If you’re like me, seeing the words “based on a true story” at the beginning of a scary movie is petrifying, but fascinating. You sit through the movie thinking, “Did this really happen?”, “How much of this is real?”, and “There’s absolutely no way that part is true.” I decided to delve into the haunting true stories behind some of the scariest movies.
Annabelle:
Everyone’s favorite doll. Annabelle is probably one of the most famous scary movies based on a true story. Her creepy appearance and eerie name will give anyone the chills, but how much of the story told through the three movies about her is true? Most of the movies are fiction, with The Conjuring being the most accurate. The real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll, which is still pretty creepy, but not quite as creepy as the cracked porcelain doll as she’s portrayed in the movie. The real Annabelle was gifted to a nursing student Donna and her roommate Angie. Donna and Angie began noticing Annabelle appearing in different places than they had left her; most of the time they would leave her in Donna’s room, sometimes locked, and would find her in the living room, the kitchen, or in Angie’s room. After getting worried about this, the nursing students called a medium to conduct a séance. The medium told them a little girl named Annabelle Higgins had died in the apartment and wanted to stay with the girls as their doll. Donna and Angie then sympathized with the little girl and allowed her to continue to live in the doll. After this the paranormal activity got worse, and Annabelle attacked their friend Lou in his sleep by trying to strangle him and scratch him. At this point, Donna and Angie found demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren and invited them to investigate their “innocent” doll. After a short time interacting with the girls and the doll, the Warrens determined that Annabelle wasn’t a little girl, but rather a demon that was trying to inhabit Donna. Ed and Lorraine took Annabelle to their home and she can still be seen and visited in their “Occult Museum”. Be careful if you go visit her though, many people have reported having car troubles and almost fatal accidents after taunting the doll.
The Conjuring:
The Conjuring is based on the haunting of the Perron family at their Rhode Island farmhouse. In the movie, the family is haunted by the many spirits of a family who had lived in their house for eight generations, most of whom had died on the property, including one especially evil spirit named Bethsheba. Bethsheba was the “matron” of the house and often would try to harm whoever challenged her authority. Bethsheba was believed to be a Satanist and there are claims she was involved in killing her neighbor’s child. This spirit tormented the family of seven while they lived in the house. The hauntings started small: Carolyn, the mother, would hear scratching, brooms would move, and the girls noticed spirits that weren’t harmful. As Bethsheba and other spirits became angrier they shook beds, and after a séance with Ed and Lorraine Warren, Carolyn even became possessed. Carolyn began speaking in tongues and her chair began to levitate. The family stayed in the home until 1980, and once they left the spirits quieted.
The Conjuring 2:
This terrifying sequel to The Conjuring is based on the Enfield poltergeist, another haunting investigated by the Warrens. This haunting targeted the Hodgsen family, especially 11-year-old Janet. The family continuously heard knocking from various rooms, and a wardrobe shook and moved in front of a door to trap the kids in their room. The Hodgsens called the Daily Mail to come investigate, and the reporters saw chairs moving on their own and levitating, Legos flying across the room (even hitting a reporter in the face), and one reporter even claimed that as he was lying down one night, the curtain in his room wrapped around his neck and tried to choke him. Many paranormal investigators came to see the hauntings for themselves, including the Warrens who believed that the house had a demonic infestation. The climax was when Janet was possessed and began speaking as Bill Wilkins, a man who had lived in their house and died in their living room. The paranormal occurrences abruptly stopped in 1979 even though the family claims they did nothing special to try and stop them. This event is claimed to be one of the best documented hauntings to this day.
The Amityville Horror:
This last paranormal experience revolves around a farmhouse on Long Island so haunted that the Lutz family only stayed 28 days. On November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo claimed that demons were telling him to murder his family. Because of these voices, he shot and killed six members of his family while they slept. Some believe that this started the paranormal occurrences, while others believe Ronald’s claims that the house made him kill his family, making them victims to demons. In 1975 the Lutz family moved into the house, and right away out of the ordinary things started happening. The family asked a priest to come and bless the house while they moved in, and while he was blessing an upstairs bedroom he was pushed to the ground and heard a voice growl at him to “get out”. The family also saw what appeared to be slime oozing from the walls, knives fly off the kitchen counter, and the youngest Lutz befriended a spirit that took the shape of a pig with red eyes. George Lutz also woke up every morning at 3:15, the exact time Ronald DeFeo killed his entire family. After this, the family fled and hasn’t returned to the house.
These stories inspired some of my favorite scary movies, but the idea that they’re real make them even more frightening. Even if you’re a skeptic, the idea that families go through these harrowing experiences gives you a chill down your spine.