The Black Shuck, also known as the Hellhound, is just one of the many demonic antagonists that Ed and Lorraine Warren trapped in their museum of cursed objects over the years. But the spirit they captured is part of a longstanding phenomena of wolf and lycan sightings documented as far back as the second millennium BCE. First appearing in the epic of Gilgamesh, the Black Shuck would take on many forms, terrorizing Europe in the form of a haunting spectral dog.
This would continue until Ed and Lorraine paid a visit to the county of Essex in England after being called upon in 1966, which we know from the side of their Black Shuck case file. -[Daniela] This is the file on the Black Shuck. -[Mary Ellen] The Black Shuck?
-[Daniela] It was a case the Warrens investigated about a Hellhound that -[Daniela] man in England. He terrorized the s*** out of them. To find out exactly what the Black Shuck is, how it came to be common legend in folklore and pop culture, and how Ed and Lorraine managed to contain it in the world of the Conjurverse, Stick around to the end of this video.
♪ Metal Music ♪ Welcome to Horror History, where I will keep diving into more and more obscure Conjuring villains until people stop watching. In today's lesson, we'll be talking about the Black Shuck, the Hellhound who would come to terrorize a ten year old Judy Warren and her babysitter's crush, Bob Palmeri, because everything in this franchise has to be named Palmeri for some reason. The Black Shuck would eventually escape from the Warren's basement, along with many other evil spirits, after a teenage girl named Daniela enabled the demon Malthus to let all of the other spirits out.
-[Music video] Who let the dogs out? It's just one dog. And Daniela let it out.
Case closed. However, prior to this escape in 1972, the Black Shuck had a centuries long history of absolutely terrorizing various parts of Europe and becoming a common staple of ancient folklore that is still relevant today. In the Conjuring universe, the Black Shuck is stated to be a Hellhound who possesses a man, turning him into a Werewolf.
But in real life, Black Shuck and werewolves seem to be two separate urban legends. So why did Gary Dauberman, the director of Annabelle Comes Home combine them. It seems like it was originally just going to be the Black Shuck, but producer James Wan thought it would be cool to merge concepts.
-[Gary] I'm pitching this to James. -[Gary] I'm really excited about it. -[Gary] He's like, oh, that's great.
-[Gary] He's like, that's great. What if it's a Werewolf? And there is a relatively famous case of the Warrens investigating a Werewolf in England, so it ties into that universe nicely.
So one of the things I'll try to do in this video is cover both mythologies and explain how they come together to create the creature that we see in Annabelle Comes Home. But to fully understand where these stories originated from and how this creature came to be contained by Ed and Lorraine in 1966. We'll need to take it all the way back to ancient Greece, Babylon and Rome.
(IMPACT) In the interest of being thorough, let's start at the beginning with the origins of werewolves. The supernatural transformation of a person into a wolf is referred to as Lycanthropy. And the first time that Lycanthropy appears in any historic text is in the story of Gilgamesh that I mentioned earlier.
Gilgamesh is a Sumerian warrior king who rejects the advances of the goddess, Ishtar afraid that she would transform him into a wolf, as she had to her previous admirer. Talk about a toxic ex. This is the first mention of a man turned into a Werewolf or dog like creature.
The Lycanthropy is more of a side note to the actual story, and notably, it's used as sort of a punishment or threat. The term Lycanthropy originates from Lycaon, a legendary king from Greek mythology. Lycaon had the Greek god Zeus over to his place as a guest, You know, just hanging out with the boys.
And Lycaon wanted to impress Zeus by offering him a human sacrifice, carving up one of his own sons. But Zeus did not appreciate this. He wasn't really into the whole filicide thing, so he decided he was going to punish Lycaon by transforming him into a wolf.
Zeus felt that if it was his desire to rip apart human flesh, Lycaon should be cursed to live the rest of his life as a wolf. So where Gilgamesh avoided temptation in order to avoid becoming a wolf, Lycaon was unable to do so and was forced to undergo the transformation. The wolf transformation is a consequence, but also a barometer of each man's ability to control his primal instincts.
And going forward, when a person is possessed by a wolf or Black Shuck, they are tested with the temptation to follow those instincts. There are numerous stories about humans turning into wolves or being tormented by wolflike creatures throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. But according to the Warren's novel Werewolf, the first officially documented case of Lycanthropy was in the year 1440 CE in France.
I don't know what makes a case official in their mind, especially considering most of their stories are just made up. I know I'm going to get canceled again for saying that, but look at it like this. Regardless of whether or not you believe in ghosts, there are big inconsistencies in the Warren stories.
But that's not what this video is about. So let's get back to that case in France. The Warren site, a publication known as The Book of Werewolves, written by Sabine Baring-Gould as their source for early accounts of Lycanthropy.
Now, lycanthropy has two definitions. One refers to someone who is deluded into thinking they can transform into a wolf, and the other is the fictional condition where you actually can physically transform. The Book of Werewolves seems to account for Lycanthropy by both definitions, with some accounts of serial killers who claim to have turned into wolves, but some cases where the unreal behavior and traits of wolves couldn't be accounted for, leading one to believe that the person really did transform into a beast.
But the case that the Warrens draw from was about a man named Gilles de Laval who was a councilman for the French king. Laval was one of the most powerful noblemen in France during the 15th century. But in 1440, he was brought to trial for committing murder and other horrible atrocities to children.
It was said that as he was high in his tower, a fierce red glare would stream out and the cries of those in pain were answered by the sound of a howling wolf. At Laval's trial, two of his servants testified that he had murdered hundreds of children over the span of 80 years. His appearance at the trial was described as unusual.
Baring-Gould describes contraction of the muscles of the face, nervous quivering of the mouth, spasmodic twitching of the brow, and above all, The sinister expression in his eyes, showing that there was something frightful in the man. At intervals, he ground his teeth like a wild beast preparing for his prey. The feeling of becoming a wolf seemed to be something that Laval enjoyed, providing an outlet for his murderous desires.
But it seems as though Baring-Gould's reed of Laval's story was more that he had the delusion of being a wolf as opposed to actually transforming into one. Laval was sentenced to death on October 25th, 1440. But at the end of the century, a new threat would wreck havoc on towns throughout Europe.
(IMPACT) ♪ Mysterious Music ♪ More stories of lycanthropy would crop up throughout the 1400s and 1500s, but it was also around this time that a new series of accounts began to terrify European travelers. This would be the legend of the Black Shuck. According to some lore, it's believed that the Black Shuck was a dog that originally died in a fire, and the dog's ghost was then said to roam Europe, terrorizing people along the way.
According to the BBC, in the 1500s, there were over 500 reported sightings of the Black Shuck. It was said to be a hellhound. In fact, the word Shuck is believed to be derived from the old English word succa, meaning devil.
He is described as a ferocious hound with pitch black fur ranging anywhere in size from a large dog to a small horse. He's sometimes recounted with big, glowing red eyes, occasionally characterized with just one huge red eye in the middle of his forehead. The spectral beast is known for stalking and intimidating his human victims.
The BBC article states that in 1577, one documented case in Blythburgh reported that a snarling beast broke into a church, rampaged through the congregation and bit the necks of two people who promptly dropped dead. But the Black Shuck wouldn't always just appear to harm or harass people. Some Black Shuck sightings were instances of the hound being an unexpected protector.
In Littleport, Cambridgeshire, a local girl reported that the shadowy canine protected her from an attempted rape by a local friar. In the 1600s, it was commonly reported that the Black Shuck would appear at witch trials. The Black Shuck would come to be known through stories passed down and as is often the case with lore like this, became sort of a moral lesson that parents would use to teach their kids.
There are even early reports of parents using the myth of the Black Shuck to keep their children from going into certain rooms in their house. Don’t go in Mummy and Daddy’s room past 9PM, otherwise, the Black Shuck will… uh… eat your face off! So that's the brief history of the Werewolf and the Black Shuck.
The Werewolf got more love in popular culture, with early silent movies reflecting a fascination with humans taking on the appearance or behavior of wolf. Lon Cheney Jr. famously popularized the Wolf Man, now considered a classic horror movie monster and lycanthropy in cinema remained popular in movies in the 80s and 90s and continue to be a part of fantasy and supernatural worlds today.
Regardless of the cultural impact of these initial early Werewolf or Black Shuck sightings, they still remained a thing that most people didn't necessarily believe in. But in 1966, that was about to change for a man named Bill Ramsey. Timeline wise, the Black Shuck file spotted in the Warren's house in Annabelle Comes Home is labeled 1966.
However, the real Warren's investigation of Bill Ramsey happened around 1989, According to their novel Werewolves, this would be well after the events of Annabelle Comes Home. I think it's obvious that it's supposed to be the same case though, and the movies do take a lot of liberties to incorporate the Warrens into these supposedly true stories. Like for example, pretty much the entirety of The Conjuring 2.
But just to create consistency with my other Conjurverse videos, I'm going to stick with the movie timeline. According to their novel Werewolf, Ed and Lorraine claimed that they were in London during this time period because they were on vacation. However, the notes found in the Black Shuck case file from Annabelle Comes Home would make it seem like they were called there.
Either way, while getting ready for dinner in their hotel, Lorraine notices a news story about a man named Bill Ramsey from Essex who supposedly had several attacks where he acted out like a wolf, in one instance warding off several police officers. Lorraine stated, I knew right away what we were dealing with here. It was demonic possession, but clearly the poor man Ramsey didn't understand this.
However, in addition to the Warren suspecting demonic possession, they also had detailed notes on a strange fog. It's here that the Black Shuck proves itself to potentially take on various forms, while it seems to have the ability to possess humans and cause them to change like Bill, it can also take on a form of its own and dissipate into the fog, at least according to the Warren's notes in Annabelle Comes Home. While it's not clear where Bill Ramsey initially encountered this entity, In interviews in the Warren's book he describes his first experience of turning into a wolf at age nine.
Bill had been playing by himself when he was overcome with a cold chill and a grotesque smell. -[Bill] Now come to believe possession started was when I was nine years old. -[Bill] Suddenly the temperature just dropped completely, like mid-winter, freezing cold.
-[Bill] There was a terrible stink I'm in the air, like a sewer had backed up or something, -[Bill] Then I just literally flew off the handle as though I was mad at somebody. Bill describes being filled with a rage and then getting the strength to rip a fence post out of the ground. When his father ran outside to stop him, Bill's strength was too much and both parents had to run inside for cover until the episode passed.
Bill's father swears that when he looked over his shoulder he saw a wolf. Bill didn't suffer another episode like this until he was an adult. In his early 20s, he got married and had three kids.
At some point in the early years of Bill's marriage, he started having horrific nightmares that he was some kind of monster and his wife was afraid of him. As much as Bill may have tried to keep another wolf episode from happening, he couldn't suppress it. One October evening, Bill went out for drinks with some coworkers and he started to feel what he describes as a chill, just like he did as a kid, and would later report looking into the bathroom mirror and seeing a wolf looking back at him.
Bill tried to stifle this, but ended up attacking his coworkers in the car on the way home with such aggression and force that nobody could believe what they were seeing. His coworker pulled over and Bill ran into the woods. Later, the other men would chalk up the night's events to Bill just trying to shake them up.
Several more incidents of increasing intensity eventually got the attention of the local media. One night he went to the ER with tremendous chest pain where he claimed to be changing into a monster. He bit a nurse and fought off several police officers, throwing men across the room.
He was eventually sedated and from there sent to a mental hospital, which didn't last long and Bill was not given an official diagnosis for what was happening to him. -[Bill] They ran all their tests, the brain scans and all this kind of stuff, but -[Bill] all a brain scan can really tell you is not what's wrong with you, -[Bill] it's really what isn't. Bill continued having episodes, each of which left him feeling that he had briefly transformed into a wolf and exhibited incredible amounts of strength.
But he was struggling to find an answer. And that's when the Warrens saw him on television. Lorraine called Bill, who was initially hesitant, but she convinced him that he'd been possessed by a demonic spirit as a child and needed an exorcist.
So the Ramseys were flown into the United States, where the Warrens worked with Bishop Robert McKenna to purge the evil spirit from Bill's body. Ed Warren would state, I could sense Bill becoming very troubled the moment we stepped into the church. The demonic spirit within him was desperately trying to keep Bill under its control.
When Father McKenna pressed a cross into Bill's forehead, it caused him to thrash violently. But after several hours of struggle, Bill described feeling the demon leave his body. As I sat there, I felt myself becoming purified.
The poison that had been in my body drained from me completely now. The exorcism seemed to work as the book ends with Lorraine explaining that two years had passed and that Bill and his wife had been living a happy and quiet life on the Southend-on-Sea. While Bill may have been set free and the demonic spirit driving his actions appeared to be contained, this would not be the last time that the Black Shuck got loose, but the next victims would not have the paranormal couple's expertise to guide them.
(IMPACT) ♪ Suspenseful Music ♪ During their time in Essex, the Warrens bought a book on the Black Shuck that was scratched across the front as the Werewolf lashed out in a fit of rage. Upon completing the Exorcism, the evil spirit was captured inside this book, just as the Warrens have been known to do with other demons and spirits that they overcome. Like Bathsheba in the music box, Valak in the zoetrope, Malthus in the Annabelle doll, Isla’s demon in the goblet, the Ferryman in these gold coins, the vengeful bride in this wedding dress and many others.
The Black Shuck would stay safely locked away in this room where it wouldn't bother another soul for the next six years, Until one fateful night in September of 1972, shortly before Judy's birthday that year. When Ed and Lorraine had to leave town, their daughter Judy was left in the care of her teenage babysitter, Mary Ellen. But when Mary Ellen's best friend, Daniela learns that she's babysitting for the Warrens, who made a name for themselves the previous year when their investigation in Rhode Island went mainstream, she becomes fascinated with the idea of coming over and trying to get into the Warren's room of haunted belongings.
Later that afternoon, as Mary Ellen and Judy are baking the birthday cake, Daniela shows up for an unannounced visit, Coming in through the back door. She brings Judy a pair of roller skates as a birthday present and offers to watch the oven while Mary Ellen takes Judy outside to try them out. With the house to herself, She finds the haunted artifact room, raids their office for the key - [Daniela] Please don’t judge me.
And proceeds to touch everything, including the book containing the Black Shuck. – [Judy] What else did you touch? – [Daniella] Everything.
As Daniela explores the room, she discovers Annabelle in her case and is immediately intrigued by her. She tries to use what she perceives as the power of the room to speak to her dad who had died in a car accident shortly before. But Malthus, the powerful demon residing in the Annabelle doll, picks up on her desperation and tips Annabelle forward against the glass, Leading Daniela to unlock the case and take her out.
Big mistake. Just as she does this, the cake that she'd promised to watch starts burning, setting off the smoke alarm. Daniela hurriedly puts Annabelle back in the case, but does not lock it, allowing Malthus to shove Annabelle forward again, opening the case and setting the inhuman spirit free to interact with all of the other haunted objects in the room, including the Black Shuck.
The method by which the Black Shuck was set free is significant to the existing lore around the legend. If you'll recall, during the previous millennium, the story of the Black Shuck became a cautionary tale used by parents to scare their kids out of entering certain rooms that they were prohibited from. The Room of Cursed Objects is clearly off limits, with no less than five locks and a warning sign.
But Daniela breaks the rules and goes in there anyway. And like the early stories of characters who failed to restrain themselves from their instincts, there would be consequences for breaking the rules. Judy is the first one to be tormented by the now free roaming demons in the house.
She screams out for help from upstairs as Mary Ellen calms her down, Daniela once again uses this time to explore the house, trying to learn as much as she can about the cases that the Warrens have studied. Mary Ellen and Judy later find her in the office, looking into the case file on the Black Shuck, and she already seems to know a lot about it. She finds a photo of a goat with its throat ripped out, diagrams of people who'd been attacked, and notes, as the Warrens had clearly initially been, trying to figure out what could be causing these attacks.
One photograph shows the Shuck standing upright, a result of the combination of the initial Black Shuck legend with that of a Werewolf. There's also a veterinarian chart, which could be a copy of the medical record of the dog that died in the fire that I mentioned earlier. And they mention Saint Mary's Church.
This is the same church that the Shuck allegedly attacked and killed two people at in Blythburgh. The girls continue looking at the case files until Daniela pushes things too far, turning on a projector that plays an exorcism performed by Ed Warren. Mary Ellen shuts that off and insists that they go play a board game instead, But they're interrupted by a ring of the doorbell from Bob Palmeri, Mary Ellen's crush, who lives across the street, apparently testing the water to see if Mary Ellen will let him join her.
-[Mary Ellen] Oh, Bob. -[Mary Ellen] They don't really want me having boys over. So he moves to Plan B, returning shortly thereafter with a guitar to serenade her on the front lawn.
-[Judy] Bob's Got Balls. This apparently works, and Mary Ellen races downstairs to come outside and greet him, but she's too late. I guess the Black Shuck was not as impressed with Bob's clunky guitar playing as Mary Ellen was and decided to attack him.
Shoulda gone with Baja men, Bob. That's just a joke. They did not exist back then.
He's able to hear the hellish creature breathing in the bushes and senses something is wrong just in time to get away and hide in a chicken coop in the backyard where he spends the duration of the night. At first, I thought it was kind of unfair that Bob is essentially being hunted because of Daniela's transgression, but considering that there are already several other demons terrorizing Daniela, it would make sense that the Shuck would try to go after Bob. Many of the characters involved in the initial Lycanthropy stories that I discussed in mythology, such as Gilgamesh and Lycaon, were tested to see if they could hold back their primal instincts, with the Werewolf transformation serving as an indicator if they failed to do so.
In this case, Bob's primal instinct is trying to get with Mary Ellen. But there's a clear boundary that has been set. The Warrens don't want Mary Ellen having boys over.
On a subtextual level, the Black Shuck represents a test of Bob's restraints to reveal what kind of person he actually is. He seems respectful when he's told that he can't come in, but ultimately tries to find kind of a loophole by serenading her from outside. I personally think this is fine because because it's not like Mary Ellen is going to get in trouble for having an admirer who she didn't let in.
But either way, this midnight mutt is going to put the Bob's Got Balls nickname to the test. As Bob hides in the chicken coop, the Black Chuck lurks outside, slaughtering any chickens wandering around outside of it and leaving Bob petrified in his hiding place. (huge roar) Meanwhile, the demons inside the house proceed to terrorize Daniela, Judy, and Marie Ellen, causing Mary Ellen to suffer an asthma attack.
She does have an inhaler, but it's outside in her car, so Judy rises to the occasion to retrieve it before anyone can stop her. The house is uncharacteristically shrouded In thick fog. A callback to the details from Ed and Lorraine's research on the Black Shuck having an eerie effect on the weather.
In Mary Ellen's car, Judy realizes that she's being circled by a predatory entity. It shatters one of the windows, climbs onto the roof and slashes through the steel, causing Judy to run for it, As it gains on her, Bob comes around the corner and uses his guitar as a weapon, smashing it across the face of the Black Shuck, which destroys the guitar, but the Black Shuck just dissipates back into fog and then reforms further down the driveway. But Bob does manage to save Judy, who locks them both out of the house when the creature barges up against the door.
(impact and growling) The fact that Bob chose to use his guitar, the thing that he was hoping might convince Mary Ellen to let him come inside, might be what demonstrates that Bob's care for her and Judy is real. Or, you know, maybe the Black Shuck didn't like his guitar playing and just decided to do his best animal house reenactment. (guitar being smashed) -[Bluto] Sorry.
But the Black Shuck is still not quite done with him and chases him, presumably back to the chicken coop. Inside the house, Judy is able to give Mary Ellen her inhaler, and eventually the 3 girls manage to lock Malthus and the Annabelle doll back into their case, which sends all of the other demons back into the possessions that they possess, including the Black Shuck. Bob does, at this point come into the house, but this time he takes on the role of the protector of Mary Ellen, Daniela, and Judy until the Warrens get home the next morning.
While Bob did make it into the house, the Black Shuck had really put him through a test, and he came out on the other side, revealing himself to be a good person. Bob further proves this by joining Mary Ellen and Daniela in attending Judy's birthday and further encouraging other kids to come. And that's the last anyone sees or hears from the Black Shuck for now.
But could we see another curious guest set this commonwealth canine free once again? Probably not. But I do have this idea that I've talked about on my channel before.
I think it would be really cool to one day have a contemporary Conjuring movie, and the perfect opportunity to do it would be this news story that happened in 2020 where it was reported that the Annabelle doll escaped from the Warren's occult museum. At the time it was closed and being looked over by Judy's husband, Tony Sparrow. I think there's an interesting story there with Tony and Judy being in charge for the first time, with Lorraine having passed away the year before and having to rise to the occasion facing one of the most powerful demons in Conjuring lore, all in the shadow of the hysteria that was the year 2020.
If they ever did something like this, it stands to reason that Malthus could set free the other spirits in the room again, and I would personally like to see them focus on the other evil entities instead of the three that were already featured in Annabelle Comes Home. But it would be cool if the Black Shuck made a quick Easter egg appearance. And by the way, I'm aware that the rumor of Annabelle's escape was just a mistranslation from a Chinese website, and Tony cleared things up pretty quickly after that.
But again, I don't think that means that they can't make that movie, especially considering that most of this franchise is just based on exaggerated and sometimes made up stories. As I alluded to, there are a lot of Conjuring antagonists whose stories deserve a closer look. So check out that playlist on the left for my deep dives on the franchise's most horrifying villains.
And remember to subscribe to CZsWorld for new horrors every week. Ring the Deathbell and select all notifications, and I will see you in the next one. Assuming we both survive.
