The Conjuring: Last Rites is crushing box office records, raking in $194 million worldwide and finally dethroning It’s 2017 $190 million opening. It’s the horror movie everyone’s talking about, and yet, director Michael Chaves isn’t ready to let the series go just yet. Even though it’s billed as the “final” Conjuring film, he’s already teasing what could come next. And the lead-in involves Matt Rife, Annabelle, and a lot of haunted objects.
Earlier this year, Rife made headlines when he bought Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Connecticut home along with the Occult Museum inside. That means he now legally owns the original Annabelle doll. On Instagram, he wrote, “INSANE ANNOUNCEMENT. I have officially purchased Ed and Lorraine Warren’s home and Occult Museum, including being the legal guardian… of THE ANNABELLE DOLL… We plan to open the house for overnight stays and museum tours so you yourself can experience and learn all the haunted history surrounding this amazing place.”
Chaves isn’t entirely relaxed about it. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, he joked, “I’m deeply concerned… deeply concerned. I dunno. As long as he’s got the instruction manual or whatever the blessing procedure is, I’m sure it will all be fine. I guess I am curious. I haven’t read enough about it to know why he did it.” At the same time, the director sees a story opportunity: “It does though feel like a great new chapter. If there ever was a Phase 2 of the [Conjuring] series, I think that it should begin with him just turning these viral bits with each one of the artefacts, and it just goes horribly wrong.”
Even the actors are intrigued. Vera Farmiga, who plays Lorraine Warren, told People, “I’d love to pick his brain,” adding she’s keen to find out “what his intentions are.”
But the one voice you can’t ignore is Chris McKinnell, grandson of the Warrens. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. On Reel Appreciation, he called the movies “absolute fantasies” and warned about the doll’s real-world danger.
“I’d never even heard of the man until he bought it… I was far more concerned with what my mother’s husband was doing by allowing things out on tour,” McKinnell said. “That to me was so dangerous and a betrayal of everything my grandparents spent their lives doing. One of the worst parts of my grandparents’ legacy is that my grandfather ever made the mistake of calling it a museum. It was never open to the public. Very small groups, specific instructions. Don’t touch anything. Do not try to communicate with anything. And yet, what are they doing now? TikTok videos. Talking to these things. To me, that place is the Chernobyl of the paranormal.”
He also explained Annabelle’s origin story, tracing it back to two nursing students in 1969. “They poured all their love into it until one day its arms came up… They thought, let’s have a seance. The doll would leave notes, move around, play hide-and-seek. The boyfriend… woke up with the doll choking him. He threw it across the room. The doll threw a tantrum just like a little girl would. This was before my grandparents were well known… They decided it had to be demonic. They brought it home, put it in a chair. My grandfather said, ‘Don’t touch that. It’s cursed.’”
McKinnell now runs The Warren Legacy Foundation for Paranormal Research. His message is simple: the Conjuring universe might be fun on screen, but the real paranormal world isn’t a movie. Matt Rife’s Annabelle adventures could be entertaining for Instagram, but Chaves, Farmiga, and especially McKinnell know the real doll doesn’t play games.
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