There are few modern day horror characters as iconic as Annabelle, the red-haired doll first seen in the original The Conjuring. She was so potently creepy — seriously, some of us journos received her as press swag, and she haunts our offices or homes — that she got her own spin-off series, despite being unable to even speak.
So the words “first look at Annabelle Comes Home” don’t sound like they promise anything too shocking. It’ll just be Annabelle, right? Well, to quote the psychologist scene from Psycho: yes, and no. The image does as the title says, and brings her back home — that is, to the shelves of the artifact room belonging to paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
Series runner (and sometime series director) James Wan dropped the image on his Instagram account, with the following caption: “OK, maybe she has snuck cameos in my other recent films (which I won’t confirm or deny), BUT… she’ll very definitely be up front and center on this one! The real next chapter of THE CONJURING Universe. On June 28th #AnnabelleComesHome.”
Like he said, the next Conjuring entry is also the third Annabelle episode, finding the two worlds crossing paths again, with the Lorraines doing battle with the seemingly inanimate this time.
“It really picks up with the Warrens bringing Annabelle to the place where it can really no longer wreak havoc, which is their artifact room,” said the film’s director, Gary Dauberman, at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. “But, of course, it turns out she can also wreak havoc there. And she really awakens the evil within that room and they target the Warrens’ 10-year-old daughter, Judy.”
“Annabelle basically activates all the other haunted artifacts in that room,” added Wan. “So, it’s basically A Night at the Museum, with Annabelle!”
The film is due this June 28.
(Via EW)
