The Annabelle Comes Home Easter Egg That Pays Homage To The Original Doll

The first image shown in James Wan's 2013 horror film "The Conjuring" is of a doll. The doll is weathered (but not necessarily well-loved), with scratches on its blushed cheekbone and worn-away eyelash paint peering out from under blunt red bangs. A crack splits the iris of the toy's eye, perhaps allowing a peek into something nasty hidden within the porcelain conduit. The doll is introduced during an interview with the Warrens (played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), a married paranormal investigation team. Then and throughout the "Conjuring" films, this doll — called Annabelle — is a ginger menace who wreaks havoc and racks up a body count wherever it goes.

It's fairly common knowledge (at least, among horror heads) that the real allegedly-haunted Annabelle doesn't have such an overtly creepy look. She is a Raggedy Ann, from a popular line of dolls; this writer had a non-haunted one as a kid. Similar to the Annabelle of "The Conjuring," the doll was brought to the Warrens with complaints of aggressive, malevolent behavior, to which the Warrens concluded that the toy was demonically possessed and encased it in a glass box (blessed by a priest) in their now-closed Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. Seven sequels and spin-offs later throughout the Conjuring Universe (which includes Annabelle films, Conjuring films, "The Nun," and "The Curse of La Llorona"), the Annabelle doll has become a fixture in modern horror iconography, right next to The Babadook. But within the "Annabelle" spinoffs, a Raggedy Ann makes a cameo for eagle-eyed viewers to enjoy.