Line #23 Film/Annabelle


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/annabelle2014.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Prequel}} Before]] Film/TheConjuring[[TagLine , there was Annabelle.]]'']]
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4	''Annabelle'' is a 2014 American supernatural psychological horror film directed by John R. Leonetti (''Film/MortalKombatAnnihilation''), produced by Creator/JamesWan, and written by Gary Dauberman. The second film to be set in Film/TheConjuringUniverse, it is both a {{prequel}} to and SpinOff of ''Film/TheConjuring''. The film stars Creator/AnnabelleWallis, Ward Horton, and Creator/AlfreWoodard. It was released worldwide on October 3, 2014.
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6	John Gordon has found the perfect gift for both his pregnant wife Mia and their unborn child—Annabelle, a beautiful and rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. Unfortunately, the family's delight with the doll is shortlived. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack John and Mia. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity, which is so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now Annabelle.
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8	The film got its own prequel in 2017 called ''Film/AnnabelleCreation''. A sequel to the first film, titled ''Film/AnnabelleComesHome'', followed in 2019.
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10	!!Tropes
11	* ActionDad: John does a pretty good job of fending off both Annabelle Higgins and her boyfriend after they attack Mia.
12	* AnachronismStew: Though the film does an appreciable job to avoid this, there are still several anachronisms (the film is set in the early [[TheSeventies Seventies]]):
13	** While 911 has been used as a national emergency number since 1968, it didn't cover much of the United States until later.
14	** Mia's sewing machine is IKEA. IKEA didn't show up in the US until 1985, or even have a store outside Scandinavia until 1973.
15	** Mia is hooked up in an IV kit contained in a plastic bag after giving birth to Leah. In that time period, one would be hooked into [[https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5944131/il_570xN.337428430.jpg a glass bottle]]. Plastic bags weren't used until mid 1970's.
16	** Ultrasound didn't really take off in the United States until the late 70's/early 80's.
17	** As mentioned in SeriesContinuityError below, if you take the year tags of the films at face value, you would assume that the film takes place in 1967 (as ''The Conjuring'' states that the nurses give Annabelle to the Warrens in 1968, and this film happens a year before that). If so, the mention of the Sharon Tate murder would be an anachronism, since she was murdered in 1969.
18	* BigRedDevil: [[spoiler:The demon worshiped by the Disciples of the Ram is dark-skinned instead of red, but it has all features of the typical depiction of the Devil, complete with horns.]]
19	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: It depends entirely on your point of view. On the one hand, the family is fine and the doll is gone by the end. On the other, it was only after Evelyn effectively committed suicide after offering her soul to the demon. So everyone else is fine, but she's dead and probably hellbound. The one silver lining is "God still has a purpose for you." So presumably her sacrifice somehow didn't end with her hellbound.]]
20	* ClingyMcGuffin: The doll comes back even if thrown away.
21	* CoolOldLady: Evelyn. She is able to suggest a cause and solution for whatever happened to Leah before anyone else does. And she actively talks Mia into discussing her problem rather than hiding it. Plus, she is pushed down by [[spoiler: the demon]] and ''shrugs it off!''
22	-->'''Evelyn:''' Mia, I'm old. That means that [[SeenItAll there are very little things that can surprise me]]. If there is something shocking, I'm too tired to show it.
23	* CreepyBasement: Mia's first physical encounter with the BigBad takes place in a dark basement. At night.
24	* CreepyDoll: Annabelle is already creepy enough even before she becomes a conduit for whatever is worshiped by the cultists.
25	* {{Cult}}: The "Disciples of the Ram", the cult the living Annabelle belonged to.
26	%%* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Evelyn]].
27	* ElevatorEscape: At one point, Mia escapes into an elevator.
28	* ForegoneConclusion: In ''The Conjuring'', the Annabelle doll still exists and is still a very dangerous item. And the movie itself shows what happened before other characters got the doll and were terrified by it.
29	* GreaterScopeVillain: Annabelle Higgins, who turned the doll evil in the first place. [[spoiler: the prequel reveals this to be a Subversion having been possessed by the demon against her will for more than a decade she is as much a victim as anyone else, and that this is in fact the second time that doll has been possessed by that specific demon.]]
30	* HauntedFetter: The Annabelle doll serves as one to the demon.
31	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Evelyn takes Mia's place to save Leah by sacrificing her own soul.]]
32	* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Inverted with Annabelle. The real Annabelle doll is a Literature/RaggedyAnn doll, not the more human-looking and terrifying thing that appears here.
33	* IdiotBall: Sure, Mia, it's SUCH a good idea to leave your poor, defenseless baby BY HERSELF in the apartment while you go to the storage unit, even though you've been threatened in that very apartment by violent spirits. That couldn't possibly end horribly. [[labelnote:Note]] It actually did end up being okay with the baby ending up no worse for wear, but it was still a stupid thing to do.[[/labelnote]]
34	* ImperiledInPregnancy: Almost nine months into her pregnancy, Mia has to endure: being ''stabbed in the stomach'' with a knife, then having to helplessly see her kitchen caught on flame, choked with smoke, violently thrown into the floor, ''and then'' pulled by an unseen force when she crawls away for dear life. Thankfully, she manages to give birth to her baby relatively unharmed.
35	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The whole point of the film is that all the main characters have to do something so Leah can survive the haunting unharmed. [[spoiler: Ultimately played straight, but at the cost of Evelyn's life.]]
36	* MagicalNegro: Evelyn has shades of this.
37	* MythologyGag: [[spoiler:In the store at the end of the movie where Annabelle ends up before finding a new owner, you can see [[Literature/RaggedyAnn an actual Raggedy Ann doll]] sitting on a shelf in the background in the same shot as Annabelle, in a nod to the real Annabelle doll.]]
38	* NumberOfTheBeast: When Mia's stuck in the storage room elevator [[spoiler:with the devil, no less]], she frantically tries in vain to get to the '''6'''th floor '''3 times'''.
39	* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Subverted. After Leah disappears, Mia repeatedly slams Annabelle into the crib before throwing it down, only to discover that the doll is apparently her baby transformed, and she has a brief MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment. However, the demon is doing this just to mess with Mia, as Leah is still alive and in his possession.]]
40	* OffscreenTeleportation: Highlighted during a scene when Annabelle (the cultist)'s ghost haunts Leah. She is first seen limping through the nursery room at the far end of the corridor...only to suddenly appear in the living room (still limping) right in front of the sleeping Mia.
41	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Evelyn lost her daughter in a car accident that was technically her fault.
42	* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Annabelle's ghost? Nope. Everything is caused by a demon that was apparently summoned by the cult to which she belonged]]. That said, [[CallForward the Warrens already said anything about this]] in ''Film/TheConjuring''.
43	* SelfMadeOrphan: Annabelle the cultist murders her parents before committing suicide to complete the ritual [[spoiler: to [[Film/AnnabelleCreation return the demon inside her to the doll.]]]]
44	* SeriesContinuityError:
45	** It is pretty clear that the film is meant to take place ''at the very least'' in 1969. The Sharon Tate murder being mentioned is the most obvious indication, but if you freeze frame the newspaper covering Annabelle Higgins' ritual, it says that the ritual takes place on October 3, 1970. These contradict ''The Conjuring'', which shows the Warrens confiscating Annabelle in the year 1968. The filmmakers might have forgotten the year tag in the opening of ''The Conjuring'' and instead assumed that the Warrens confiscate Annabelle the same year they deal with the Perron case, which is in 1971. This would make the "ONE YEAR EARLIER" tag in the opening scene of this film and the above newspaper dated October 3, 1970 a lot more sense.
46	** Finally settled in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGmDCTNQc8g& video]], which confirmed the film's 1970 setting. So yes, there is a retcon.
47	* SupernaturalProofFather: John is resistant to believe that the events have supernatural origins, but he's still more than willing to believe his wife.
48	* {{Tuckerization}}: Mia and John's names reference Creator/MiaFarrow and Creator/JohnCassavetes, the stars of a major influence on the film, ''Film/RosemarysBaby'', which was also directed by Sharon Tate's widower, Creator/RomanPolanski.

Context Film / Annabelle