Annabelle Comes Home featurette spotlights the Warrens' real-life daughter Judy

In Annabelle Comes Home (out June 26), Mckenna Grace plays Judy, the daughter of real-life alleged paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The onscreen version of the couple brings the malevolent doll Annabelle back to their house, placing the toy in their room of haunted artifacts for safety. Alas, Annabelle is unleashed thanks to Katie Sarife’s Daniela — a friend of Judy’s babysitter (Madison Iseman) — who recently lost her father.

“Annabelle’s presence causes all these other things to come to life,” says the film’s writer and director, Gary Dauberman. “Annabelle is the orchestrator of the madness.”

While the film’s plot is fictional, Judy Warren — now Judy Spera — is an actual person, whom Dauberman consulted with while writing the movie.

“Judy and Tony Spera (her husband) have been very helpful since the early days [of the Conjuring franchise],” says Dauberman. “We called them, and had a fun conversation about what we were planning to do with this, and drew on some of the elements of Judy’s own childhood, and how she viewed her parents and what they did for a living. It just adds to the riches of the character’s story.”

Exclusively watch an Annabelle Comes Home behind-the-scenes featurette about Judy Spera, above.

Related content:

• James Wan shares first look at Annabelle Comes Home
• Vera Farmiga teases The Conjuring 3: ‘It will be a doozy’
• How Annabelle Comes Home could inspire more Conjuring universe spin-offs

• By Clark Collis