No one envisioned the Conjuring franchise producing a whole cinematic world when the first film was released in 2013. The Conjuring universe’s eighth entry, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” was recently released. The movies have exposed us to some of the worst villains in horror movies, loosely based on the case files of the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren. Because the supernatural encounters are based on true incidents, the suspense lasts long after the films have ended. It is no surprise that the film’s adversaries have their own spin-offs. Whether it is the frightening Annabelle doll or Valak as the Nun, they have given us nightmares for weeks. Today, we will take a look at the ten most terrifying and heartbreaking villains from The Conjuring universe, as well as their backstories.
Annabelle
After losing their daughter Bee in a road accident, Samuel Mullins and Esther keep looking for ways to bring their daughter back. Their prayers were answered by a demon masquerading as their deceased daughter. The Mullins get tricked into transferring the demon’s essence into Bee’s porcelain doll that was named Annabelle. By the time they realize the deception by an evil spirit, it is too late to undo the damage. The Mullins seal Annabelle inside Bee’s closet and cover the walls with pages of the bible. They reach out to the church to bless the household.
Annabelle remained dormant for twelve years until Sister Charlotte and the orphans from St. Eustace arrived at their house. After coming across a note which says ‘Find me’ Janice ends up entering Bee’s room. Janice unlocks Bee’s closet with the key she finds inside the doll’s house and ends up freeing Annabelle. Annabelle begins to haunt the girls during their stay at the Mullins’ house, and Janice becomes her primary target. While trying to flee from Annabelle, Janice falls down the stairs and ends up in a wheelchair. When Sister Charlotte takes Janice out for some sunlight, Janice gets pushed into a barn by a nun figure resembling Valak.
She is possessed by Annabelle while trying to get to her wheelchair. After learning that Annabelle had been freed, Samuel gets attacked by the demonic doll. Janice approaches Samuel and transforms into Annabelle’s true demonic form. When he tries to repel the demon with his handmade crucifix, Annabelle snaps his fingers backward before mercilessly killing him off. At night, Linda tries to get rid of Annabelle by throwing the doll down the well. She begins to hear whispers coming from the well while walking back to the house and Annabelle tries to pull her inside the well but she gets saved by Charlotte. They rush back to the house and find Annabelle in Janice’s place.
Annabelle continues to terrorize the girls until Charlotte returns and locks a possessed Janice and the demonic doll inside the closet. Sister Charlotte and the other orphans vacate the house. When the police arrive at the scene, they only find the porcelain doll in the closet and take it away as evidence. Janice escapes through a hole in the closet wall and is relocated to another orphanage, where she gets adopted by the Higgins family. She introduces herself as Annabelle and twelve years later forms her own cult known as ‘The Disciples of Ram’. She ends up killing her foster parents whose screams awaken Mia Form and her husband. They arrive at the Higgins doorstep to investigate the source of the sound.
In Annabelle, the porcelain doll once again appears to have been possessed by a vengeful spirit and haunts a married couple who are expecting a child. Annabelle made a brief appearance in the first Conjuring movie as well, as the demonic doll haunting the nurses who picked her up. She also appears to Lorraine towards the end of the film. In “Annabelle Comes Home”, the doll begins to haunt a young Judy Warren after being contained in Warren’s occult museum.
Valak The Nun
The Cârta Monastery was built by a Duke in Romania. Being obsessed with Dark Magic and Satanism, the Duke summons a demonic force from the catacombs. He is executed by the members of the Vatican, who seal off the rift with the blood of Christ. The Monastery gets heavily bombed during the events of World War 2, which ends up releasing the evil spirit into the world. The demon takes the form of a nun to blend with the nuns from the monastery and mock their faith. The nuns hoped that praying in communion would help them combat the evil spirit but Valak continued to walk around the monastery through the nights.
In 1952, Valak killed all the nuns except two. One of them commits suicide with a key in her hand to prevent Valak from claiming her as host. After the massacre, the Vatican sent Burke and Sister Irene to investigate the scene. Valak creates mass illusions of the ghosts of the dead nuns to manipulate and weaken Sister Irene. She takes the form of a young boy who had died after Father Burke performed a botched exorcism to torment him. She manages to bury Father Burke alive and proceeds to possess Sister Irene.
Valak attempts to strangle Sister Irene to death as the catacombs begin to flood. Sister Irene spits out the Blood of Christ, burning Valak severely. The rift is resealed but Valak manages to escape by possessing Maurice. Maurice had appeared in the first Conjuring film while the Warrens were teaching a class about demonic possessions.
Valak made her first appearance in the Conjuring universe in “The Conjuring 2”, where she was controlling Bill Wilkins to haunt the Hodgson family. While Ed and Lorraine were investigating the demonic presence responsible for Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdering his whole family, Valak lures Lorraine into the basement and shows her a vision of Ed dying after being impaled. A dream compels Ed to paint Valak in her nun form and she continues to similarly torment Lorraine.
The Warrens arrive in the UK to investigate the paranormal activity in the Hodgson house. Valak appears in the form of the crooked man and attacks Billy Hodgson. It is revealed that Janet is possessed by the demonic character. Lorraine later encounters Bill Wilkins in a vision and learns that he doesn’t mean to harm the family but was manipulated by Valak into doing so. Ed and Lorraine return to the Hodgson residence to find them locked out except for Janet.
Lightning strikes a nearby tree and leaves a jagged stump, which resembles the weapon used to impale Ed in Lorraine’s vision. Ed enters the house to be greeted by Valak bursting the steam pipe open, which partially blinds Ed. After finding Janet near a window preparing to jump, Ed rushes to save Janet, desperately hanging on by a shower curtain that was being torn from its rings because of Ed and Janet’s combined weight. Lorraine enters the room and realizes that they need the demon’s name to defeat it, and remembers writing it down in her Bible in one of her visions. Lorraine successfully condemns Valak to hell by saying her name out loud.
Bathsheba Sherman
Bathsheba was related to Mary Towne Eastey, one of the accused executed for performing witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials. Bathsheba got married to a rich farmer and gave birth to a child. She gets caught by her husband in the act of sacrificing her one-week-old baby to the devil. Bathsheba puts a curse on the land before taking her own life and continued to haunt her land and possess mothers to kill their children, eventually forcing them to take their own life.
When the Perrons moved into her house in 1971, Bathsheba haunts them in retaliation for taking her land. Bathsheba kills their family dog who could detect her presence. Every night, the clocks would stop working at 3:07 AM, also known as the Devil’s hour. When Ed and Lorraine arrive to investigate, she disappears for a while. It is Lorraine who discovers Bathsheba’s history and realizes that she is possessing the mother. She is condemned back to hell by the Warrens in a spine-chilling exorcism sequence.
The Crooked Man
The Crooked Man was one of the entities haunting the Hodgson house. He makes his presence known when Billy’s toy truck keeps returning, despite being pushed into the tent. Billy encounters the Crooked Man for the first time while playing with his zoetrope toy. Later, he appears to terrorize Ed while he tries to search for Janet. The Crooked Man manages to possess the zoetrope toy and connects itself to it. The Crooked Man is similar to the urban myth of the Slenderman.
The nursery rhyme ‘Crooked Man’ plays from the zoetrope toy when Ed encounters him for the first time. The Crooked Man’s threat gets nullified after Valak is condemned back to hell. Similar to Annabelle, the zoetrope toy is possibly the conduit for the Crooked Man. The spinoff for the Crooked Man’s story is under production. Valak has set the stage for his return to haunt our dreams once again, this time in the form of the Crooked Man.
The Samurai
The Samurai was a warrior from feudal Japan, who attacked and slaughtered many innocent people including women and children, without a hint of remorse. His suit of armor possessed the warrior’s soul after his demise. On coming across the haunted armor, the Warrens blessed and sealed it away in their occult museum. Mary Ellen arrives at the Warren house to babysit Judy Warren and her friend Daniela Rios. Daniela waited for the other girls to leave and sneaked into the occult museum to procure a device to contact her recently deceased father.
She touches several cursed objects and unlocks the case containing Annabelle and forgets to lock it back up before leaving. Annabelle draws energy from the cursed objects and brings forth the Samurai and other spirits to her aid. When the girls return to lock Annabelle back in her case, they hear the screams of the Samurai’s past victims. His helmet follows Mary Ellen, who enters a trance while looking inside the hollow mask. She begins to scream and luckily Judy is able to snap her out of the daze. The Samurai attacks the girls when they try to put Annabelle back in her case. They accomplish escaping the spirit by locking Annabelle into her case, which cuts off her connection to the other evil spirits.
Bill Wilkins
Bill Wilkins was the previous owner of the Hodgsons house. The decaying flesh and teeth beneath the yellow eyes make him look terrifying enough to spook the hell out of anyone. Thanks to the director, James Wan, the cold and uninviting ambiance of the house adds eeriness to the presence of Bill Wilkins. Old furniture in the setting, especially Wilkins’ beat-up leather chair lying in the corner, makes his presence even more unnerving.
He died at the age of 72 after getting a hemorrhage and going blind. He was overly protective of his house and family. In “The Conjuring 2”, his display gave the impression of strong hatred towards the Hodgsons family for taking over his house. He appeared vengeful, angry and seemed to enjoy tormenting the Hodgson children, especially Janet, whom he possesses. It was later revealed that he was being manipulated by Valak and didn’t truly mean to harm the Hodgsons.
The Ferryman
Following the death of a young girl, Ed and Lorraine investigate the Ferryman. They interview those affected by the evil spirit; they reveal that the Ferryman demands a toll to not take away the souls of the departed. Ed and Lorraine collect the coins from the corpses cursed by the Ferryman. They bless the coins and lock them away in their occult museum. In “Annabelle comes home”, after Daniela frees Annabelle, the doll brings around the other evil spirits to her aid, including the Ferryman.
They read up on the Ferryman’s case from the Warren case files. Later that night. Mary Ellen gets distracted by noises while trying to watch television. She investigates the source, unaware of the tortured souls of the Ferryman’s victims surrounding her. She hears voices coming from the recording of Warren’s interviews with the Ferryman’s victims. After following the sound of coins falling, she encounters the Ferryman in the kitchen. While trying to run, she gets pulled by an unseen force. Before the Ferryman can claim her soul, she shines a light upon it, which makes him vanish and escape. The Ferryman and the other spirits continue to haunt the girls while they try to come up with a plan.
The Bride
Ed and Lorraine investigate the Bride after a series of deaths involving grooms at their weddings. The Bride was a ghost possessing a wedding dress. She would possess the brides to be who wore the dress, and killed their grooms with a knife. The dress would mysteriously be cleaned off the blood to find its next victim. Before the Warrens intervened, seven grooms had lost their lives to this wedding dress.
They obtained the dress and locked it in their occult museum after blessing it. In “Annabelle Comes Home”, the bride is one of the many spirits aiding Annabelle. Judy comes across the Bride with the Annabelle doll, who then proceeds to attack Judy with her knife. She holds up her crucifix and is able to repel the Bride. The girls read up on the Bride from the Warren case files. The bride manages to catch Daniela. Once pushed to a vulnerable state, the Bride manages to possess her and forces her to wear the wedding dress. After Mary Ellen is attacked by a possessed Daniela, Judy plays the video of Ed exorcising a spirit. The recording forces the Bride out of Daniela’s body. When the spirits prevent the girls from putting Annabelle back, a freed Daniela rushes in and helps close the case.
La Llorona
Back in 1673, a Mexican family is seen spending time together in the forest. One of the sons gives the mother a necklace. He finds himself alone after opening his eyes and is shocked to see his mother drown his elder brother in a river. He tries to flee the scene but is grabbed by his mother who also drowns him in the water. The grief-stricken mother takes her own life to reunite with her children in the afterlife. Instead, she is cursed to walk around the earth in search of her lost children. She gains the title of “La Llorona” or the weeping woman. Upon hearing her cry, one would end up getting marked by death.
About three centuries later, La Llorona hunts the family of Patricia Alvarez in Los Angeles. When Patricia locks her children away for protection, it attracts the attention of a social worker Anna Tate-Garcia. Despite being warned of La Llorona, Anna takes the children to the child services shelter. The boys get lured away by La Llorona and are drowned in the river by the tormented spirit. Blaming Anna for the loss of her sons, Patricia prays to La Llorona to take away Anna’s children in exchange for her own.
Anna’s son Chris hears La Llorona weep while investigating the death of Patricia’s children. He gets marked by the spirit and tries to keep La Llorona from getting into the car with his sister, and suffers from hallucinations caused by the evil spirit. The next day, Samantha’s umbrella gets blown away by the wind and leads her to the edge of the community pool, where La Llorona grabs and brands her. After noticing the reclusive nature of her children, Anna learns that Patricia had traded the soul of Anna’s children in exchange for her own.
The family seeks help from the church when La Llorona nearly drowns Samantha in the tub and burns Anna’s arm. Father Perez recommends the assistance of former priest Rafael Olvera, known for his unconventional methods. He sets up candles and other charms to prevent La Llorona from entering their house, but Samantha unintentionally ends up breaking the barrier placed on the front door, while trying to retrieve her doll. Patricia forcibly attempts to sacrifice Chris and Samantha to La Llorona and breaks the barrier in response.
However, she realizes the error of her ways and Patricia ultimately decides to help Anna and her children. La Llorona corners the children in the attic but gets distracted when Chris gives her the necklace he snatched off her. For a moment the spirit takes on her human form and thinks of Chris like her own son. But she turns malevolent after Samantha accidentally uncovers a mirror and begins to attack them. Anna stabs La Llorona just in time, with an artifact known as the fire cross, made from the wood found in the location where La Llorona drowned her children. The spirit of La Llorona is destroyed but it’s too soon to tell whether she’s gone for good.
Black Shuck
While investigating a string of livestock deaths in England, the Warrens tie the mysterious deaths to a hellhound known as the Black Shuck. They were able to bind it and contain it in a book. Like many other cursed artifacts, they blessed it and locked it away in the occult museum, at their home. The Black Shuck too, is one of the spirits aiding Annabelle in “Annabelle Comes Home”. While Mary Ellen’s boyfriend Bob is about to leave the house, he gets attacked by the Black Shuck in the yard and hides in Warren’s chicken coop. The Black Shuck looks around for Bob. When a chicken wanders out into the yard, it ends up getting killed by the wolf.
Judy goes out to retrieve Mary Ellen’s inhaler from the car, only to find herself in a mutilated car, all thanks to the Black Shuck, who manages to smash the windows and claw through the roofs to get to Judy. She manages to flee with the beast in close pursuit and Bob tries to help by swinging his guitar at the monster. It fails to affect the beast but shifts its attention and Bob ends up getting chased to the coop. Once the girls manage to lock Annabelle in her case, it cuts off the doll’s powers to the Black Shuck and other evil spirits and we have a happy ending.