Ed and Lorraine Warren, depicted by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson in The Conjuring paranormal horror movie universe, were self-professed paranormal investigators involved in multiple famous cases of demonic activity. Ed, a demonologist, and Lorraine, a clairvoyant and medium, wrote numerous books about their investigations—which included the controversial Amityville haunting—and founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952.
Ed and Lorraine collected countless haunted artifacts during their years of paranormal investigations, and eventually turned that collection into a museum in the back of their home. The Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut—now closed due to zoning violations—housed an array of spooky objects, including the infamous Annabelle doll.
The Conjuring films often contain references to the Warrens’ extensive collection of haunted artifacts. In some cases, full movies are based on those objects, as with the Annabelle doll. In other cases, items are simply part of the background set design as Ed or Lorraine walk around their collection room.
Annabelle The Doll
The Annabelle doll, heavily featured in multiple movies in The Conjuring universe, has become a symbol of paranormal horror. According to Ed and Lorraine, the horrifying true story of Annabelle began in 1968, when a mother purchased the doll—which in real life is a Raggedy Ann doll, not a porcelain one as depicted in the movies—for her daughter, a 28-year-old nurse. The doll began demonstrating peculiar behavior, moving around the apartment and leaving messages for Donna and her roommate. A medium observed the doll and said it was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins. Later, the Warrens came onto the scene, alleging that a demonic spirit had attached itself to the doll. They tried to exorcise the demon out but were unsuccessful, so they built a special glass case for the doll and stowed it in their museum.
A different origin story is portrayed in Annabelle, in which a man purchases the haunted doll for his wife, a doll collector, who is instantly terrorized by the spirit. Annabelle was first depicted in The Conjuring world in the first movie in 2013, at the end of the film, and later comes back in Annabelle in 2014, Annabelle: Creation in 2017, and Annabelle Comes Home in 2019. The haunted doll also briefly appeared in The Conjuring 2 in 2016, and made cameos in separate films including Aquaman in 2018, The Curse of La Llorona in 2019, and Shazam in 2019.
The Perron Family Music Box
In 1971, the Ed and Lorraine went to the aid of the Perron family in Harrisville, Rhode Island, where alleged paranormal activity was the basis of The Conjuring. The family was being terrorized by the spirit of a witch and Satanist named Bathsheba Sherman, who had lived and died at the house in the early 19th century.
In the film version of the story, the youngest child of the Perron family, April, finds an antique music box in the house and uses it communicate with the spirit of child named Rory, who was supposedly killed by his mother, Bathsheba, in the 1800s. Lorraine examines the music box in the film, and ends up catching a glimpse of the child spirit herself. Larger things are at play throughout the film, but at the end of it viewers see Ed place the haunted music box inside of the room of artifacts, where it suddenly opens and begins to play its tinny music.
The Haunted Piano
Ed Warren allegedly obtained the Occult Museum’s haunted piano from the house of a deceased priest, and later stated that he could sometimes hear music playing from it in the middle of the night. When he'd go check on the sound of piano music, it would stop playing as soon as he walked into the room.
The piano that's briefly featured in Annabelle Comes Home is allegedly based on this artifact. In the movie, Daniela—a teenager who babysits Judy, Ed and Lorraine’s daughter—plays keys on the piano as she explores the room of haunted artifacts, despite being warned not to touch anything in the room.
The Demonic Toy Monkey
Ed and Lorraine claimed in the past that the toy monkey in the Occult Museum was possessed by a demonic spirit. Viewers only get a brief glimpse of the toy monkey in the first installment of The Conjuring, during the scene where Ed gives a news reporter a tour of the room of haunted artifacts. “Everything you see in here is either haunted, cursed, or been used in some kind of ritualistic practice,” he tells the reporter. "Nothing is a toy. Not even the toy monkey. Don’t touch it!"
The Samurai Suit
An old set of Samurai armor was always a main attraction at the Occult Museum. The armor is briefly noticeable in the set design of the Warrens’ room of haunted object in the first two installments of The Conjuring. Later, it appears more prominently in Annabelle Comes Home. After Judy's babysitter, Daniela, opens Annabelle’s case, the doll's spirit escapes and brings the other demons in the artifact room to life. Judy and Daniela become mesmerized by the armor; they can hear the sounds of a samurai’s battle cries emitting from it, as well as the screams of his victims.
The Shadow Doll
The Warrens’ shadow doll was not featured at all in The Conjuring movies, but remained a central display at the Occult Museum. The item, which appears to be handmade, is said to visit people in their dreams, and supposedly the spirit it possesses has the power to stop hearts.
Other Objects In The Warrens' Museum
Other eccentric artifacts that Ed and Lorraine stocked in their Occult Museum include a haunted mirror, a vampire coffin, a brick from the Borley Rectory (a haunted house in England), Satanic books, children's tombstones, demon masks, voodoo dolls, animal skins, and allegedly cursed photographs. It’s hard to say if people will get another chance to visit the museum and see the haunted artifacts for themselves, but in the meantime they can catch depictions of them in The Conjuring movies. Hopefully, the upcoming The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, set to release September 2020, will introduce some never-before-seen artifacts to the already expansive universe.