You’ve seen the movie. Everyone has. But the grainy, yellowed reality of the conjuring real pictures is a lot less polished than a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s messy. Honestly, it’s kinda depressing when you look at the actual faces of the Perron family from the 1970s. They don't look like movie stars. They look like people who haven't slept in three years.
James Wan did a hell of a job making a scary movie, but Hollywood logic demands a certain "look" that the real history simply doesn't have. When you dig into the archives of Ed and Lorraine Warren or the personal collections of Andrea Perron, the eldest daughter, you aren't seeing jump scares. You’re seeing a family slowly losing their minds in a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. It’s the difference between a high-definition scream and a low-frequency hum that vibrates in your teeth.
The 1971 Farmhouse Context
The Perron family moved into the Old Arnold Estate in December 1970. Roger and Carolyn Perron, along with their five daughters—Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy, and April—thought they’d found a dream home. It wasn't. It was an eight-room farmhouse on 200 acres, and it was old. Really old.
If you look at the the conjuring real pictures of the exterior from that era, the house looks... normal. That’s the most unsettling part. It’s a classic New England saltbox. There are no gargoyles. No glowing red eyes in the windows. Just wood siding and a heavy roof. But the stories coming out of that house were anything but normal. Andrea Perron has spent decades explaining that the "haunting" wasn't just one ghost. It was a parade of them. Some were harmless, like the spirit that smelled of flowers or the one that supposedly tucked the girls in at night. Others, like the entity they believed was Bathsheba Sherman, were a different story entirely.
Who Was Bathsheba Sherman?
In the movie, she’s a demonic witch-vessel. In reality? Bathsheba Sherman was a real woman who lived in the 1800s. She died in 1885. If you search for the real Bathsheba, you'll find a gravestone in the Harrisville cemetery. It’s been vandalized over the years because of the film's fame, which is a bit of a tragedy in itself.
💡 You might also like: Why This Is How We Roll FGL Is Still The Song That Defines Modern Country
There is one specific photo often circulated as a "real picture" of Bathsheba, showing a woman with a haunting, sharp-featured face. Fact check: that's usually not her. Most historians and locals point out that photographs of her are incredibly rare or nonexistent in the public domain. The woman often seen in "creepy" viral posts is usually just a random Victorian-era woman used for clickbait. The real Bathsheba was a member of the community who was once accused of killing a child with a knitting needle, though she was never convicted. The Warrens leaned heavily into the "witch" narrative, but locals at the time were a lot more skeptical.
The Warrens and the Polaroid Problem
Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived in 1973. This is where the conjuring real pictures get controversial. Ed was a self-taught demonologist; Lorraine was a medium. They took a lot of photos. They used Polaroids because, at the time, people believed Polaroids were harder to "fake" than film that had to be sent to a lab.
Looking at their evidence today is a weird experience. You’ll see "ectoplasm" that looks suspiciously like cheesecloth or camera strap reflections. But you also see the faces of the Perron girls. There is a specific photo of Carolyn Perron sitting in a chair, looking absolutely drained, her eyes hollowed out. Whether you believe in demons or not, that photo captures a woman undergoing a severe psychological or spiritual crisis. The Warrens claimed she was being possessed by Bathsheba. Roger Perron eventually kicked the Warrens out after a séance went horribly wrong. He thought they were making things worse. He was probably right.
The Séance Gone Wrong
One of the most famous real-life moments—documented in grainy shots and family accounts—is the 1974 séance. It wasn't in a basement. It was in the basement's "warming room." Andrea Perron describes seeing her mother's body levitate and then be thrown across the room. There are no clear, high-resolution photos of the levitation itself. If there were, this would be the biggest news story in human history. What we have instead are photos of the aftermath: the disarray, the terrified children, and the Warrens' grim expressions.
📖 Related: The Real Story Behind I Can Do Bad All by Myself: From Stage to Screen
It’s worth noting that the "Annabelle" doll in the real pictures looks nothing like the porcelain nightmare in the movie. The real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann doll. It’s floppy. It has orange yarn hair. It looks profoundly unthreatening, which actually makes it creepier if you think about it. It’s currently (or was) stored in the Warrens' Occult Museum in a locked case.
Separating the "Orbs" from the Reality
If you go looking for the conjuring real pictures on the internet today, you’re going to find a lot of "orb" photography. Let’s be real for a second. Most orbs are dust. In an old 1700s farmhouse with wood-burning stoves and drafty windows, there is a lot of dust.
When people show you a photo of the Harrisville house with a glowing white dot and say, "That's Bathsheba," they're usually looking at backscatter. That’s when the camera flash reflects off a particle close to the lens. However, the Perron family’s personal snapshots—the ones not intended for ghost hunting—are the ones that stick with you. They show a family that was isolated. The girls often looked frightened in the background of mundane shots. They've spoken about "the smell of rotting flesh" that would permeate rooms, something a camera can't catch, but the look on their faces in those old prints tells the story well enough.
The House Today
The house at 1677 Round Top Road still stands. It’s changed hands a few times. The previous owners, Cory and Jennifer Heinzen, were paranormal investigators who actually bought the place because of its history. They even livestreamed from inside.
👉 See also: Love Island UK Who Is Still Together: The Reality of Romance After the Villa
They took their own "real pictures" using modern tech: FLIR cameras, 4K night vision, and digital audio recorders. They claimed to see shadows and hear footsteps. Interestingly, they didn't report the violent "possession" vibes the Perrons did. This suggests that if the haunting was real, it was tied to the people as much as the place. Or perhaps the house has calmed down over the last fifty years.
Why the Photos Persist
Why do we keep looking at these blurry images? Because we want to believe. Or we're terrified that we should. The the conjuring real pictures serve as a bridge between a Hollywood script and a real family’s trauma. Andrea Perron wrote a massive three-volume set titled House of Darkness House of Light to set the record straight. She doesn't like the movie's ending. In real life, the family didn't have a neat exorcism and a happy ending. They stayed in that house for ten years because they were too poor to leave. They lived with the "ghosts" until 1980.
Assessing the Evidence
To truly understand the visual history of this case, you have to look at three distinct "eras" of imagery:
- The Perron Family Archives (1970–1980): These are candid, personal, and mostly show the psychological toll. They are the most authentic.
- The Warren Files: These are the "professional" paranormal photos. They contain the most "paranormal" claims (orbs, shadows) but are also the most criticized by skeptics like Joe Nickell, who argue the Warrens used suggestion and camera artifacts to create evidence.
- The Modern Era: Photos from recent owners and "ghost hunters" who visit the property. These are high-quality but often lack the raw, terrifying context of the original 1970s events.
Honestly, the most chilling "real" photo isn't of a ghost. It's a shot of the five sisters today, standing together. They all still swear by what happened. They aren't trying to sell you a movie ticket; they’re people who are still clearly affected by a childhood spent in a house they felt didn't want them there.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you're going down the rabbit hole of the conjuring real pictures, do it the right way. Don't just look at Pinterest boards.
- Check the Source: If a photo looks like it’s from a movie set, it probably is. The real Perron farmhouse interior was much more cramped and "seventies" (lots of brown and orange) than the movie’s Gothic aesthetic.
- Read the Primary Accounts: Before looking at the photos, read Andrea Perron’s account. It gives the images context that makes them far more disturbing.
- Verify Bathsheba: Look up the actual genealogical records of Bathsheba Sherman. You'll find she was a mother and a wife whose life was likely marred by tragedy and local gossip, which the Warrens amplified into a demonic legend.
- Visit Virtually: You can find floor plans of the original Old Arnold Estate online. Mapping the photos to the floor plan helps you realize how "trapped" the family was in those small rooms.
- Skepticism is Key: Remember that the 1970s were the "Golden Age" of paranormal hoaxes. While the family’s fear was undoubtedly real, the "evidence" captured by the Warrens should be viewed with a critical eye toward the technology of the time.
The real story of the Conjuring isn't about a demon-witch jumping off a wardrobe. It’s about a family that lived through a decade of isolation and fear. The pictures they left behind—the real ones—don't need CGI to be haunting. They just need you to look at the eyes of the people in the frame.