Last Rites” pays tribute to the late Dan Rivera, the real Annabelle doll handler

This article contains a very mild spoiler from The Conjuring: Last Rites.

Towards the very end of the credits for The Conjuring: Last Rites, three real-life figures get shoutouts. One is a thank-you note to the real Judy Warren and Tony Spera (played by Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy), who cameo in the movie. Another is a dedication to Dan Rivera.

Rivera was a paranormal investigator and handler of the real-life Annabelle doll. He died suddenly at the age of 51 back in July while on a visit to Gettysburg, Penn., as part of the Devils on the Run tour thrown by his company, the New England Society for Psychic Research.

“It was really just tragic and a curveball,” Michael Chaves, the director of The Conjuring: Last Rites, tells Entertainment Weekly. “The poor guy. I think we were all blindsided by that. We wanted to just handle it as respectfully as possible.”

This week, the Adams County coroner in Pennsylvania, Francis Dutrow, ruled Rivera’s death as natural and related to his recurring cardiac issues. “It is also confirmed that Annabelle was not present in the room at the time of his passing,” Dutrow added in a statement that was provided to EW, as if to ease fears that the infamous doll was somehow culpable.

Regarding the tribute in the film, “It was definitely a discussion that we had with everyone and how to respectfully handle that,” Chaves says. “That was the biggest challenge. It’s hard…horror movies are fun and they deal with dark things, but I think just being able to separate that rollercoaster experience with a real, tragic death and something that really took him and his family by surprise, it was tricky to navigate.”

In a statement shared on Instagram in July, NESPR lead investigator Chris Gilloren announced the news of Rivera’s passing. “We are heartbroken and still processing this loss,” read the post. “Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal. His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him. Thank you for your support and kind thoughts during this difficult time.”

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Rivera was an army veteran who worked on paranormal research and investigations for more than a decade. Part of his job on the Devils on the Run tour involved handling the Raggedy Ann doll known as “Annabelle,” the so-described “demonically possessed” toy that became the face, in many ways, of the Conjuring movies.

Annabelle, who has a more cursed-like appearance in the films, first arrived as a possessed entity in 2013’s The Conjuring and maintained a presence throughout the entire franchise, including headlining her own standalone horror movies (2014’s Annabelle, 2017’s Annabelle: Creation, 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home).

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