10 Horror Movies That Lied About Their Premise

8. Annabelle's Major Role In The Conjuring Was Actually Minimal

From The Depths
Warner Bros.

Okay, okay, so to say The Conjuring outright lied about its overall plot would be a little unfair. Still, many a horror hound came out of a first watch of James Wan's 2013 picture having just watched a film markedly different to what they were expecting.

While The Conjuring was advertised as being about the spooky shenanigans terrorising the new home of the Perron family, many presumed the movie would also involve a heavy presence from a creepy little doll named Annabelle. After all, Annabelle was front-and-centre in the vast majority of marketing material for the picture, and she/it was likewise a focal point of the various trailers for The Conjuring.

In fairness, the film does start by giving some insight into Annabelle as she's shown tormenting some student nurses. Unfortunately, this spotlight on the doll lasts all of five minutes before the story transitions to Ed and Lorraine Warren helping the Perrons with the eerie presence that's stalking them.

Of course, Annabelle would later get to star in her own trilogy of movies - not to mention briefly appear in three other Conjuring Universe offerings - yet many were expecting the possessed item to have a far greater role to play in that first venture into this eight-feature (and counting) franchise.

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.