This gives the creepy doll itself more autonomy and a role in the narrative deserving of her iconic prominence. The movement suggests that while the Ram is out, there's some deeper residual evil in Annabelle that ties her to the dark spirit. While the priests say that the doll is now empty of any evil force, there's nothing to really suggest that's true - across the whole series the church has been shown as flawed. However, this may explain why the doll cycled back into the Ram's story in the original film and hint at a deeper symbiotic link between the pair. Of course, this quite likely a fun coda to give audiences one more scare than anything narratively substantial indeed, the doll appears to be in the bible-layered cupboard earlier in the film, rather than the police hold-up it presumably ended up in. And, in that regard, it's a pretty damn good, forgoing a cheap cattle-prod shot for something more subtle and unnerving (the film was thankfully lacking in jolts for the most part) that breaks the 'no movement' rule without being corny. she joltingly turns to the camera before we snap-fade to black.

The movie's mid-credits scene is incredibly simple - a slow zoom in on the Annabelle doll as the tension ramps up before.

Creation doesn't even have a tease like that, keeping Annabelle's movement entirely off screen - until the movie's over, that is. The first Annabelle almost flirted with breaking this, having the doll levitate and start moving, but it was swiftly revealed to be the actions of the Ram and nothing quite so Child's Play. Like all good horror movies, this seemed to be part of an explicit set of creepy rules. A creepy doll is incredibly scary when it's sat there staring you down with its cold glass eyes - and implied movement where it's shifted slightly when the character and audience can be utterly terrifying - but the moment it starts prancing around like a marionette it becomes laughable. The reasons for this should be obvious to any horror die-hard. Across the series, the specifics or her powers and nature of possession has varied (as already discussed, in Creation alone we got a lot of substantive changes) but through it all there's been one strict constant: you never see the doll move. Counting her brief cameo in The Conjuring 2, this is the fourth movie to feature Annabelle.

Annabelle 2 ending