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This is the true story of The Conjuring 2…
The Conjuring, directed by James Wan and written by Chad and Carey W. Hayes, was a runaway success. Made for a budget of $20 million, the film grossed over $319 million worldwide. It was a critical success as well as a financial one, earning multiple Fangoria Chainsaw Awards as well as an array of other prizes and nominations. So, it’s only natural that the creative team behind the first movie would try and one-up themselves with The Conjuring 2.
Like the first Conjuring film, this sequel takes its inspiration from a very real case, earning it the little “based on a true story” stinger from the film’s opening credits. What’s the truth behind this supposed true story? In order to understand the events that inspired The Conjuring 2, we need to go all the way back to Enfield in 1977, to take an in-depth look at the case that turned the life of the once ordinary, happy Hodgson family completely upside down.
It all began with a bump in the night. On August 30, 1977, after her children had all gone to bed, Peggy heard a loud noise coming from Margaret and Janet’s bedroom. She assumed the girls were rough-housing, perhaps jumping on the bed, instead of sleeping like they were supposed to. When she went to check on them, the girls told her that their chest of drawers had been moving on its own. “Oh, don’t be silly,” Peggy said. But the girls insisted the chest of drawers had been shuffling toward the door as if to barricade the girls inside the bedroom.
Peggy was irritated, and exhausted from the struggles of being the sole parent to four children, and was about to give the girls a stern talking when suddenly she saw the strange occurrence for herself. The drawers were rattling, moving in the direction of the door. Shocked, Peggy tried the only logical thing she could think of: she attempted to push the drawers back into place. She told Channel 4 in an interview several years later, “I pushed the chest back against the wall, but it slid towards me again. I tried, but I couldn’t stop it. I wondered if my two younger boys were playing pranks because they also slept upstairs, but they weren’t anywhere near the room.”
Not only was the dresser moving on its own, with no explanation, but the children were complaining of other strange occurrences throughout the house. Beds shaking even when they were lying still, and voices coming from other rooms even when there was no one there. There was no doubt about it, they needed help. So, the family put on their slippers and dressing gowns and went next door to wake their neighbors, Vic and Peggy Nottingham. After seeing the frightened faces of Peggy Hodgson and her children, Vic came over to investigate. There, he was shocked at what he found. There was a strange, persistent knocking sound, and no one could tell where it was coming from.
Vic told Channel 4, “I heard the knocking as I walked in the front door… I went all over the house, just couldn’t make out what it was so in the end I thought… there’s only one thing, I’ll call the police.”
When the police arrived, it soon became clear that this was not a police matter. This was something else entirely. There was no burglar to arrest, no fire to extinguish, but a home plagued by an invisible force. You can’t exactly slap a pair of handcuffs on a ghost or shove them into a police car. One constable by the name of Carolyn Heeps saw the supernatural phenomenon for herself when a chair moved across the floor on its own right in front of her, and she described the experience in her official police report.
Heeps wrote: “It came off the floor, maybe a half-inch I should say, and I saw it slide off to the right about three-and-a-half to four feet before it came to rest.” She was skeptical at first, but could not find a logical cause of the motion, saying “I checked it for hidden wires or any other means by which it could have moved, but there was nothing to explain.” The officers explained to the family that there was nothing they could do. There was no crime taking place, and there wasn’t even a suspect to question. At least, not a visible one.
What options do you have when a poltergeist is terrorizing you? Tune into the newest episode of Insidious Inspirations to learn about the full investigation of the Enfield Haunting, The Conjuring 2‘s horrifying true story. If you like the show, consider subscribing on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.