Comedian Matt Rife has opened his new Haunted Warren Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, drawing hordes of visitors to see the world's most haunted doll, Annabelle, prompting a psychic medium to warn that the attraction could be unleashing 'evil energy' on the public.
Rife, 31, revealed last year that he had purchased paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren's home and Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, becoming the legal guardian of the doll in the process. Annabelle has been blamed for numerous accidents, injuries and even a fatal motorcycle crash.
When the Warrens took ownership of Annabelle, they locked her inside a specially built glass case to contain what they described as an 'evil spirited entity,' and warned that she should never be moved. She is now on display at Rife's newly opened museum, where paying guests can view her up close.
Rife's $100 flashlight tours
Rife posted a video bragging about the museum's $100 flashlight tours before theatrically revealing Annabelle to the camera. Some fans accused him of being too afraid to even look at the doll in her case, and questioned why he would expose the public to her.
"This is significantly bigger and more terrifying than I think any of us anticipated," Rife said in the video.
The museum also boasted about its expanded collection: "We have collected over 1000 of the world's most haunted objects and added them to the Warrens' already historic collection. If you manage to make it through the entire museum without s******g your pants or projectile vomiting, which we've already had happen a few times, and those are the people who didn't leave crying, we still have Annabelle herself... have fun!"
Psychic medium's warning
Matt Fraser, known for Don't Wait Till You're Dead: Spirits' Advice from the AfterLife, said he has grave fears about the public interacting with Annabelle, whose power he believes will grow now that she is housed alongside scores of other allegedly haunted items.
"My concern is that evil energy loves attention. Dark energy wants to be acknowledged. It wants people talking about it, challenging it, fearing it and feeding it with their attention," Fraser said.
"That's why Annabelle concerns me. She isn't sitting forgotten in a locked room anymore. She is becoming a celebrity. People are traveling to see her, taking pictures, talking about her, challenging her and wondering whether something will happen to them. In my experience as a medium, that kind of attention doesn't weaken negative energy. It feeds it," he said.
Fraser said the museum brings Annabelle together with a collection of objects that reportedly carry their own histories and energies under one roof, while thousands of people continuously walk through, each bringing their own energy of fear, grief, curiosity, skepticism or a desire to provoke. He has urged paranormal fans not to feed their curiosity by visiting Annabelle, and said he has sworn off visiting the doll himself.
"People sometimes think they can walk into these places, challenge whatever is there, laugh about it, ask for signs and then simply walk away. I would never recommend doing that. When you open a spiritual door, you don't necessarily get to decide what comes through it or how quickly that door closes," Fraser said.
"Ed and Lorraine Warren took them seriously and contained them for a reason. When you turn something that was once contained into an attraction, you completely change the relationship people have with it."
Fraser's advice for visitors
With tickets for the attraction rapidly selling out ahead of Halloween, Fraser offered advice for those planning to face the doll.
"Before entering, I would say a prayer and very clearly set the intention that nothing negative is allowed to communicate with you, attach itself to you or follow you home. If your faith includes wearing a cross, carrying a religious medal, holy water or another blessed object that makes you feel spiritually protected, absolutely bring it," he said.
"But don't make the mistake of thinking that carrying something sacred gives you permission to provoke something negative. Do not challenge Annabelle. Do not ask for a sign. Do not speak directly to these entities. Do not touch anything you aren't supposed to touch, and most importantly, don't say anything that could be interpreted as an invitation."
"If you go, observe. Don't participate. Don't provoke. Say your prayers before you enter and after you leave, and make it very clear that nothing has permission to leave that building with you."
Fraser also addressed Rife directly. "My message to Matt Rife is simple: I would be extremely careful about what you're giving attention to," he said, urging the comedian to never "become so comfortable around these objects that you stop respecting what they potentially represent."
"You don't have to be afraid of evil, but you do have to respect it. There is a very big difference," Fraser said. Representatives for Rife and the Haunted Warren Museum have been contacted for comment.
How the Warrens found Annabelle
According to biographer Gerald Brittle's book The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Warrens first came across Annabelle in 1970 after a priest called asking for their help. Two young nurses believed a human spirit was possessing their doll.
One of the nurses, named Deirdre, told the Warrens during a taped meeting that the doll had been a 28th birthday present from her mother, according to Brittle's book. She said it began moving around their apartment by itself and left handwritten notes reading 'help me,' and claimed the doll had attacked someone.
The women said a medium they hired told them a girl named Annabelle had died on the property years earlier, leading them to believe she was possessing the doll. But after investigating, Ed Warren said they had been 'duped,' insisting there was no Annabelle and that the doll had instead been 'taken over by something inhuman' and 'demonic.'
The Warrens performed an exorcism before taking the doll away. They claimed their car's brakes failed on the drive home and that they had to throw holy water on the doll to get home safely.
Deaths linked to the doll
The Warrens alleged a priest nearly died after failing to take the doll seriously. According to their biography, he picked up the doll and said, "You're just a rag doll, Annabelle, you can't hurt anything," before tossing it back onto a chair. That night, he reportedly called Lorraine Warren and told her his car's brake system had failed, that he had almost been killed in a traffic accident and that his car was wrecked.
A family member of the Warrens has also claimed tragedy struck after a museum visitor failed to treat the doll with respect. The guest reportedly knocked on the glass case and taunted the doll before being thrown out of the museum, then died in a fatal motorcycle accident on his way home, according to the Warrens' son-in-law, Tony Spera.
It was not until the release of the 2013 horror film The Conjuring, followed by the 2014 spin-off Annabelle, that the doll's legend became popular in mainstream culture, spawning two further films in the franchise.
Paranormal fans recently went into a frenzy after visitors claimed the doll had gone missing from her case, a theory that was later debunked when Annabelle was shown to still be inside her box.
Veteran ghost hunter Dan Rivera died in July 2025 at age 54 while touring with Annabelle, igniting fierce speculation among fans that the doll was to blame. Authorities said Rivera died of natural causes and that nothing unusual or suspicious was observed at the scene, but that has not stopped some paranormal enthusiasts from wondering whether something more powerful was at play.
