#Blogtober #SpooktoberStories

Hey guys, Hope you are all well I know I said I wasn't going to do another horror story one but I had to talk about the Warrens, And I know ive done these before, just thought I would do a final recap of them and some extra stories too. 

So, following on from my last real-life horror post, I wanted to cover something a bit wider but still in the same kind of field. And to me, when it comes to real-life being turned into a film, I think the stories of the Warrens.

From films like Annabelle to The Nun to The Conjuring (all part of The Conjuring universe), they're all based on the true stories of incidents that Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated... and I'm going to go into the real stories behind just 5 of them (briefly).

Ed and Lorraine Warren were a supernatural investigator married couple, which to me is goals. In 1952 founded the New England Society for Psychic Research, While also writing many novels based on their investigations and findings. In this post, I'm only going to go into the ones that films have been based on, but there are many more. So many in fact they have in fact opened up a museum of some of their... 'memorabilia'?

1) Annabelle:

So, haunted dolls are a horror trope and personally something that when done well can still scare me... when done well that is.

We all know in the films, Annabelle is a porcelain doll. In actuality, she's a Raggedy Anne doll which to me is more terrifying. In 1968, two roommates contacted the Warrens about their doll being possessed by a spirit called Annabelle Higgins. The doll was a present from one of their mothers; nothing thought of it until the doll started moving and changing positions randomly. They put it down to being nudged and moved along, until more stuff started happening, such as notes written by the doll being left for them.
The notes were things such as 'Help me' or 'Help Lou'. After being sure the other one wasn't playing a prank, they began to panic (as I think any sane person would).And then they came home one night and found the doll covered in blood so thought it was time for an expert to be called in.This expert told them that the spirit of a seven-year-old girl called Annabelle had possessed the doll after being murdered and left in a field to rot. During their communications, Annabelle claimed that she liked living with the roommates because she felt safe and just wanted to be loved, so they let her stay.That was mistake number one: letting a possessed doll stay in your flat.It also turned out that she was a maniac demon with serious behaviour problems so there's that too.Wildly, when the Warrens were brought in to investigate the demonic goings-on, they concluded that the doll was possessed  ('manipulated by an inhuman presence'). So, of course, they took the doll off them and put it in their museum in a glass case. Because that's entirely safe.Even after discovering spirits, they didn't really care; they seemed friendly to them so why not? Of course, put your trust in ghosts, there's never a bad ghost, clearly. In fact, they actually helped out with jobs around the house and played with the kids... until they stopped and instead decided to slam doors and make furniture levitate and assault the family. But you know friendly spirits.Apparently, the worst of the spirits was a witch/ satanist hybrid who hung herself on one of the trees on the land called Bathsheba Sherman. She wasn't fond of the family, actually sitting on the bed of Mrs Perron telling her to get out and she'll 'Make [you] leave with death and gloom'. It's safe to say that things worsened after this and they decided to move out which might be the only sensible thing that this bloody family does.This one was one, not even the Warrens could tackle. They claimed it was haunted (no shit) and they were unable to dispel the spirits, much to the surprise of the next owners who claimed that it was haunted and there was paranormal activity going on. Shocker.Police of all people were called and they claimed that they too saw furniture move and to quote, he was unsure whether it was 'paranormal or mundane jostling'. After the furniture being moved around a bit, the children started to be thrown into the air and thrown around and demonic voices plagued the family.There's not too much about this as it was seen as a hoax and kind of tainted the name of Ed and Lorraine as they confirmed that the house was haunted when it really probably wasn't.A lot of what went on in the film didn't happen in actuality. Just James Wan took a terrible story that was mostly made up and made it into a great story that while also made up... was just not a very good film.In 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo. Jr shot and killed six members of his family: his parents and his siblings. 18 months later the Lutz family moved in and lasted 28 days before they moved out again due to the apparent haunting.Odd goings-on such as green slime oozing from the walls, the smell of odd odours and random cold spots were all reported. Then the other happenings such as a demonic pig staring at George Lutz and his son from a window, a knife being knocked off the worktop, George awakening to find his wife Kathy levitating off the bed, a nearby garage door opening a closing, their children also levitating... all the usual things in a family life (levitating much be genetic).After 28 days of this, the family left. It was later said by the Lutz's' lawyer that everything had been fabricated over a bottle of wine, leading Kathy and George to take lie detector tests to prove their story. One of their sons has said that they still have nightmares... I'll be honest, I've had worse nightmares, but if my parents were also levitating I think I'd be freaked out.Johnson claimed that he had been demonically possessed while he was murdering his landlord, which is where the claim that the devil made him do it stemmed from. But, this was not the first time that he had been connected to or encountered demonic activity, which is why people should always do background checks on tenants.When Jonson's fiance's brother David was possessed at 11 years old, the Warrens were called to dispel the demons from him. Apparently, David would kick, scratch, spite, bite and swear at people. He would also be strangled by invisible hands and spirits would make his body 'flop around like a rag doll'.He would have terrible nightmares that just got worse and worse and would have marks appear on him while he was asleep. There would also be unknown noises in the attic. David would see a 'Beast Man' when both awake and asleep... so the Catholic church was called and they blessed the house. This just pissed off the Beast Man more, as David would speak in different languages, hiss at people and quote the Bible incessantly. Then, the Warrens were called to dispel the demons from David.Apparently, Jonson thought it'd be an ace idea to invite them to inhabit him, and due to them being homeless now, they took him up on it... Leading to him murdering his landlord.This defence didn't stand up in court and Jonson got 4 years for manslaughter. Despite murdering a bloke. Well done America, top marks for you.

2) The Perron Family Haunting (The Conjuring)

So, The Conjuring is based on the Perron family moving/ after they have moved to Harrisville in Rhode Island in the 1970s into the Old Arnold Estate; a place that looked incredibly beautiful and would make a brilliant family home... setting aside all the murders and suicides that took place within the house.

3) The Enfield Poltergeist (The Conjuring 2)

This case took place in the home of Peggy Hodgson in Brimstown, Enfield, North London. Peggy claimed that her children had their own toys thrown at them by spirits in her house and furniture moving on its own.

4) The Amityville Horror

The case that has had lawsuits and caused controversy is probably the Warrens most famous case; mostly down to the almost constant films revisiting the story and the books published based on the story.

5) The Trial of Arne Cheyenne Jonson (The Devil Made Me Do It/ The Conjuring 3):

This case taking place in 1981 made records after it was the first court case to ever use the defence "The Devil made me do it." which led the case to be nicknamed this by the media, leading to an outbreak of 'Satanic Panic'. This defence was used by the lawyer of Arne Cheyenne Johnson and the murder of landlord Alan Bono.

So there you have it: 4 true stories behind the films we watch, all involving Ed and Lorraine Warren.

They have both died, Lorraine dying this April, but the museum of artefacts they have collected from their investigations is still open... And 100% a place I want to visit. There is more to each story that I've told, but for the sake of you and this post not being too long, I've tried to summarise them as much as I can.

I hope you all enjoyed this blog, took me a while to make this one, and i hope you look forward to the Halloween blog coming this Thursday,

Thanks,

Becky x