Hollywood loves a good "based on a true story" tag. It sells tickets. It builds a legacy. But when you look at the real story about the Conjuring, the line between documented history and ghost-story lore gets incredibly messy. Most people know the Perron family from the 2013 James Wan film, but the actual events in Harrisville, Rhode Island, didn't involve a cinematic exorcism or a dramatic showdown in a basement. It was weirder. It was slower. Honestly, it was a lot more depressing than the movie lets on.
Roger and Carolyn Perron moved into the Old Arnold Estate in December 1970. They had five daughters. They had a dog. They had no idea that they were moving into a house that would eventually become the epicenter of 1970s paranormal research.
The Old Arnold Estate was a crowded house
The house wasn't just old. It was ancient. Built in 1736, the farmhouse had seen generations of the same family live and die within its walls. When the Perrons arrived, they didn't see ghosts immediately. It started with small things. A broom would move. Dirt would appear on a freshly swept floor. A bed would shake slightly at 5:15 in the morning.
The movie shows a violent, sudden escalation. The reality? It was a slow burn of psychological exhaustion. Andrea Perron, the eldest daughter, has spent decades documenting these events, and she describes the house as a place where the spirits were just... there. Some were harmless. There was a spirit that smelled of flowers and fruit. There was another that tucked the children in at night.
But then there was the "presence" that everyone remembers.
Bathsheba Sherman was a real person, not a demon
In the film, Bathsheba is a terrifying, deformed witch hanging from a tree. In history, Bathsheba Sherman was a woman who lived in the mid-1800s. She died in 1885 of paralysis, likely a stroke. While local legends in Harrisville whispered that she was a practitioner of the dark arts or that she had killed a child with a knitting needle, there is zero historical evidence to support this. She was buried in a Christian cemetery. She lived a relatively normal, if somewhat tragic, life.
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So why did Ed and Lorraine Warren pin everything on her?
Basically, the Warrens arrived in 1973 and began an investigation that lasted on and off for years. Lorraine, a self-proclaimed clairvoyant, "sensed" Bathsheba. She claimed the woman had died by suicide and cursed the land. However, local historians point out that Bathsheba died in her 70s and is buried in a well-maintained plot. The "witch" narrative was likely a mix of local folklore and Lorraine's psychic impressions, which often leaned toward the demonic rather than the mundane.
What actually happened during the seance?
The climax of the movie is a high-octane exorcism performed by Ed Warren. That never happened. Ed wasn't a priest. He couldn't perform an exorcism. What actually occurred was a seance in 1974 that went horribly wrong.
Andrea Perron recalls watching from a secret vantage point as her mother, Carolyn, was allegedly possessed. According to the family, Carolyn’s chair began to levitate and was eventually thrown across the room. Carolyn spoke in a language that wasn't hers, her voice deepening and her body contorting in ways that didn't seem humanly possible.
Roger Perron was terrified. He wasn't just scared of the ghosts; he was scared for his wife’s sanity. After that night, he kicked the Warrens out of the house. He felt their presence was making the activity worse, feeding the "energy" of whatever was haunting them. The Perrons didn't leave the house after the seance, though. They stayed. For ten years.
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Why stay in a haunted house? Money. They were broke. They couldn't afford to move until 1980. They lived in a state of uneasy truce with the spirits for nearly a decade.
The Warrens: Experts or opportunists?
You can't talk about the real story about the Conjuring without talking about Ed and Lorraine Warren. They are the faces of modern paranormal investigation. But they are also deeply controversial. Skeptics like Joe Nickell and organizations like the New England Skeptical Society have spent years debunking their cases.
The Warrens were master storytellers. They knew how to frame a haunting in a way that captured the public imagination. In the Perron case, they identified a "demonic" presence where others might have seen a grieving family or a house with bad plumbing and high electromagnetic fields.
- The Perron perspective: They believe the hauntings were 100% real.
- The Skeptic perspective: Stress, isolation, and the power of suggestion can create "hauntings" out of thin air.
- The Warren perspective: Everything is a spiritual battle between good and evil.
The lingering shadow of Harrisville
The house still stands. It’s a tourist destination now. Recent owners have claimed that the activity hasn't stopped, though it’s much more "commercialized" than it was in the 70s. You can pay to stay there. You can do your own paranormal investigation.
Does that prove the Perrons were right? Not necessarily. But it shows that the legend of the house has a life of its own. The real story about the Conjuring isn't just about ghosts; it's about how a family copes with the inexplicable and how those stories get transformed into billion-dollar movie franchises.
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The real tragedy isn't a jump scare. It’s the fact that the Perron family was deeply traumatized by their experience, regardless of whether the cause was supernatural or psychological. They left that house changed.
The "Demon" in the mirror
One detail the movie gets somewhat right is the psychological toll. Living in a home where you don't feel safe creates a specific kind of hyper-vigilance. The Perron girls grew up in an environment where they were constantly looking over their shoulders.
Interestingly, many of the spirits they described weren't "demonic" in the traditional sense. They were more like echoes. Figures passing through hallways. The sound of a woman crying. The sound of children playing in the attic when no one was there. The movie turns these into attacks because a movie needs a villain. Real life rarely has a clear-cut monster.
Actionable insights for paranormal enthusiasts
If you're interested in the "real" side of these stories, stop watching the movies and start looking at the primary sources.
- Read the family's accounts directly. Andrea Perron wrote a three-volume series titled House of Darkness House of Light. It’s long, it’s dense, and it’s a lot more nuanced than the film. It gives you the "vibe" of the house that the movie misses.
- Check the historical records. Use sites like Find A Grave or local Rhode Island historical archives to look up Bathsheba Sherman. Seeing her actual death certificate and burial record changes how you view the "witch" narrative.
- Understand the "Warren Effect." Study other cases the Warrens handled, like the Amityville Horror or the Enfield Poltergeist. You’ll start to see a pattern in how they structured their "investigations" to create compelling narratives.
- Visit with caution. If you decide to visit the house in Harrisville, remember it’s a private business now. Respect the neighbors and the history of the property.
The truth is usually quieter than the fiction. The Perron family didn't fight a demon with a crucifix; they survived ten years in a house that they believed was occupied by the dead. That endurance is arguably more interesting than any Hollywood CGI.
To truly understand the Perron case, you have to separate the 19th-century history from the 1970s investigation and the 2013 blockbuster. Each layer adds a bit of fiction. The core of it, though, remains a family that saw things they couldn't explain and a house that refused to be quiet.