a horror movie kick recently. With the news feeling overwhelming, there’s something about watching a horror movie where the scares are fake that feels weirdly safe. I heard about The Conjuring series because of their connection to the Annabelle dolls, and the weird “tour” Annabelle went on that was meme’d online.
I found out they were connected to The Conjuring movies too and made my way through almost the whole series.
That includes the first three Annabelle movies, The Conjuring movies, and The Nun series. There’s also a standalone called La Llorana as well that’s connected to the side character.
The Annabelle series is pretty much the same each film. A doll that’s possessed by an entity wreaks havoc on unsuspecting victims. For the movie, they made their own version, but in real life, it was a Raggedy Anne doll.
The first one is about a mother whose neighbors are killed by their hippy cult member daughter and then her spirit seeps into the Annabelle doll. The doll then terrifies the mother and her husband.
In the second one, Annabelle’s origins are discussed and she is haunted by a dollmakers daughter who died in a car accident and possessed the doll.
There are only brief mentions connecting the films to The Conjuring series. The Conjuring series details the lives of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a couple of paranormal investigators that help the catholic church with exorcisms. In real life, they were scam artists, and Ed Warren was a pedophile which was not discussed in the films.
I didn’t realize the films were based on real people when I went into them. I was already wary, because exorcist films seem like church propaganda to me. Because if demons are real, that means God is too, so all of their religious stuff becomes based in “fact”.
The first Annabelle film in particular, the main character Mia Form, insists that the baby must be saved over her. That might be the mother’s choice, but it feels very much like religious undertones.
I managed to make my way through the Annabelle movies which are more jump scares than anything. The Conjuring movies are a lot of jump scares and grossout horror. The main problem I had with them (and the second Annabelle movie) is I think there are a lot of instances where these things could be tied to mental health or disability but because of the time period, that’s never discussed.
Obviously, it’s a horror movie, and they’re trying to base it in fact. Overall, for horror movies, I found them a little too religious. I tried making my way through The Nun but couldn’t for the same reason.
Maybe it’s good because I really do find it weird that they keep on making movies about people who were reportedly scammers especially given that they let comedian Matt Rife purchase the Warren “museum”. If there were an inkling of truth to it, I’d like to think the family would give it to someone better to take care of than that asshole.
That said, if you do decide to watch the films, they’re not completely terrible. Acting wise, the performances are actually decent. But don’t buy the “true story” bit when you watch them or everything about the Ed and Lorraine Warren that’s been presented in the films.
It’s one person’s version of events to suit someone else’s purpose.
Leave a Reply