Is ‘The Conjuring’ Based on a True Story?

Aside from supernatural horror movies and fun ghost stories to tell around campfires, people are, more often than not, skeptical about the paranormal. Even when there’s an overwhelming account of something strange happening to someone. And some of our favorite supernatural fiction was inspired by true events (however loosely), including The Conjuring (2013). 

The Warrens in The Conjuring (2013) are named after the real-life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Whose real-life reports actually helped inspire The Amityville Horror book and film franchise. It goes to show how media and regular life bleed into each other sometimes. But who exactly were the Warrens? What did they do? And what events helped inspire the smash hit that is the first The Conjuring? 

Ed and Lorraine Warren

Ed Warren was a WW2 vet/former police officer turned self-proclaimed demonologist. Lorraine Warren claimed to be a clairvoyant and medium who could communicate with demons. They founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952. And quickly became respected paranormal investigators after their investigation into the Amityville hauntings. But one of their biggest cases happened to be the Perron family’s.

The Perron family moved into a 14-room farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island in January 1971. The family consisted of Carolyn and Roger Perron and their five daughters. And strange things happened almost immediately after they moved in. While a broom going missing/being moved, dirt appearing in random piles, or scraping sounds don’t seem that scary, the events didn’t stop there for the Perrons. If only, right? 

According to the Warrens, Carolyn and Roger’s children started to see spirits—they were occasionally harmless. But there were also ones that were angry. With the history of the home, it’s no wonder they were. Their home had been in the same family for 8 generations. And there were a lot of mysterious/horrible deaths, including suicides. Though the worst of them all, which was depicted in the film, was the spirit of Bathsheba Sherman. A woman who was said to be a “Satanist” in the mid-1800s. From there, it only got worse for the family. Horrendous smelling spirits, beds rising off the ground, ect. 

Over the decade that the Perrons lived in their home, the Warrens did investigate what was going on. Eventually leading to Lorraine performing a seance, rather than an exorcism like the movie depicted, which supposedly led to Carolyn Perron becoming possessed. They claimed she rose off the ground from her chair and spoke in “a language not of this world in a voice not her own,” according to one of the daughters. Rather than get the hell out of the house, the family had no choice but to stay due to financial issues. Eventually, they moved in 1980 and the spirits had been silenced and stopped their chaotic behavior. 

There’s also the Enfield haunting but some of the reports weren’t truthful (from the children in particular). Meanwhile, the Perron’s accounts weren’t a result of them playing around. Whether or not the Warrens were as serious as they claimed. The freaky events helped inspire a horror movie that people still like to talk about. And Lorraine Warren was a consultant on the film as well. 

(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)