16 Reasons Why The True Story Behind The Conjuring Is Even Creepier Than The Movie

9. The Perrons Couldn’t Afford to Move Anywhere Else

Anyone watching The Conjuring would probably ask why, if the family was being so horribly tormented, didn’t they just move? They would have if they had been able, but these events occurred in the 1970s. The economy had tanked due to failed policies and crises in the Middle East. Carolyn and Roger had poured all of their money into the house, and during the 1970s, no one had the money to buy a 200-acre farm. It was losing value by the day. Moreover, no one, no matter how good friends they may have been, would have taken in five teenage girls for an uncertain amount of time. The family was forced to remain in the haunted house for nearly a decade.

The girls would leave the house whenever they could. When Andrea left for college, Cindy took over her bedroom right away, eager for a respite from the ghosts that were haunting her bedroom. When Cindy finished high school and was finally able to leave, she claims that she cussed out the spirits and told them to do their worst to her because she was leaving the next day. She practically ran away from the house, relieved to be gone finally.

Roger and Carolyn finally sold the house in 1980. They went down to Georgia to rebuild their lives and never looked back.

10. The Perrons Believe That Bathsheba’s Ghost Still Haunts Them

The Perron family was invited onto the set for the filming and production of The Conjuring. At first, all of them were willing to go, but just beforehand, Carolyn changed her mind and decided not to attend. Perhaps she was unwilling to dig up that part of her past, but other people in her family needed the opportunity to begin to find closure and lay it to rest.

While the family was visiting the set, Andrea Perron claims that a rogue came out of nowhere and swept through the facility. It knocked down anything in its path, including cameras, lights, and people. The family immediately assumed that the wind was part of what they called “Bathsheba’s curse.” At the same time that the wind blew through, Carolyn fell and broke her hip. Carolyn claimed from her hospital bed that Bathsheba did not want to be exposed.

One theory for why the family continued to be haunted by the ghost that tormented them in their farmhouse, was that the spirit was connected to the people rather than to the territory. It was willing to leave the farmhouse but unwilling to let go of the family.

11. The House’s Occupants Allegedly Have a Long History of Paranormal Disturbances

It may be the case that the spirits from the farmhouse featured in The Conjuring were more attached to the family than to the territory. In fact, Andrea and Cindy Perron described their transition to the house as a calling that began eight months before their parents even found the property. They loved the house; Cindy described it as a piece of heaven inside hell.

However, there had been strange events going on there for centuries. The property had been the site of many violent acts, from suicides to rapes to murders. The sisters described an overwhelming feeling of sadness that would come over a person within just a few minutes of being there, no matter how happy that person had been before. Andrea Perron said, “Everyone who has lived in the house that we know of has experienced this. Some have left screaming and running for their lives. The man who moved in to begin the restoration on the house when we sold it left screaming without his car, without his tools, without his clothing. He never went back to the house and consequently, the people who owned it, the adjacent landowners, never moved in and it sat vacant for years.”

12. The House’s Current Owner Disagrees

Nancy Sutcliffe, who now owns the property that the Perrons used to occupy, is adamant in claiming that the house is absolutely not haunted. She insists that ever since purchasing the property in 1987, there have been no paranormal disturbances or supernatural events, not even from the “benevolent spirits” that visited the Perron family shortly after they moved in, which has led her to make attempts to discredit the entire story.

There could be several explanations for this current state of affairs; one is that the ghosts that terrorized the Perrons left. They probably didn’t go immediately when the Perrons moved, as there are reports that subsequent homeowners were also tormented while they were in the house. They may have, in some way or another, followed the Perrons throughout their lives because the degree of haunting that they experienced after they left the house was incredibly diminished.

Another explanation is that the story that the Perrons told was false. After all, the movie The Conjuring is based more on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren than on autobiographical evidence presented by the family. However, Andrea Perron wrote a trilogy, House of Darkness, about their experiences.

Another possibility is that the ghosts are still present and waiting for the right person to begin haunting again.

13. Bathsheba Thayer Probably Wasn’t the Ghost Haunting the Family

The idea that the most malevolent of the spirits at the house, the one torturing and even possessing Carolyn Perron, was the ghost of Bathsheba Thayer came from Lorraine Warren. Carolyn had a perfectly concentric wound on her leg that mysteriously appeared about the time that the Warrens began to investigate the haunting. Lorraine saw it and immediately presumed that it was made by Bathsheba Thayer, who was accused of stabbing an infant in the back of the neck as a means of sacrificing the child to Satan. Lorraine claimed that Bathsheba took the knitting needles to her grave and used them in hauntings.

Lorraine’s story is based almost entirely on assumption and circumstantial evidence. The people were unable to prove that Bathsheba actually did stab a child with a knitting needle, so it is entirely possible that that crime never even transpired. In fact, there is no historical evidence that such a trial even took place. Additionally, the ghost never claimed to be the spirit of Bathsheba Thayer. If there indeed was an evil spirit haunting the family – and the family insists that there was – it may have been an unknown entity that was not associated with another person’s ghost.

14. Bathsheba Thayer Probably Died of a Stroke

Poor Bathsheba Thayer. She’s getting worse press centuries after her death than she acquired during her lifetime. She was accused of witchcraft and of making pacts with the devil, claims that were all too common in New England during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and into the nineteenth century. Don’t like someone? Accuse the person of witchcraft. No evidence? Doesn’t matter. Your accusation will ensure that even if the person is not hung for it, he or she will at least live out the rest of his or her days in shame.

Also, she probably didn’t kill any children, least of all her own. She had four children, three of whom died in early childhood. While today that many deaths of children would undoubtedly raise the alarm with child services, Bathsheba lived during the nineteenth century, a time when infant mortality was particularly high. As far as historical records show, there were no accusations that she was murdering anybody.

Claims that Bathsheba hung herself outside of the house are also dubious. A physician claimed that she died following a strange bout of paralysis, which was probably due to a stroke. She was buried next to her husband and three children.

So where did the story come to originate? Possibly local lore. After all, the house has seen quite a bit of violence.

15. Something Definitely Did Happen to the Perron Family

The house’s present owner, Norma Sutcliffe, claims that the house is not haunted. In 2005, a film crew from the SyFy channel’s television show Ghost Hunters was filmed at the home for one of the episodes. They did find some evidence of paranormal activity, such as a door opening on its own and “cold spots.” All of these things surprised Sutcliffe, who is adamant that the house does not experience the paranormal disturbances that people associate with it.

Nevertheless, both the Perrons and the Warrens attest to the paranormal activity, much of it malevolent, that occurred within the house’s walls. The children, who are now adults, are still traumatized and are only able to speak about the disturbances with great hesitation. There are still details that they refuse to discuss. One mark of the events’ veracity is that, when questioned separately, the stories that are told line up with each other. Another score is how quickly the girls left as soon as they were able to move. Clearly, something did happen to the Perron family while they were living at the Rhode Island farmhouse. Nevertheless, without forensic evidence, there is no way to know for sure what actually happened there.

16. The House’s Present Owner Sued Warner Brothers

Whether or not she is living in a haunted house, Norma Sutcliffe wants to be able to live her life in privacy. Unfortunately, plenty of fans of The Conjuring disagree. It is quite common for occupants of homes that became famous through movies to see a disproportionately high number of visitors (read: trespassers) who believe that their homes are tourist spots. This scenario happened with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Goonies, and the Long Island home featured in The Amityville Horror. When The Conjuring was released, unsolicited trespassers poured onto Sutcliffe’s private property as if they had every right to be there.

Virtually overnight, the secluded farmhouse in rural Rhode Island became a hotspot for thrill-seekers and paranormal enthusiasts. Norma Sutcliffe said in an interview that she would go for days without sleeping because people would show up in her yard in the middle of the night, looking for ghosts with a flashlight. She also received harassing phone calls from people who wanted to know if hers was the house from The Conjuring. She went on to sue Warner Brothers for damages and the cost of a new state-of-the-art security system to keep trespassers away. The studio refused to comment.

Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

Biography – The Real ‘Amityville Horror’: Chilling Facts About the Crime and Haunted House

History Vs Hollywood – The Conjuring (2013)

Travel Channel – 7 of the Most Famous Cases Investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren

“The Haunting of the Perron Family: The True Story Behind The Conjuring Movie.” Paranormal Scholar. June 2, 2017.

“The Haunting of the Perron Family Inspired The Conjuring” by Hezra Martinez. The Lineup. April 10, 2019.

“Q&A: Andrea and Cynthia Perron, subjects of The Conjuring.” Trespass Magazine. July 11, 2013.

“The Conjuring (2013).” History vs Hollywood.

“The Conjuring house owner to sue Warner Bros.” CBS News. October 28, 2015.

Courant – The True Story Of Connecticut Paranormal Investigators Ed And Lorraine Warren

Andrea Perron – House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story Volume Two · Volume 2

Andrea Perron – House of Darkness House of Light: The True Story Volume Three

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