Latest news with #Annabelle
New York Post
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Demonic ‘Annabelle' doll ‘safely back' in custody after claims it escaped, caused havoc in NOLA
The real-life 'Annabelle' doll was blamed for a string of alarming incidents by conspiracy theorists that claimed it escaped while on tour in New Orleans — but its owner confirmed it's safely back home and 'was never out of control.' The diabolical — and supposedly demonic — Raggedy Ann doll fictionalized in 'The Conjuring' movie series made a pit stop at Ghost City Tours office in the Big Easy in mid-May — the same week of a dating prison breakout and a devastating fire at a former plantation nearby. The timing led to speculation that the doll was behind the chaos. Advertisement 3 The 'Annabelle' doll is back in Connecticut after a brief tour. Matthew McDermott But she's 'safely back' behind lock and key at the Warren Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, owner Tony Spera told The Post. 'The doll was taken on a brief tour to several locations to show the doll to enthusiasts of the paranormal,' Spera said. Advertisement 'The doll was never out of our control. We take extreme precautions when handling or transporting the doll.' The precautions, which included having a Catholic priest traveling with Annabelle, apparently weren't enough for some observers who believe the doll's stint in New Orleans on May 13 and 14 was a bad omen. An inferno destroyed the historic Nottoway Plantation House between Baton Rouge and New Orleans on May 15 and the next day 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center. Most inmates have since been recaptured. 'I did not think people were taking it seriously, (because) I kept seeing jokes about it on Instagram and TikTok,' Ghost City Tours founder Tim Nealon told USA Today. Advertisement 'But, I didn't realize people were out here like, actually thinking that this was legit.' 3 Fire crews took on the fire at the Nottoway Plantation on Thursday, May 15. AP He said some people are 'absolutely convinced' Ghost City Tours is culpable in the prison break and fire. 'Why didn't you just leave her where she was at,' one person asked the Ghost City Tours on their Facebook page. 'Did it cross your mind maybe she was there for a reason. Some things are better left alone.' Advertisement 'You shouldn't have moved her,' another social media user chimed in. Late husband and wife Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famous paranormal investigators, owned Annabelle along with other haunted relics at the museum before their deaths. 3 The inmates escaped from the NOLA prison. Spera, the Warren's son-in-law, has carried on their work as leader of the New England Society for Psychic Research. He said in his email that one of his workers used blessed holy water and holy oil, which was mixed into the stain that was then applied to the wood case. Other religious fixtures, including crosses cut into each side of the case, were also affixed to the case for the tour. 'The doll is blessed by a Catholic priest, before moving it, while on tour and after it is returned to the museum,' Spera said. Advertisement 'On the tour, a Catholic priest, Father Bob, traveled with us the entire trip.' With Post wires
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Dark tourism expert reveals chilling details amid Annabelle doll's vanishing rumours, ‘We may be dealing with…'
Amidst fears and speculations over Annabelle's US tour, one specialist in dark tourism has uncovered the eerie past of the 'demonically possessed' doll. Horror enthusiasts went into a frenzy last week following rumors that the haunting doll vanished during her ongoing '2025 Devils on the Run Tour.' Annabelle and other ghostly items have been on display for fans throughout the US during this tour. The renowned Raggedy Ann doll has appeared in several iconic horror films, including Annabelle and The Conjuring. Following her track record of evil behavior, many followers were terrified to learn that she had reportedly been lost during her transportation in New Orleans, Louisiana. Also Read: Elon Musk's viral 'hallucinating' video sparks buzz on social media; 'Somebody clocked him' Rumors circulated that Annabelle disappeared during a sold-out event held at the Ghost City Tours office in New Orleans from May 13 to May 14. Ten prisoners fled from the Orleans Justice Center, and a fire erupted at the Nottoway Plantation. The origin of the fire is still unknown. Many horror enthusiasts assumed Annabelle was responsible for this series of frightening incidents. Matthew Bartels, a content strategist for US Ghost Adventures and an expert in the dark tourism sector, discussed this strange coincidence with The Mirror US, saying: 'Her disappearance raises many questions about her true capabilities following the chaos that ensued as she visited New Orleans.' 'The Warrens warned the general public to never let her leave her case. Now that she has, we may be dealing with greater paranormal powers than we are prepared for,' Bartels added. Annabelle's caregivers have since refuted these speculations, but horror enthusiasts have recently developed a renewed interest in her past. While Robert the Doll is the most notorious haunted doll in the world, Annabelle ranked at second, as per the US Ghost Adventures website. According to reports by US Ghost Adventures, the main target of Annabelle's fury was Donna's friend Lou, who felt uncomfortable in its presence. 'Notes to Lou were left on scraps of parchment paper despite neither Donna nor Angie ever having any on hand. Things escalated when Annabelle physically assaulted Lou, scratching him across the chest as she tried to strangle him.'
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Touring ‘evil' Annabelle doll is blamed for bizarre fire and prison escape that both happened in Louisiana
A tour featuring the famously haunted Annabelle doll has sparked theories that the Raggedy Anne figure's responsible for a number of chaotic events - fiery claims its keepers have rebuked. Since early May, Annabelle's headed to different parts of the U.S. ahead of a Psychic Festival, with stops in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas. Theorists blamed the mannequin presence for a fire that broke out in Louisiana and escaped inmates in New Orleans. On the move: The doll made stops in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas, but what followed her visits was a series of unfortunate events that were linked to her The doll's famous history began in 1970 after she was gifted to a Hartford nurse and then began moving on her own and, in one instance, allegedly attacked the owner's fiance. Lorraine and Ed Warren, renowned paranormal researchers and founders of Warren's Occult Museum, investigated the doll's paranormal activity and gave her a permanent spot in their museum. Annabelle was displayed in a protective case, fitted with carved prayers and crosses as well as a sign made by Ed, which read, 'Warning: Positively Do Not Open.' The Warrens had always warned about moving Annabelle but for those who took the doll on tour, they vehemently defended doing so and said it is what the owners would have wanted. Paranormal investigator Chris Gilloren, who was part of the tour team, said: '[Annabelle's] not a spectacle, but it's a great way to get people talking about evil. That's what Ed and Lorraine wanted to do. They wanted to expose the devil, and tell people, advise people that the devil is real.' Ryan Buell, a paranormal investigator who also joined the tour, agreed that it was about education and continuing to spread the Warrens' work. Buell said: 'We keep the legacy and name of Ed and Lorraine alive. That they devoted their lives to this work, that there are people our there who still dedicate their own lives to helping people who are having these experiences. 'It's not that people just went in and saw a doll and they're like, "Oh cool!" We sat there and we talked to people. We talked about the dangers. We talk about the precautions.' However, the tour was not without it's strange and creepy moments that fueled wild online speculation on Annabelle's ability to leave a path of destruction as she moved around the country. On May 15, as the doll left Louisiana - her second tour stop - the historic 166-year-old Nottoway Plantation was destroyed in a blazing fire. Online speculation quickly turned to the doll's close presence as the reason the historic site went up in flames, but her caretakers are not convinced. Gilloren said: 'I don't know where these people come up with these... I mean, it's taken off, it's got a mind of its own. 'We don't think it has anything to do with us, of course, or Annabelle.' One post on X said: 'Three days ago they moved Annabelle, one of the most haunted dolls from Monroe, Connecticut, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and now the largest sugarcane plantation in Louisiana burned down AND 11 inmates in a New Orleans Prison escape... 'Didn't the Warrens say she should never be moved?' Another comment said: 'Taking her down here where there's voodoo and spirits everywhere is actually an idiot move I have to say.' Many other social media users worried about their own cities, and even contacted those monitoring Annabelle. Gilloren said: '...the amount of messages, emails that I received through our websites and social medias... they truly believe Annabelle did all this, which makes no sense to me personally... You know, why would she burn it down?' Gilloren believed that the events were purely coincidental. Theories that blamed Annabelle for the fire and escaped inmates were just the tip of the iceberg of the strange goings on during the doll's time on the road. 'To our knowledge, it's the first time we brought Annabelle to another haunted location, especially that far out,' Buell said, of their first tour stop in West Virginia State Penitentiary, a famously haunted building. 'What was weird - and I've been to the penitentiary many, many times - when Annabelle was in the prison, the activity around the prison was low.' Buell added that they had psychic mediums with them in the prison who said that other 'spirits' were 'staying at a distance'. Despite having worked with Annabelle many times before, Buell still found himself sensing a strange energy surrounding the doll. He said: 'In New Orleans, myself and Wade, who is a member of NESPR, were mainly the ones giving the talks about the Warren's... and so we would have to stand in front of Annabelle for hours,' he said. 'And the first day, Wade and I looked at each other and we're like, the energy is so off, like it feels so weird and he totally agreed.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Paranormal experts DEFEND taking 'evil' doll Annabelle on tour and reveal new strange encounters
The Annabelle doll's tour across the country sparked theories that the famously haunted relic was responsible for chaotic events that followed, but Annabelle's keepers have rebuked the fiery claims in exclusive interviews with Annabelle, a famously haunted Raggedy Anne doll, started a tour earlier this month ahead of a Psychic Festival, making stops in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas. The doll's famous history began in 1970 after it had been gifted to a Hartford nurse and then began moving on her own and, in one instance, allegedly attacked the owner's fiancé. Lorraine and Ed Warren, renowned paranormal researchers and founders of Warren's Occult Museum, investigated the doll's paranormal activity and gave her a permanent spot in their museum. She was displayed in a protective case, fitted with carved prayers and crosses as well as a sign made by Ed Warren, which read, 'Warning: Positively Do Not Open.' The Warrens had always warned about moving Annabelle but for those who took the doll on tour they vehemently defended doing so and say it is what the Warrens would have wanted. NESPR Lead Investigator into the paranormal, Chris Gilloren, who was part of the tour team, told '[Annabelle's] not a spectacle, but it's a great way to get people talking about evil. That's what Ed and Lorraine wanted to do. They wanted to expose the devil, and tell people, advise people that the devil is real.' Ryan Buell, a paranormal investigator who also joined the tour, agreed that it was about education and continuing to spread the work of Ed and Lorraine Warren. 'We keep the legacy and name of Ed and Lorraine alive. That they devoted their lives to this work, that there are people our there who still dedicate their own lives to helping people who are having these experiences,' Buell said. 'It's not that people just went in and saw a doll and they're like, 'oh cool.' We sat there and we talked to people. We talked about the dangers. We talk about the precautions.' But the tour was not without it's strange and creepy moments that fueled wild online speculation on Annabelle's ability to leave a path of destruction as she moved around the country. On May 15, as Annabelle left Louisiana - her second tour stop - the historic 166-year-old Nottoway Plantation was destroyed in a blazing fire. Online speculation quickly turned to the doll's close presence as the reason the historic site went up in flames, but her caretakers are not convinced. Gilloren said: 'I don't know where these people come up with these... I mean, it's taken off, it's got a mind of its own. 'We don't think it has anything to do with us, of course, or Annabelle.' One post on X connected the dots on May 19 and wrote: 'Three days ago they moved Annabelle, one of the most haunted dolls from Monroe, Connecticut, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and now the largest sugarcane plantation in Louisiana burned down AND 11 inmates in a New Orleans Prison escape...' 'Didn't the Warren's say she should never be move,' the post concluded. Another comment said: 'Taking her down here where there's voodoo and spirits everywhere is actually an idiot move I have to say.' Many other social media users worried about their own cities, and even contacted those monitoring Annabelle. '...the amount of messages, emails that I received through our websites and social medias... they truly believe Annabelle did all this, which makes no sense to me personally... you know, why would she burn it down?' Gilloren said. Gilloren said he believed that the events were purely coincidental. Speaking to Buell, pointed out the route Annabelle took as she left Louisiana. He examined the route through the state and said: 'This is the first time I've ever looked. Okay, yes, I can confirm we were within five miles [of the plantation] on the freeway. And, yes, it was on the same day. 'So, I mean, yes, that is a very bizarre coincidence.' Yet, Buell said there was an even stranger occurrence before they left New Orleans - a voodoo Priestess who 'challenged' Annabelle. 'We were like, 'wait, so we're being blamed for what? A plantation? Somewhere in Louisiana? Louisiana, okay, well probably coincidence,' But I mean, I kind of thought, well, there was this voodoo priestess who challenged Annabelle when we were leaving,' he recalled. 'We were packing up and all of a sudden we heard tambourines and someone's screaming, 'Go to hell, Annabelle,'' Buell said. 'She laid holy water down and said, 'In the name of New Orleans voodoo, I rebuke you.'... but I mean, there was the thought of, yikes, this priestess just challenged Annabelle. It was almost like voodoo versus the demonic,' he continued. 'And so... there was that creeping thought of, 'what if,'' Buell said. Theories that blamed Annabelle for the fire and escaped inmates were just the tip of the iceberg of the strange goings on during the doll's time on the road. 'To our knowledge, it's the first time we brought Annabelle to another haunted location, especially that far out,' Buell said, of their first tour stop in West Virginia State Penitentiary, a famously haunted building. 'What was weird - and I've been to the penitentiary many, many times - when Annabelle was in the prison, the activity around the prison was low.' Buell added that they had psychic mediums with them in the prison who said that other 'spirits' were 'staying at a distance'. Buell said that he had visited the West Virginia State Penitentiary numerous times before, but that Annabelle's presence had quietened other spirit activity he had experienced before. Pictured: Ryan Buell in front of the WV State Penitentiary '[The spirits are] just kind of watching. A couple were saying they felt uneasy,' Buell said. 'They didn't know what that meant. Then when we took Annabelle out, you know, we're wrapped up... Then the activity picked up. 'And the two employees who were there, who regularly witnessed the activity, they pulled me to the side and said, 'look, they don't like it that Annabelle is here. They don't like its energy, so they're hanging back.'' After Annabelle had left, other activity picked up again. Buell recalled his previous experiences at the prison, without Annabelle. 'You'll hear whispers. You'll hear footsteps. And then especially in the infirmary on the second floor. That place is so active,' he said. 'You'll literally hear bangings if you say, hey, knock for me. You'll hear intelligent responses, you know, knocking back.' He described his experience within the infirmary as feeling like 'prey'. 'You're very well aware of the fact that you're being watched. You feel like something is literally following you and you start to feel a sense of danger,' he added, recalling that he heard bangs and the slamming of doors around him. Annabelle's presence at the penitentiary was not only felt by the spirits within the building, but also those who came in for the tour. Buell recalled how things got 'aggressive' as they used a spirit box to communicate with the doll, who inspired The Conjuring and Annabelle movie franchises. He said the process involves one person listening with noise cancelling headphones, only able to hear what's going on inside the box, while those outside ask questions. 'It's pulling from like public radio stations, right? The spirit box. It just randomly jumps from station to station and pulls sounds and voices from it,' Buell said. 'People would ask questions, 'who's here with us? Is the entity around Annabelle here?' and suddenly the answers.. suddenly it started to turn to like, 'You b***. I want your body.' Some other stuff.' '...I remember at one point I was like okay, I'm done. This energy is getting a little too weird. And so we had another person do it and then they got very emotional,' he continued. Despite having worked with Annabelle many times before, Buell still found himself sensing a strange energy surrounding the doll. 'In New Orleans, myself and Wade, who is a member of NESPR, were mainly the ones giving the talks about the Warren's... and so we would have to stand in front of Annabelle for hours,' he said. 'And the first day, Wade and I looked at each other and we're like, the energy is so off, like it feels so weird and he totally agreed.' 'I started getting really intrusive thoughts, and Wade had to remind me that the demonic often use psychological tactics, so we just doused ourselves in holy water and kept going,' Buell recalled. But even with Annabelle's unnerving presence, her keepers defended the doll against the spiral of rumors that Annabelle had caused the chaos along their route. 'I mean, she was down in San Antonio and I really haven't heard of anything happening in San Antonio. She was in West Virginia. I haven't heard anything up in West Virginia happening,' Gilloren said. 'She's in Connecticut. I mean she's been in Connecticut for 50 years. We don't blame every kind of disaster on Annabelle,' he added. Anabelle's tour continues in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from July 11-13 and then in Rock Island, Illinois, from October 4-5.
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Embracing The Horror Trend As A Self-Confessed Wimp
We are witnessing a new wave of horror films, with Sinners, Bring Her Back, and Talk To Me as few of the successful horror films of late. As a certified scaredy cat, I hate all things horror. The first horror film I watched was Annabelle (2014) when I was 10, because my sister tricked me by telling me it was an animated film. And let me tell you — that creepy ass doll was my nightmare for the next 6 years of my life. And due to this, horror to me was a genre filled with scary looking ghosts, jumpscares, incredibly loud and eerie background music with no actual story to it — just ghosts deciding to haunt random (white) people in big suburban houses. And this led to me avoiding all horror movies or even anything near it. In the process, I unknowingly skipped past all the great cinematic work that I found out about much later — Silence In The Lambs, The Sixth Sense, and The Babadook, for instance. Cut to 2019 — when I dared to watch the iconic Ari Aster film, Midsommar, because my friend told me it was " not too scary." And that was when my world changed. I am a sucker for deeper and hidden meanings in films and the use of symbolism, which Ari Aster nailed. Midsommar became the film that got me hooked to this once-hated genre. The combination of unhealed trauma, grief, neglect and ritualistic horror was enticing to me. It took the best out of both worlds — psychology and horror — and gave us a layered and nuanced cult horror masterpiece (and the iconic Florence Pugh frown). After seeing so many people who, like me, are easily scared but are exploring the magic of horror films, sharing their regrets online, it made me realise that there is a change in the way horror films are made, making it unmissable for even wimps like me. I then took a deep dive into modern horror classics. Starting with Robert Egger's The Witch to Jordan Peele's Get Out, the new crop of horror films has multiple layers of cultural and societal nuances, masterfully wrapped in stories that still make me clutch my blanket! Recent movies are telling us that true horror is the world we are living in, making it scarier. Yet it is addictive. It's safe to say, a new era is in for horror, and our favorite directors and writers are making the most out of it! by u/dremolus from discussion in horror I'm looking at you, Robert Eggers! Hereditary, Ari Aster's film which set this ball rolling, is a film that hits you in the gut and keeps you wide awake. The terror is not in the jumpscares, but in the raw, emotional chaos that is painfully real, but still has that supernatural feeling. The lack of eerie music and the booming silence made it unsettling and terrifying - and that's what made it so unforgettable. Don't get me wrong — classics like The Shining and Black Swan are etched in wood as true horror. But this new turn of the genre becoming mainstream is more exciting, with anti-horror fans gathering the courage to watch these films in theatres. But why are these fans risking their sleep? Because of the majestic cinematography, emotional depth, and fresh perspectives that trump the spooky stuff. Bring Her Back, the 2025 horror film by the same directors as Talk To Me is the perfect example of the above. Released on May 29th worldwide, people are already shook from the gory and painful depiction of grief and trauma. The film follows a pair of siblings who encounter their foster mother in a terrifying ritual, set in an isolated home. The movie depicts the effects of unresolved trauma and grief. Tied with bloody visuals, creepy use of taxidermy, and squeamish sounds in the background — this film is THE embodiment of nuanced horror, making it scarier. Monsters and ghosts are easy — it's the quiet trauma that keeps me up at night. With the lights on, duh.
