Top 10 Things The Conjuring Movies Got Factually Right and Wrong
#10: Ed & Lorraine Warren
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Right To begin, let’s discuss Ed and Lorraine Warren. Played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. the Warrens are the heart of the core “Conjuring” movies. These aren’t characters made up for the movie - they’re perhaps the most famous paranormal investigators in history. The Warrens founded the New England Society for Psychic Research in the early ‘50s and were widely known for their publicized investigations, including the world-famous Amityville haunting. However, as is often the case with the paranormal, the Warrens, their methods, and their findings HAVE been met with a large degree of skepticism from the public and the scientific community.
#9: The Perron Family
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Right The first “Conjuring” movie sees the Warrens investigating an old farmhouse that was recently purchased by the Perron family. Again, these characters were not made up for the movie. The Perron family really existed, they had five daughters, and they were haunted in a remote Rhode Island farmhouse. Supposedly. When the movie was released in 2013, the oldest Perron girl, Andrea (played by Shanley Caswell), was 54 years old, and she told USA Today that the movie had “many elements of truth to it.” Lorraine Warren also worked on the movie as a consultant to ensure accuracy. Ghosts or no, the Perron family is 100% real, and they can even be seen in a special trailer for “The Conjuring.”
#8: The Happy Ending
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Wrong Despite its numerous scares and oppressive tone, “The Conjuring” has quite a happy ending. Ed completes the exorcism, Bathsheba is banished from the home, Carolyn is saved, and the Warrens return home content in their incredible work. Only, it didn’t end like that in real life. According to The Skeptical Inquirer, Roger Perron was none too happy with the involvement of the Warrens and their intrusion into his home. When it came time for Carolyn’s supposed exorcism, Roger ended up punching Ed in the face and kicking the Warrens out of his house. According to Andrea Perron, her father quote “considered [the Warrens’] little sideshow a charade” and called them quote “a pair of two-bit charlatans.”
#7: Poltergeist Activity
Right (Sort Of?) “The Conjuring 2” focuses on the historic Enfield poltergeist case - more on that in a bit. As in the first “Conjuring,” many of its scares were supposedly taken from real life events - including the classic poltergeist activity of furniture moving on its own. And it’s not just the family and the Warrens that claim to have seen something. Neighbours, journalists, and even responding police officers, claim to have witnessed various poltergeist activity. There were claims of moving furniture, objects being tossed and thrown, and even instances of human levitation. Of course, these events may have beeny faked by the family for publicity. But they WERE seen, and they were most definitely reported.
#6: The Crooked Man
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Wrong One of the sequel’s villains is The Crooked Man, a tall and thin man with pointy teeth and grey-green skin. Despite what some may believe, The Crooked Man was not a CGI creation. Rather, he was played by a man named Javier Botet, who suffers from a condition called Marfan syndrome. This disorder results in a tall, thin stature, with elongated limbs and hyper-flexible joints. The villain is taken from an old English nursery rhyme called There Was a Crooked Man, but there was certainly no Crooked Man in the real Enfield poltergeist case. That said, the character proved popular enough to warrant a spin-off!
#5: The Enfield Haunting
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Right The Enfield poltergeist is one of the most popular instances of alleged paranormal activity. Taking place in London in the late 70s, the story is bolstered by seemingly reputable claims and major coverage in the British press. The movie gets a ton of facts correct, from the inclusion of the Warrens down to the physical design of the characters - including Janet Hodgson’s hairstyle and red sweater. The end credits are a great source of comparison, as they include real vocal recordings and side-by-side images juxtaposing the movie with reality. With that said, many skeptics - and even some paranormal investigators - have questioned the veracity of the events, believing them to be nothing more than an elaborate hoax concocted by the clever minds of bored teenagers.
#4: Valak
Wrong Just like The Crooked Man, Valak is a Hollywood fabrication - at least in terms of the Enfield haunting. When it comes to that historical event, there are two possible realities. Either it was real and the Hodgson’s were tormented by a ghost, or they made it all up for a laugh. It certainly was NOT a demon who took on the forms of a nun and The Crooked Man. That said, Valak is a real demon mentioned in “The Lesser Key of Solomon,” a spell book compiled in the mid-17th century. However, the Valak seen in “The Conjuring” doesn’t resemble the Valak from the grimoire.
#3: The Warrens’ Museum
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Right At the end of each “Conjuring” movie, the Warrens place something in their personal museum. In the first movie, it’s a music box. In the second, it’s the Crooked Man zoetrope. Also seen in the second movie is the popular Annabelle doll, the subject of her own popular spinoff. This small museum is 100% real. Named The Warrens’ Occult Museum, it was built in the Warrens’ Connecticut home. The room is filled with objects pertaining to their numerous investigations, including the Perron family music box seen at the end of “The Conjuring,” a supposedly self-playing organ, various Satanic tools, and yes, the real Annabelle doll. Unfortunately, the museum has since closed owing to zoning violations and unwanted visitors.
#2: The Exorcism
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Wrong As stated earlier, the real “exorcism” of Carolyn Perron was very different to what’s portrayed in the movie. In contrast to her husband Roger, Carolyn was very much open to belief in the paranormal. She reportedly suffered disturbing visions and dreams, and came up with the idea that local figure Bathsheba Sherman was behind it all. During a seance at the Perron house, Carolyn’s body shook and she began mumbling. Skeptics contend that this was less about demonic possession, and more about someone very suggestible meeting expectations. The chair did fall back, but it didn’t swing upside down onto the ceiling. Nor did she try to stab her own daughter!
#1: Annabelle
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Right This horrifying doll made quite an impression in the first “Conjuring” movie, which of course led to her own spinoff trilogy. And while the Raggedy Ann doll was given a fictional makeover for the movies, the legend of Annabelle remains very real. The story begins in 1970, when a student nurse was told that her Raggedy Ann doll contained the spirit of a deceased little girl. It reportedly behaved in a malicious \fashion, which eventually led the nurse to the Warrens. They believed that the doll was demonically possessed and imprisoned it within their Occult Museum, where it remains to this day.
