10 Worst Reveals In Movie Prequels

7. Annabelle Was Created By A Pissed Off Burglar - Annabelle

annabelle doll
Warner Bros. Pictures

Or was she?

With The Conjuring, James Wan gave audiences one of the very best horror movies of the past decade. When prequel offering Annabelle arrived just a year later, there was a huge intrigue about what devilish delights would be served up - only for the film to be a pretty dull, flat mess of a movie.

After the Annabelle doll had been glimpsed in The Conjuring and heavily used in the marketing push for that 2013 film, it was a major disappointment to see the Annabelle movie reveal that the porcelain doll became possessed because of a pissed off burglar.

In Annabelle, the Forms' neighbours are brutally attacked in their own home by who would turn out to be the neighbours' daughter Annabelle and her partner. Having been caught by the police, Annabelle slits her throat as she's holding the doll.

It's later explained that Annabelle (the person) was part of a satanic cult and had intended to conjure up an evil spirit in this doll. Which all felt like a massive letdown when it came to the origins of the creepy as f**k doll seen in The Conjuring.

Going further, Annabelle actually got its own prequel picture in the form of 2017's Annabelle: Creation. Complete with a *le sigh* reveal of its own, the climax of Creation revealed that the Annabelle character was really a possessed kid called Janice who had escaped from an orphanage and renamed herself - to then later imbue that demonic spirit into the doll at the start of 2014's Annabelle.

Confusing? A tad. Disappointing? Majorly.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.