When The Conjuring hit the theatres, it was unlike anything that had been seen so far in modern horror. The story was terrifying, the cast was perfect, and every aspect of the filmmaking, from the writing to directing, was impeccable. True, one expects nothing less from James Wan, a hardened horror writer with the likes of The Saw and The Insidious up his sleeve, but The Conjuring was a totally different experience. It felt… real. It was as though the audience was with the characters the entire time, and they were seeing the story unfold firsthand.
The Conjuring had been heavily marketed using the based on the true story tag. A slew of horror flicks since the release of The Conjuring have used it, but not one of them was as efficient in the genre (not even the subsequent Conjuring films) as the original Conjuring in 2013. Even almost a decade later, many still fondly remember the movie for its brilliance. After all, it was a fresh breath of air for the fans of the paranormal.
But what was the true story behind The Conjuring? How much of the real was transcribed into the reel, and did anything get lost in between the transition? Well, according to Andrea Perron, a person who experienced the haunting firsthand, the 2013 movie, in all its grotesque grandeur, barely scratches the surface of what the family endured. The haunting was far worse, and if you read the true story behind The Conjuring, you would feel that to do proper justice, the story should be made into a miniseries at least.
The Haunting of The Perron Family
The Perron family moved to their Harrisville home in January 1971. One of the earliest signs that something was not normal was ostensibly given by the house agent himself, who advised the family to “keep the lights on at night”. It turns out, the house was the site of many violent acts, including suicides, murders, and drownings. In fact, as the course of their stay went on, the family realized that there were plenty of reasons for the agent to tell the Perrons to leave their lights on after the sun went down.
Things started off small; there would be misplaced objects throughout the house and the sounds of someone sweeping the yard at midnight. Gradually, however, things started to get more serious. The doors and the windows started banging at random, and one fine night, the freezer door opened and shut itself multiple times in full view of the children.
The children claimed that they had witnessed unknown entities in the barn at noon and evenings and one night, deep voices and chants started emanating from the walls of the house. Andrea claims that her sister Cindy rushed into bed with her one night to tell her about disembodied voices coming from the walls of the room. They had a message too. The voices chanted There are seven dead soldiers buried in the wall over and over.
At around 5:15 every morning, the pungent smell of rotting flesh would waft through the house, and the beds would shake at times, as though they were experiencing a minor earthquake. According to Andera Perron, the oldest of the Perron children, around this time, the girls were visited by a deviant male ghost that tortured them so badly that she refuses to pinpoint what exactly it did to them. “Let’s just say there was a very bad male spirit in the home – with five little girls,” Andrea mutters solemnly.
(Left) The Original Arnold Estate and Conjuring House (Right) The Conjuring House From The Movie
As things turned more fiendish, Carolyn Perron, their mother, sourced the history of the farmhouse from the town records to find that the house had been in the same family for eight generations. Each generation has encountered strange misfortunes of their own until they decided enough was enough, and quit. There have also been a number of unnatural deaths on the premises, ranging from cases of children who drowned in the nearby creek, to people who hung themselves in the attic. There are also cases of people kicking the bucket in the cellar of the house. To make matters worse (if possible), there have also been murders on the land. But even amongst the cases of unnatural deaths, one name stands out—Bathsheba Sherman.
Bathsheba had lived on the property in the mid-1800s, more than a century before the Perrons moved in. Many believe that Bathsheba was a Satanist who could have been responsible for the death of a neighbor’s baby. However, she was never tried in the courts of Rhode Island. She died on the 25th of May, 1885, at the age of 73, and was buried in a Baptist cemetery near Harrisville, Rhode Island. Though the movie counterpart is described as committing suicide, Bathsheba died of natural causes. However, her death doesn’t mean that she would be “moving on”. Oh, no. If anything, Bathsheba orchestrated her presence more than ever as she manifested into a poltergeist. A spirit, believed to be that of Bathsheba, once possessed a maid, who killed herself on the property by slashing her writs after murdering her son.
Bathsheba considered herself the mistress of the house and did not want to contend for the position with Carolyn Perron. She constantly hung around Roger Perron, the patriarch, especially while he worked in the basement of the house, fixing old pipes and repairing the heating system which continuously failed despite proper upkeep.
However, there are many those who believe that Bathsheba was not a witch, but a wealthy and independent homeowner who was wrongly accused and targeted by her jealous neighbors and townsfolk. Many of the claims of her being a witch come from the rumors that she had killed all her children, but Henry Sherman, her son, is recorded to have lived to a ripe old age and had a family of his own. However, this does not change the fact that people did inexplicably die at the old Arnold Estate in horrible and godforsaken ways.
A Horrible Séance with The Dead
Even after such experiences, the Perrons never contacted the Warrens, for they didn’t know about them. The Warrens were contacted by a family friend, Barbara, who witnessed something paranormal at the house and decided to consult the Warrens. Roger was cynic, but Carolyn urged it was necessary.
The Warrens were already highly reputed in the field, having gained fame with their investigation at Amityville. However, they had no idea how unprepared they were to face the entity in Rhode Island. The Warrens would later state that the case was the worst they had handled. After the Warrens met the Perrons, Lorraine Warren realized that based on the experiences by Carolyn, the spirit was on the verge of possessing her. To understand what the spirit wanted, a séance was conducted in the dining room. However, it went terribly wrong.
The Original Perron Family And Their Movie Counterparts
The five children were warned not to enter the room, but the kids, being kids, realized that their curiosity was too strong to be held back. When Andrea peeped to catch a glimpse, she watched as her mother got possessed, speaking a tongue she had never heard before or since. Even more disturbingly, the voice coming out of her mouth was not her voice but was deep and horrifying. Carolyn was thrown across the room by the possessing entity, as though she was merely a rag doll. Roger tried to run after her but was stopped by Ed Warren, who warned him not to meddle. It was at this point that Roger sucker-punched Ed. In fact, it was so hard that he fell down — knocked out cold. The Warrens were kicked out, and the family shut the door in their face. Unfortunately, due to their economic strains, the family was forced to live in the house till 1980, after which Carolyn warned Roger that she would not survive another winter in the house. They left finally left in 1980.
Who Were Ed and Lorraine Warren?
The Warrens, the couple who saved many from demonic forces, are the founders of the NESPR (New England Society for Psychic Research) society, founded in 1952. Ed Warren, born Edward Warren Miney, had a keen attraction for all things supernatural from early childhood. He studied demonology and declared himself to be a professional paranormal investigator. Ed married Lorraine Rita Moran, in 1945, right after the end of the Second World War. Lorraine, like her husband, possessed an admiration and respect for the supernatural and was said to be a psychic. A clairvoyant, to be precise. She used her ability to act as a medium to aid her husband in his exploits.
While skeptics like Joe Nickell and Steven Novella rebuked their investigations as being fictitious and rubbish, there are hundreds of thousands who believe that Ed and Lorraine helped society in all the ways they can. Andrea Perron is also a strong advocate of the Warrens, having experienced the horrors Harrisville had to offer. She wrote of her experience in her book: House of Darkness, House of Light.
The Real Life Warrens
Lorraine confesses that she and Ed had performed seances, but the filmmakers take the liberty to show them performing an exorcism which she denies ever doing since only Catholic Priests can exorcise demons.
The couple even ran an occult museum in their backyard in Connecticut which is now no longer in service. The most famous attraction they had, used to be the Annabelle doll. A number of their endeavors have also been filmized, like The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), the Amityville Horror (1975), Annabelle (2014), The Haunted (2018), and many more. The Warren Files is a goldmine for horror enthusiasts (just like Morbidkuriosity on Instagram!). Ed died on the 23rd of August 2006, and Lorraine, on the 18th of April 2019.
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