Moviegoer Passes Away During Annabelle Comes Home Screening

Annabelle Comes Home, like the other films in both the Annabelle franchise and The Conjuring from which the films spun off, is meant to be scary. The story of possessed doll Annabelle and the havoc caused when demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren bring the creepy object into their home’s artifact room both terrifies and engages audiences — so much so that it’s currently sitting at the number 4 spot at this weekend’s box office. But for moviegoers in a recent viewing of Annabelle Comes Home in Thailand, the terror moved from on screen to real life when a man was found dead in the theater after the film.

According to a report from India Times, 77-year-old Bernard Channing was found dead in his seat after Annabelle Comes Home, discovered by the woman sitting next to him when the theater lights came back on after the film had ended. Channing, who was visiting Thailand on vacation, was attended to by emergency services before being pronounced dead at the theater.

“There were some people at the entrance talking with staff,” witness Monthira Phengrat told reporters. “They were in the cinema where the man died, and they were very upset. They were shocked by what had happened. Some people had been sitting near the dead man. The cinema staff were very concerned, and they tried to prevent anybody from seeing what was happening. We were prohibited from taking pictures.”

According to police, the cause of Channing’s death is currently unknown but foul play is not suspected.

“Police were notified of the death at 8 p.m. inside the cinema in a shopping mall,” Lieutenant Colonel Polpattham Thamachat said. “From the preliminary investigation it was not known how the foreign man had died but doctors will conduct an autopsy to establish the true cause of death. We are not looking for anybody else connected to the death. We do not believe there was suspicious foul play.”

This incident marks the second time there’s been a death at the screening of a film in The Conjuring franchise. Back in 2016 during a screening of The Conjuring 2, a 65-year-old man taking in an evening showing of the film in Andrah Pradesh, India suffered a heart attack and died. It was later found that he had also had a massive stroke and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Annabelle Comes Home is in theaters now.