21 things you didn’t know about ‘The Conjuring 2’s’ real demonologists

Demonologist, Ed Warren

Ed Warren was born in Connecticut in 1926. He claimed his childhood home was haunted and became interested in the paranormal when his father couldn’t explain the strange lights he later called “ghost globules” and noises Ed heard at night. “My father, who was a police officer at the time, would often say, ‘Ed, there’s a logical reason for everything that happens in this house,’ but he never came up with that logical reason,” said Warren. His career as a self-described “demonologist” lasted five decades. Ed Warren died in 2006 at the age of 79. 

The real Lorraine Warren

Lorraine Warren was also born in Connecticut in 1927 and is currently 89 years old. Though she’s retired from investigating paranormal activity, she still consults on the many films based on her supernatural experiences. 

Lorraine senses spirits

Lorraine Warren considers herself a clairvoyant and trance medium, which means she has extrasensory perception that allows her to sense spirits, both human and nonhuman. A Roman Catholic, she believes the devil exists and that demonic possession is real. 

The real Annabelle

In 1970, the Warrens investigated a case where two college students claimed their Raggedy Ann doll was possessed. They said the doll claimed to be possessed by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins. The doll is now on display in the Warren’s Occult Museum and kept under glass so no one may touch her.

Annabelle gets a makeover

The 2014 movie Annabelle is loosely based on the possessed Raggedy Ann doll, though the filmmakers decided that the image of this classic American doll was too sweet. They instead created this frightening porcelain doll that looks much creepier. Supposedly in real life, the haunted doll was able to move on its own from room to room, write notes and was responsible for one man’s death.

‘Twilight Zone’ episode

In the episode of The Twilight Zone called “Living Doll” from 1963, a talking doll is given to a little girl by her mother. The doll soon grows antagonistic against the girl’s stepfather. Is it just a coincidence that the mom in the story is named Annabelle? The episode was written and filmed seven years before the Annabelle haunting.

Occult Museum

In addition to Annabelle, the Warren’s Occult Museum houses many disturbing objects, such as a menacing shadow doll that is said to visit people in their dreams and stop their hearts, a real vampire’s coffin and tomb stones that were used as Satanic altars. Scheduled tours of the museum and other events are listed at Warrens.net. 

Ryan Buell and Annabelle

Ryan Buell, a paranormal investigator and host of the show Paranormal State, invited Lorraine Warren to assist him with numerous cases. When Buell visited the Warren’s Occult Museum, he claims the Annabelle doll moved its head up and down, as if nodding or acknowledging his presence. 

‘The Amityville Horror’

Perhaps the Warrens’ most famous case was the Amityville haunting where six members of the DeFeo family were found murdered in their beds in 1974. A year later, the Lutz family moved into the home. When a priest tried to bless the house with holy water, he heard a voice that told him to “get out.” The house was plagued by odors, flies and apparitions causing the DeFeo family to leave the home after just 28 days.

The Warrens’ investigation

When the Warrens investigated the Amityville home 20 days after the DeFeos left, Ed Warren was pushed to the floor and Lorraine was overwhelmed by a demonic presence. The Warrens believed the evil in the home began when Native Americans created a place for insane and ill tribe members. This has been disputed, however. 

Photo of boy in Amityville House

This photo, taken on the second floor of the Amityville home by the Warrens’ research team, appears to show the apparition of a frightened boy. No one was living in the house at the time of the Warren’s investigation. 

‘Amityville: The Awakening’

A new film, Amityville: The Awakening, starring Bella Thorne and Jennifer Jason Leigh, is set to release January 6, 2017. This will be a new take on the terrifying house and the spirits that torment a high school girl. This will be Thorne’s first starring role in a horror movie.

The Einfeld poltergeist

The new film, The Conjuring 2, tells the story of when the Warrens investigated the Einfeld poltergeist in England in the 1970s. A poltergeist is said to be a loud, noisy ghost who is capable of moving objects, hitting, biting and tripping people.

During filming, Lorraine Warren was reunited with Janet Hodgson Winter, the real-life resident who was tormented by demons when she was just 11 years old. Also serving as a consultant on the film, Winter said, “When Ed and Lorraine came to the house, to me it felt like some sort of comfort had arrived in the house for the first time, in that they’d come to try and help us.”

Levitation

When Lorraine Warren first arrived in the Einfeld home, she was terrified by what she saw in the two young daughters’ bedrooms. “I could see the girls were in two beds. Then they levitated, they crisscrossed in the air, and the girls screamed. I knew I needed to help them,” said Warren.

The real Hodgson family

Tape recordings of the real Janet Hodgson can be heard in this recording here. She speaks in a disturbingly deep voice that she claimed belonged to a dead man named Bill Wilkins, who had died in the Einfeld house a few years earlier. 

Ouija Board

According to Janet Hodgson, the paranormal activity began after she and her sister used a ouija board. When the local police were called in to investigate the strange noises, bed shaking and levitations, a female officer, WPC Carolyn Heeps, saw a chair move by itself about four feet across the room. Heeps examined the chair for invisible wires but found none. 

A Priest’s blessing

Fifteen minutes before The Conjuring 2 was to start shooting, Father Steven Sanchez, a Roman Catholic-sanctioned exorcist and friend of Lorraine Warren, blessed Warner Brothers’ stage 4 in Burbank, California. Using holy water and anointing oil, Father Sanchez blessed the set and all those involved in the production. 

A haunted soundstage?

The Einfeld house was recreated on Warner Brothers’ stage 4, which is considered to be haunted. Built in 1924, the soundstage is said to be inhabited by jokester entities who like to play practical jokes. According to the studio, crews working at night never go on the roof unless someone is inside because the ghosts like to lock them out. Other crew members have reportedly heard hammering, whispering and drilling even when no one is working on the set. 

A love story

Returning to the franchise is movie director James Wan. For Wan, part of the cinematic journey was to illuminate the closeness between Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. 

“I also really admired Ed and Lorraine’s partnership, and the way Patrick and Vera give life to it. I’ve always harbored a secret desire to tell a love story on film. I guess my way to do it is to disguise it as a horror movie!” said Wan.

A werewolf demon?

In 1983, the Warrens claimed to help a troubled man named Bill Ramsey who had bitten several people during his bizarre seizures and believed he was a wolf. The Warrens performed an exorcism to remove the wolf-demon from the man. Unfortunately, the Warrens have no photos or video from the event, but wrote about their experiences in the book Werewolf: A True Story of Demonic Posession. 

We can’t help but wonder if this will be the story line for The Conjuring 3, if there is one.

‘The Conjuring 2’

Promising to be the most frightening movie of the year, The Conjuring 2 opens June 10. Happy haunting!