Of course, the real "Annabelle" doll is a large Raggedy Anne doll kept locked up in a "blessed" glass case in the Warren museum. That doesn't sound so creepy, so in The Conjuring franchise it's made more, well, creepy. Lorraine Warren, who served as an advisor on the original film, wasn't thrilled in turning Annabelle from her original state to something out of a Night Gallery episode.
Back in the early '80's, I attended a lecture given by Ed and Lorraine Warren at the post-graduate university I was attending. I'm a total skeptic, but what they presented was totally "creepy," including AV material. They talked about Annabelle. They also mentioned, in a Q&A session, that there is one case they weren't ready to talk about because it "hit too close to home." Maybe at some time they would. That turned out to be The Conjuring. But regarding Annabelle, that Raggedy Anne doll, it being just a Raggedy Anne doll was even creepier because it was just a Raggedy Anne doll - so innocent looking and so full of evil. They stated that as they were driving home to place the doll in "isolation" after removing it from the people it was tormenting, their car went out of their control and headed for a crash when they threw it out of the window and they regained control. At first they thought of leaving it, but then feared if someone else would find it. So they collected it, doused it with tons of holy water and took it home where, in an exorcism, it was "bounded" but not "cleansed." No one since has been allowed to touch it, let alone remove it from its case.
Gerard