Ed and Lorraine Warren: world renowned paranormal investigators, authors and most famously, the family who had their experiences against the unknown turned into a universe of critically acclaimed, worldwide box office hit horror movie series, The Conjuring Universe.
To understand who the Warren’s were, we must go back and look through the stories that defined and inspired the movie,s which we’ll dwell through. And why the stories turned them into the notorious celebrities which they now are. To do that, however, we must start from the beginning before the films’ release.
Events behind the first Conjuring
In the early 1970s, a doll named Anabelle was given as a gift to a young nurse named Donna from her mother for her 28th birthday. Thrilled by the gift, Donna brought the doll back to the apartment she shared with her fellow nurse Angie. There they lived together peacefully, but peace wasn’t meant to last. And it wasn’t long after the doll became a part of Donna’s life that paranormal activities began to take place. Donna would come home after work and find the doll in places where she had not been before. She would leave her on the sofa in her living room and when she came home, she’d be in her bedroom with the door closed.
As time passed, the paranormal activities would continue, and soon Donna would begin to find notes left around the apartment reading “Help Me”. Eventually one afternoon whilst Angie’s boyfriend was alone in the apartment, he began to hear rustling coming from Donna’s room. Upon further inspection, however, the room was just as it had been before, except for one detail, Anabelle. The doll laid face down on the ground. Seeing the doll, the man began to feel a searing pain in his chest and, as he looked down towards his chest, he saw bloody claw marks running across the wound. And just as strangely as they had made their appearance, just a few days later the marks were gone.
Following the visit of a medium who claimed the spirit was benevolent and wanted to be loved and cared for, the two nurses tracked down and called Ed and Lorraine Warren. Arriving at the scene and beginning their investigation, it didn’t take long for the pair to realize that Anabelle, the doll who looked like nothing out of the ordinary was in fact possessed by a demonic spirit, a spirit who had begun to haunt the two nurses. After the discovery/diagnosis/revelation, the Warrens alongside a father of the Ccatholic Cchurch performed an exorcism of the apartment. After their work was completed, the Warren family took the doll back to their Museum of the Occult, a place with artifacts from previous hauntings on display.
For those who believe demons and paranormal activities are nothing but fiction, several events after Anabelle was locked safely away in storage, may have you think otherwise. On several occasions, visitors to the Warren family home, who have seen the doll and mocked people for believing in its abilities, have mysteriously suffered break failures or simply lost control of their vehicle crashing into nearby trees or building, only barely surviving.
Now that you know who the Warrens are, we can finally begin.
Conjuring
Three years after their investigation into Anabelle,. aA family contacted them. Roger and Carolyn Perron, who having recently moved to a farmhouse on Rhode Island along with their daughters, had experienced several events that they believed to be paranormal. For one, every night at 3:07am the clocks in the house would simply stop. What made the family’s fear even worse were Carolyn’s bruises:, every morning she’d wake up with more and more bruises which she swore weren’t there before. Even worse was Sadie, their beloved dog, who they found dead in their yard not long after moving in. With everything that had happened to the family, they saw no other reason but to believe something was haunting them. At this point, terrified for their lives, they begged and pleaded for help from the Warrens.
Their pleading worked and shortly thereafter the Warren’s came up their driveaway and began their investigations. And it did not take long before, Loraine, using her clairvoyant abilities, claimed to have seen something, that haunted them both inside and outside the property. To document the case, the Warren’s, brought out a film crew to record an exorcism to cast out the Perrons’ demon. Though the spirit fought back, tThe Warrens and the Perron’s eventually won. And with the spirit now gone, the family could once more go back to the peaceful livelife that they had cherished and longed for. And the Warren’s could venture home alongside a new artifact for their collection.
Events behind the second Conjuring
In November of 1974, an ordinary house located in Amityville Long Island, turned into anything but average. The house where Ronald DeFeo Jr lived along with his parents and siblings, would turn into a bloodbath. On the morning of November 13, Ronald stalked the halls of their house with a rifle in hand and, one by one, shot and murdered his parents and siblings in their sleep. His reason? He claimed to hear voices, voices which urged him to kill. That case inspired a generation of authors, paranormal investigators and film directors.
The Conjuring 2
The year was 1976, just two years after the now famous Amityville murders took place at the now haunted house, which they had all lived in before. Intrigued by the motifs of the murderer, Ed and Lorraine Warren travelled to Amityville to investigate. During a seance at the house, Lorraine became drawn into a vision where she watched the murderers as they happened. After their sinister time in Amityville, the duo left, hoping to move on to greener pastures. But for the Warren family greener pastures are only a faint dream.
Three years after the Amityville case, the Warren’s were contacted by the Hodgson family after they begin to experience sudden paranormal events that had begun to frighten and terrorize their family. One night after Janet, one of the oldest of the Hodgson kids, was seen conversing with a mysterious entity in her sleep, the family decided to contact and plea that the Warren family help them. Lorraine, though fearful offor her husband’s life, agreed to help them. In their attempt, the Warren’s and the Hodgson’s were attacked by the dark entity of a nun.
Many believe the Hodgson’s was simply faking their hauntings for fame and monetary gain. As the nun continued to possess the now terrified Hogson family and nearly drove Janet into suicide. With Janet safe and sound… Lorraine finally remembered the one missing piece she’d been looking for to rid the family of the haunting spirit. And though they were all shaken up, scared and in fear, both the Warren’s and the Hodgson’s were safe again, and what’s more, the ordeal had left the Warren’s with another artifact for their collection.
Events behind the third Conjuring
The main event behind the third Conjuring was The Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, otherwise known as “The Devil Made Me Do It” case. Also the first known court case in the US, in which the defense sought to prove Arne Chayenne Johnson innocent due to claims made by himself, that he was under the possession of a demon at the time the crime took place. A crime which resulted in Johnson killing his landlord.
Conjuring Devil Made Me Do It
The year is 1981. Renowned demonologists and masters of the occult Ed and Lorraine Warren have once more been contacted by an innocent family whose youngest child has recently begun acting in strange, nearly malevolent ways. The family, fearing for their child’s life, contacted the Warren’s in the hope that they may be able to help. Alongside the child’s family, the Warrens and Father Gordon of the catholic church began the exorcism of the child, in the hope of ridding it of the demon that was now calling their son’s body home using it as its vessel. Under the ordeal the child began to show near rabies-like symptoms: foaming from the mouth and becoming seemingly feral, going as far as attacking Ed. His older brother intervened and tried to save him. He succeeds but at a cost, one that will soon leave him scarred for life. The exorcism was successful at last and the demon left the child’s body. Though the child is safe, the ordeal ends with Ed suffering a violent heart attack, which he wakes up from nearly a month later.
Waking up from the hospital, Ed told his wife what he saw before he fell unconscious. That the young boy they had saved was only safe because the demonic spirit instead passed onto his older brother. It only left because he found someone stronger to possess. The Warren’s however was too late, and not long after Ed reveals what he saw in his final moments. Arne Cheyenne Johnson, possessed by a demonic entity, murderers his landlord by stabbing him 22 times. And though all proof says that Arne murdered him in cold blood, and whilst sound of mind and in control, the Warrens set out to prove otherwise. And as such, the Cheyenne murder case became the first case in the US where the defense attorney has tried to claim demonic possession as their defense. With the case going to trial the Warrens did not have long to prove their innocence.
With time running out, they set out to find the truth, a hunt which begins in the very house in which the murder took place. It’s there that they find a witch’s totem. One which they reveal to have been cursed by a demon, a curse that had been passed on from the young boy to his brother. Shortly after the Warren’s found the first totem, a detective contacted them revealing they had found something similar in the house where a girl had been stabbed to death 22 times. With the girl’s killer having jumped to her death not long after she committed the murder, the Warrens began to fear for the fate of the brother. Though he is put on a suicide watch, the Warren’s fear the demon who’s possessing him still has the power to do him harm. Finding some good news in the middle of the tragedies, the Warren’s managed to find a book detailing how to lift the curse which plagued the boy. A curse which can only be lifted by destroying the occultist’s altar. Though Ed became cursed by a totem and nearly murdered his wife, he managesd to overcome it and destroy the alter before it can kill or harm anyone else. Cheyenne is convicted of the murder of his landlord, and sentenced to five years in jail. Through heart issues, demonic possessions and worse, the Warren’s continue to stick together and return home.
Events behind the fourth Conjuring
The Smurl family were your ordinary family who, after recently having moved into their new house in Pennsylvania in 1973, began experiencing abnormal activities. The Smurl family claimed a demonic entity had begun to possess their house. They would hear loud noises, smell terrible odors and even worse so was when they claimed it threw their poor dog into a wall. The family, however, continued to live with the demon and, after 13 years of on and off hauntings, finally called for help. And though many people claimed the Smurls were pulling a hoax for attention, the Warrens disagreed. And it didn’t take long before Ed experienced the demons’ powers. And though they tried to draw it out and remove it from the Smurl family’s premises, they couldn’t. The Warren’s had never given up easily before, and neither would they do so now, so they stuck around and began to record both what the demon did and the noises and sounds it was making. And though the Warren family and the Smurl’s claimed to see and experience things not of this world, many of those who stayed in the house afterwords or alongside them claimed they neither saw, heard or experienced anything of note. So, was it a demon or was it simply a hoax?
Conjuring The Last Rites
The year was 1964 and a soon- expecting Loraine Warren alongside her husband had been called to investigate an antique shop. Inside the old antique shop, Lorraine began to experience visions of her unborn daughter and a dark mysterious entity. As she got closer to an antique wood carved mirror, the visions got worse and, though they may not have been the cause,. Lorraine went into labor. Though Ed seems to have gotten them to a hospital in time, their daughter was born without a pulse. For nearly a minute, the Warren’s and the doctors do whatever they could to bring the newborn girl back to life, though they had nearly all given up hope that the baby was lost. It seemed someone else thought otherwise that day, and it was as though someone divine had intervened to help them the baby gasped for life. And that was the story of how their precious daughter came to be, Judy Warren.
Many years in the future, our little Judy has grown up to be happy and heathy and, though she did inherit her mother’s ability to see things that normal eyes cannot, she seemed to be in control of them. The Warren’s entered retirement and started living a more peaceful live instead. It all went awry as Judy’s visions got worse and a family began to beg for their help. And though Ed and Lorraine said no, their courageous daughter said otherwise, and she travelled to Pennsylvania to help. It’s there she met and tried to help the Smurl family from the nightmare which they’re living in. So, her parents thought otherwise and go after her to get her home where she’s safe and away from the evil, which they fear will do her harm. And though they reach her in time, she had no plans to go home. Not before the Smurl’s can return to their normal life again. And though Ed and Lorraine reluctantly agree and stay and help, what they’ll soon experience is that a familiar power from their past has come back to haunt them. And it intends to finish the job it started a long time ago. Will the Warren family survive with their souls and spirits intact, or will the demons finally win? You’ll have to watch to find out…
Soo, what do you think, dear reader, do demonic entities really exist? Aand if they do, can they really possess people into killing or hurting their loved once? Though we may never get a definitive answer, what we do know and have proof of is that the Warren’s and the stories they created have made for one of Hollywood’s best and most frightening horror movie universes. And if you’re intrigued to learn more about conjuring or the Warren family and their adventures, then there are plenty more adventures in the Cconjuring universe for you to explore. And many more stories not yet told on the big screen for you to read and experience. And though it may have some up’s and downs, the Cconjuring and its sequels still make for great entertainment, even for those easily frightened such as myself. Out of six, I give the series a score of four.
And with that I wish you all fare well, drive safe, happy Halloween, a greatly appreciated thank you if you made it to the end and a warning.
Goodbye.
