This IRL couple were probably the most famous paranormal experts the U.S. ever had. During their lifetime, they investigated quite a few high-profile cases, including the Amityville House (that’s a story to be read at another time). Oh, and in 1952, they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research, which is now considered to be the oldest ghost-hunting group in all of New England. Talk about dedication to the cause!

But get this: Apparently, Lorraine always claimed to be a clairvoyant and medium, with the ability to communicate with the spirits and demons she and her husband came in contact with. Up to the day she died (Ed passed in 2006; she in 2019), Lorraine maintained almost every detail of The Conjuring was accurate. In fact, she was a major consultant on the first film as well as the subsequent sequels and prequels.

“The things that went on there were just so incredibly frightening,” she told USA Today about the experience in 2013. “It still affects me to talk about it today.”

Over the years, the Warrens began housing and exhibiting their supernatural spoils at The Warrens Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. Yep, the last known home of Annabelle. (Well, there’s a good reason not to go to Connecticut.)

Okay, they’re real. But what happened to the Perron family?

Moving into the 14-room home in 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron, along with their five daughters, lived in the Old Arnold Estate for a decade. Andrea, the oldest of the five Perron daughters, claimed many spirits resided in the farmhouse as well, including Bathsheba. “Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position,” she told USA Today in 2013. #Creepy. According to the family, the spirits stunk of rotting flesh (um, ew) and would arrive at 5:15 most mornings to lift beds.

After the events depicted in the film, Roger Perron apparently kicked the Warrens out, concerned for his wife’s mental stability. According to Andrea, the family could not afford to move out of the house until almost 10 years later (and all the while, most of the hauntings continued. Casual.)

Surely, Bathsheba can’t be real.

Wrong! Turns out, a woman named Bathsheba Sherman actually lived next door to the infamous farmhouse in the mid-1800s. She’s buried in the Harrisville Cemetery next to her husband, Judson Sherman, and she had a son, Herbert L. Sherman.

As for the witch/satanist/child-killer deal…that is something the world may never know.

So what is the big difference between the story and the movie?

Well, unlike the movies, Ed never actually performed any form of an exorcism, especially since those can only be done by a Catholic priest. Although the Warrens did work with priests at times…but in this case, they decided summoning a spirit through a séance would be good.

According to Andrea, she secretly watched the conjuring as it was happening. “I thought I was going to pass out,” she said. “My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.”

Did someone ever burn down that house from hell?!

Nope! In fact, the owners of the house called it a “real-life nightmare” for a completely different reason. The original Conjuring brought in $137 million in the U.S.—YAY—but it also attracted lots of unwanted visitors to Rhode Island. Back in 2015, Norma Sutcliffe planned to sue Warner Bros. after trespassers began showing up to the house to film it, steal objects, and try to be part of the phenomenon.

“They come at all times of the day,” said Sutcliffe. “Last Saturday, I called police at 3:30 a.m. because there was a whole group of them outside the house. It’s horrendous.” Honestly, talking to strangers is our worst nightmare, so we feel her pain.

The Conjuring 2 took inspiration from real life as well

The sequel included two of the Warren's next infamous cases: the Amityville Massacre and the Enfield poltergeist. The former is so famous that it has been adapted many times before. (You're probably familiar with The Amityville Horror, the book about this incident.) In 1975, a couple moved into a house where just one year prior a man named Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family. The couple moved out after less than a month and said the house was haunted. Since this story is so well-known outside of The Conjuring franchise, it's just a minor storyline in the sequel.

The bulk of the film is about a series of events that purportedly happened in England from 1977 to 1979. Dozens of people, beginning with two teenage girls claimed that they saw furniture moving and children levitating. They blamed it on a tricksy paranormal being. The extent and sincerity of the Ed and Lorraine's involvement has been disputed over the years–allegedly they showed up once and were more interested in selling the film rights than obtaining evidence–but the case itself did happen. You can listen to an alleged audio recording of the demon that inspired the film, if you dare.

Was The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It also based on one of the Warren investigations? (OFC!)

The 2021 film centered on the 1981 trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who claimed demonic possession was to blame for them killing their landlord. He actually used this as his defense in court, which had never been done before, and the Warrens were involved in the trial. Ed and Lorraine were already familiar with Johnson, because they had previously been called in, along with the Catholic Church, to perform an exorcism on the younger brother of Arne's girlfriend.

Are there other events that could become the subject of future Conjuring movies?

You better believe it! If the series were to extend to the mid '80s and '90s, they could tackle a haunted funeral home, a Victorian haunted house in Pennsylvania, and a cemetery ghost allegedly caught on film.