He's my new friend. Oh really? Yeah do you want to see him? Yeah uh-huh... I want you to hit me
as hard as you can... Ed and Lorraine Warren were considered by many to be pioneers in the
field of supernatural investigation and research. During their time as the nation's most in-demand
paranormal liaisons, they investigated hundreds of suspected hauntings, including the notorious
Amityville house. Although the subjects of their investigations have inspired a number of
horror movies, the Warrens themselves were not the center of their own story until director James Wan
scared up an entire franchise of frights, now on its third main movie. But let's go back to
2013 when it all started with The Conjuring. The movie introduces audiences to the married couple
as they investigate the Perron farmhouse haunting, seemingly one of their more violent and terrifying
cases. But just how accurately depicted is this unsettling supernatural tale? Any questions?
Grab your exorcism kit and find out what the [ __ ] really happened to this movie!
Let's be clear: we obviously won't be able to confirm the actual existence of ghosts,
and it's impossible to verify whatever occurred at the Perron family farmhouse. The only people who
know the truth, as it is, are the real Warrens and the Perrons. That said, we can compare The
Conjuring to the testimony of Andrea Perron and the Warrens, specifically Lorraine. We first
meet the Warrens during the now infamous Annabelle haunting - yep, that creepy doll. Ed and Lorraine,
played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, are called in to investigate claims of three people
tormented by a seemingly possessed doll. The Warrens present the concluding details of the case
to a room full of college students, stating that a priest was brought in to cleanse the house and the
doll was locked safely away, ending the paranormal activity. Even though paranormal investigation was
their primary role, the actual Warrens never accepted money for their efforts - they gave
lectures around the country to help pay the bills. It's also true that they investigated a supposed
haunting concerning a doll possessed by the spirit of a young child. However, it was a Raggedy Ann
plush doll and not a ceramic Chucky-inspired nightmare. Details get a bit dubious with the
movie's opening crawl, which claims that Ed is the only non-ordained demonologist recognized
by the Catholic church, but there is no official documentation from the church to back this claim.
The same can be said about Lorraine's clairvoyance - while she has on occasion "proved" her skills
through a series of tests, it's simply not possible to authenticate such capabilities.
A major aspect of The Conjuring, as well as the sequels, is Ed and Lorraine's love for
one another. While we only get hints at their romantic history, Lorraine steadfastly believes
God put the two of them together for a purpose. The real Lorraine did truly believe that she and
Ed were meant to be together. According to The Demonologist, author Gerald Brittle's book about
the famous investigators, Ed and Lorraine fell in love as teenagers. Ed joined the navy to fight in
World War II and after surviving a near-death experience, he took it as a sign and married
Lorraine as soon as he returned home, and they remained together until Ed's death 60 years later.
The Warrens did have a daughter named Judy, but she actually would have been in her mid-20s at the
time of the movie's chilling investigation, and not the young girl we see on screen. Throughout
the film, we glimpse the Warrens' famed occult room, packed with an array of spooky curiosities
and relics. The real Ed and Lorraine did operate a small unofficial occult museum out of their house
in Monroe Connecticut. Many objects in this room here have had dire effects on people,
people have been maimed, have been killed, people have wound up in mental institutions
because of many of the things right in this building here. While the museum is now closed,
it was still running just a few years ago before Lorraine passed in 2019,
and it did contain a number of purportedly haunted artifacts. This is not a Halloween room,
this is the real thing. The emotional heart of The Conjuring is the Perron family, victims of
the haunting that allegedly took place at the Old Arnold Estate in Harrisville Rhode Island,
set on 200 acres and established in 1736. Although the house seen in the film is a set built for the
production, the real house is still standing, if a little smaller than the screen version.
The movie is also missing the estate's barn, which according to Andrea Perron was a major
hotspot for supernatural happenings. The house was large, perfect for such a big family, consisting
of Roger, Carolyn and their five girls - Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy and April. In the film,
the family also has a dog - briefly - oh my god! But this canine companion seems to be an addition
by the filmmakers. Roger Perron was a traveling salesman, and not the truck driver he's depicted
in the film, but he was still often away from home. Almost immediately after they moved in,
the girls all began having paranormal experiences. Like in the movie, the real Roger was more
uncertain about the happenings since he was usually not around to experience them himself.
In the film, strange happenings begin on arrival at the home - the dog refuses to enter the house,
perhaps sensing the evil within. And the youngest daughter April finds an old music box. This was a
real artifact on display at the Warrens' occult museum, but the film heavily exaggerates its
connection to the haunting. The eerie events escalate when the family discovers the entrance
to the farmhouse cellar. The next morning, Carolyn wakes up to find bruises on her body,
believed to be from an iron deficiency but eventually revealed to be caused by an evil spirit
weakening her to make possession possible. While the bruising was invented by the filmmakers,
Andrea Perron has stated that the spirits in the home would "eat away" at her mother's energy,
and that she was practically wasting away right in front of her eyes. Carolyn herself had described
it as: "we started to absorb the karma of the house, almost as through osmosis." The
family also notices their clocks stop at 3:07 every morning, and there is a pervasive smell
of rotting meat throughout the house. While the clocks never actually stopped at 3:07 every night,
it was noted that beds would violently shake every morning at 5:15, and the stench of rotting flesh
was also documented by Andrea Perron and the Warrens. After the fictional dog is found dead
in the yard, birds begin crashing into the house and the haunted happenings become more apparent.
The odor of rotten flesh continues to get worse. Stop farting, it really stinks. Doors open and
close on their own, and sounds of children are heard. Most of this more benign activity
did actually occur, according to Andrea. One morning, Carolyn finds April talking
to an imaginary friend she calls Rory, who can be seen through the music box. Andrea Perron
wrote in her book that one of the spirits was a boy they thought was named Oliver Richardson.
Young April actually became so close to the spirit that they refused to tell the Warrens about him
because April was afraid they'd get rid of him forever. Carolyn and April play a game of hide
and clap, with Carolyn following the sound to an armoire left behind by previous occupants,
only to find it was not her daughter she was following. This unnerving sequence in the film was
made up, but the family did reportedly have some supernatural experiences while playing hide and
seek on the grounds. Christine has an experience with a vicious spirit that forcefully drags her
out of bed. In the corner of the room is the evil presence but only she can see it. According to
Andrea Perron's account, there was a spirit that was more cruel than the others, and one of the
sisters did awaken to the presence of a dead woman telling her to get out, and saying they would be
driven out with death and gloom. The haunting only gets worse. One night after being lured downstairs
by the sounds of ghostly children, Carolyn is locked in the cellar by the evil spirit.
Andrea wakes to find a sleepwalking Cindy banging her head against the armoire, a horrifying ghost
perched on top. Definitely scary, but none of this is described in Andrea Perron's version of events.
Cindy's sleepwalking and furniture thumping were fabricated for the movie. Now desperate,
Carolyn travels to implore the Warrens for help, and although they are initially hesitant,
they agree. While the real Warrens did investigate the events, there's actually some confusion as to
how they got reeled into the Perron haunting. In an interview with Paranormal Living TV, Andrea
Perron stated that one day, a group of amateur paranormal investigators showed up at their house
claiming Carolyn had called them. But Carolyn did not remember reaching out, making their presence a
mystery. Regardless, they investigated and were so impressed or afraid with what they had witnessed
that they contacted the Warrens for assistance. However, in another interview with Trespass
Magazine, Andrea claimed that a family friend reached out to the Warrens on their behalf.
So the specifics of the actual initial contact remain murky. Additionally, the Warrens didn't
visit the estate until 1973, years after the Perrons first moved in, and not the mere weeks in
the movie. Upon their initial walkthrough of the Arnold Estate, the Warrens do indeed detect signs
of a dark entity. Lorraine meets Rory through April's music box and investigates the cellar,
which she claims was the site of a brutal killing. She also sees an apparition hanging from the tree
in the backyard, all but confirming a malicious paranormal presence. While it's impossible to
tell if the real Lorraine genuinely had these visions, according to James Wan she
was a consultant on the film and was very adamant about sticking as close as possible to the facts.
Ed learns that the Perrons got the home from the bank and therefore didn't know its history.
In reality, the family bought the house from a previous owner. Carolyn Perron later said
that when she had reached out to the previous homeowners she was told, "for the sake of the
children you should leave lights on at night." In the movie, Carolyn mentions that all their
money is tied up in the house, which is true - it wasn't until 1980 that they could afford to leave,
after a decade of strange happenings and emotional anguish. The Warrens head back home to Connecticut
and begin researching the estate to explore what may be causing the haunting. In her research,
Lorraine Warren uncovers the home's sordid past, rife with suicide and murder. Most conspicuous
is a previous resident named Bathsheba Sherman, a Satan-worshiping witch who sacrificed her baby by
stabbing him in the head with a knitting needle before she hung herself from the backyard tree.
Ed plays the recording from earlier that day, only to discover Carolyn's voice replaced by a demon. A
creepy scene, but almost certainly false as Andrea Perron has stated that no one was able to get any
verifiable documented proof of the haunting from recorders or cameras. The Warrens return to the
Perron house soon after and share what they've gathered, specifically about Bathsheba Sherman.
Now, Bathsheba was a real living person, but her backstory in the film is almost entirely based on
legend and conjecture. According to local records, Bathsheba was likely not a Satanist witch but
rather an average woman who lived on the property with her husband and children, three of which
apparently died at very early ages. There's no hard evidence or documentation of how they died,
which probably got the rumor mill spinning at the time. The real Bathsheba also appears to have died
from natural causes, not suicide, and she's buried in a Catholic cemetery alongside her husband in
Harrisville Rhode Island. That she obtained a full Christian burial sort of proves that she was never
a witch, considering that's generally frowned upon by the church. In her memoir, Andrea Perron
mentions that Lorraine was the first to name Bathsheba as a demonic force, a conclusion that
the Perron family disagreed with but tolerated. However, even though they were skeptical it
was really a demon, there was no question that Bathsheba was the source of malevolent activity.
They speculated Bathsheba was jealous of Carolyn, believing she was replacing her as mistress of the
house. In the film, the Warrens return to the parent house to investigate with their team,
setting up recorders, cameras and various equipment meant to capture any and all things
paranormal. They're assisted by tech guy Drew and local officer Brad. In real life, they had
a larger team and a priest, but no police. andrea has stated that the investigation was quite the
spectacle of technology mixed with spirituality. Furthermore, in the movie the Warrens seemed
to investigate over a period of days when in reality they carried out more than 10 separate
investigations over a year and a half. The first night doesn't get them any evidence, but the next
morning while Carolyn is napping, Bathsheba visits her and vomits some disgusting goo in her mouth,
thereby possessing her. Things are quiet for the remainder of the day, at least until officer Brad
witnesses the spirit of a woman with slit wrists. The Warrens and the Perrons rush to his aid but
are quickly distracted when a sleepwalking Cindy sets off a number of camera traps. They follow
her upstairs to Andrea's room, where the door slams shut. When they're finally able to open it,
they're stunned to find Cindy is gone. Using a blacklight, they track her footprints to that
accursed armoire. It seems empty until they find a hidden crawlspace with Cindy inside. Lorraine
enters to investigate, only for the floorboards to give out and she plummets through the walls of the
house down to the basement, only to meet another gruesome spirit who murdered her child. This
is where Lorraine learns that Bathsheba possesses mothers who live in the house and forces them to
kill their own children before ultimately taking their own lives. Lorraine frantically escapes the
basement, accidentally leaving behind the locket her daughter Judy had given her. A chaotic night
culminates with Nancy being attacked by an invisible presence. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
this is all heavily embellished just for the film. While Lorraine did believe that Bathsheba
was a demonic presence, the idea of mothers being possessed and killing their children was
only based on folklore. The next day, the Perrons pack up and head to a motel, although in reality
they never left their house at any point during the lengthy investigation. Meanwhile, Lorraine
receives a vision of her daughter's floating body, an omen that prompts the Warrens to rush home,
where Judy is having her own terrifying paranormal encounter involving that freaky doll of the damned
and Bathsheba, who apparently somehow traveled through Lorraine's locket to Judy's own locket.
In the nick of time, the girl is rescued from a frightful flying furniture fate by her father.
Much like the previous night's events, this attack was entirely fabricated for the movie,
likely added to make the haunting more personal to the Warrens. The Warrens present their evidence to
the local church in hopes of getting approval for an exorcism, but the church can't sign off because
the Perrons aren't Catholic. That's not entirely accurate according to Andrea Perron, who said the
family was raised Catholic and were all baptized. Later that night, Roger informs the Warrens that
Carolyn left the motel and took Christine and April. Rather than waiting for Vatican approval.
Lorraine insists they immediately leave to save the family. The Warrens arrive at the Perron
house to find Roger wrestling with his scissors wielding wife as she desperately tries to kill
Christine. Carolyn is totally possessed at this point, but officer Brad secures her to a chair
while Drew searches for the missing April. The Warrens begin the exorcism, wrapping Carolyn
in a sheet and reciting the necessary passages. The possessed Carolyn violently struggles before
levitating and attacking with various basement objects. After a tense chase, Lorraine finally
manages to urge the evil spirit out of Carolyn, officially ending the Perron family's agonizing
nightmare. The possession scene is certainly one of the highlights of the film, but it's also
perhaps the least factual event in the entire movie. The real Carolyn never demonstrated such
fierce demonic behavior and the Warrens never performed exorcisms on their own. But the real
conclusion to the Perron story is still quite interesting. One night the Warrens performed a
seance to better understand who or what was haunting the Perrons. According to Andrea,
they summoned a powerful entity that briefly possessed her mother. While she doesn't go into
explicit detail about what she witnessed, Andrea claims that it was the most horrifying experience
of her life. And apparently Roger wasn't too thrilled about it either - once the seance had
ended and Carolyn had returned to normal, an infuriated Roger demanded that Ed and Lorraine
leave their home and never come back. And that was indeed the last time the Warrens visited the Old
Arnold Estate. They had not solved the haunting and they certainly didn't help the Perrons. The
paranormal activity supposedly continued until the family all moved out in 1980. It seems safe to say
that the movie's happy ghost-busting outcome did not mirror the Perrons' reality. While it's likely
that no one will ever know the truth about what happened on the grounds of the Old Arnold Estate,
it's obvious that The Conjuring differs wildly from what Andrea Perron claims happened.
She has gone on record stating that "I would say five to ten percent of The Conjuring that is
actually based on fact and the rest of it is conjured in the minds of two screenwriters."
It's difficult to determine what is true when dealing with the unknown, but while The Conjuring
may be an effective and satisfying supernatural thriller, it appears to be more fiction than fact!
Thank you for watching, if you like what you see please subscribe to our JoBlo videos channel,
tell your friends who like this sort of content and turn on the bell to receive
notifications for all our latest videos. We are an independent company and we appreciate your support
you