Hollywood loves a good "based on a true story" tag. It sells tickets. It makes the hair on your arms stand up. But when James Wan released the sequel to his paranormal hit, he took one of the most documented cases in history—the Enfield Poltergeist—and gave it a superhero-style makeover. The real story of the Conjuring 2 isn't actually about a demon nun or a crooked man. It’s a messy, loud, and deeply controversial account of a working-class family in a London suburb whose lives were turned upside down for two years.
Honestly, if you go back to the original recordings from 1977, the reality is almost creepier than the movie. It wasn't about jumpscares. It was about the slow, grinding psychological toll of living in a house where the furniture wouldn't stay still.
The Hodgsons vs. The Warrens: A Major Hollywood Pivot
If you watched the movie, you'd think Ed and Lorraine Warren were the central figures of the investigation. They weren't. Not even close. In the real story of the Conjuring 2, the Warrens were basically "blink and you'll miss 'em" guests. They showed up for a day or two, looked around, and left.
The real heavy lifting was done by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Maurice was a man driven by a personal tragedy—his own daughter, also named Janet, had recently passed away in a car accident. This gave him a deep, emotional connection to the case that the film touches on but mostly redirects toward the Warrens for the sake of the cinematic universe.
Guy Playfair, who wrote This House is Haunted, remained skeptical of the Warrens’ involvement until his death. He famously claimed that the Warrens showed up uninvited, stayed for a very brief period, and then spent years exaggerating their role in the case to bolster their own reputation. Ed and Lorraine claimed the hauntings were demonic. Maurice and Guy? They thought it was a classic poltergeist, often theorized to be an externalization of adolescent stress.
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Janet Hodgson and the Bill Wilkins Voice
The core of the haunting revolved around 11-year-old Janet and her sister Margaret. It started with knocking on the walls. Then, chest of drawers sliding across the floor. But things got weird when Janet started speaking in a gravelly, guttural voice that sounded like a man three times her age.
This is where the real story of the Conjuring 2 gets chilling. The voice identified itself as Bill Wilkins. "I went blind," the voice rasped through Janet’s vocal cords, "and then I had a hemorrhage and I fell asleep and I died in a chair in the corner downstairs."
Here is the kicker: Bill Wilkins’ son later confirmed that his father had indeed died in that exact chair, in that exact room, in that exact way. Janet, an 11-year-old girl, would have had almost no way of knowing those specific details. Skeptics, like the famous magician Milbourne Christopher, argued she was just a talented ventriloquist. Janet admitted years later that she and her sister "faked about 2 percent" of the phenomena just to see if the investigators would catch them. They did. But the other 98 percent? She maintains to this day that she had no control over it.
The Evidence That Actually Exists
Unlike many ghost stories that rely on "he-said, she-said," the Enfield case has a mountain of physical evidence. We aren't just talking about grainy photos. There are hours of audio tapes. There are police reports.
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Wait, let's talk about that police report. On the very first night the police were called to 284 Green Street, WPC Carolyn Heeps signed a sworn statement. She watched a chair levitate and move four feet across the floor. She even checked for wires. She found nothing. When a police officer admits they can't explain something, people tend to sit up and listen.
- Over 1,500 recorded incidents.
- Photographs of Janet seemingly being "thrown" through the air.
- Audio of "Bill" barked out through Janet’s closed lips (investigators even filled her mouth with water, and the voice still happened).
- Physical damage to the house, including heaters being ripped off walls.
Why Critics Say it Was a Hoax
It’s easy to get swept up in the drama, but the real story of the Conjuring 2 is plagued by skeptics who make very good points. Many researchers believe the girls were simply seeking attention. Their parents were divorced. The house was cramped. Janet was entering puberty—a time often linked to "poltergeist" activity in psychological circles.
Anita Gregory, a prominent investigator at the time, was convinced the girls were practicing "tricks." She caught Janet bending spoons and hiding a tape recorder. Does the fact that they faked some of it mean they faked all of it? That’s the million-dollar question. If you’re a believer, the faked incidents were just kids being kids, trying to "help" the spirits along. If you’re a skeptic, the 2 percent of faking is the smoking gun that proves the other 98 percent was also a lie.
The Aftermath of the Enfield Poltergeist
The hauntings didn't end with a dramatic exorcism like in the film. There was no "Crooked Man" puppet coming to life. It just... faded. By 1979, the activity slowed to a crawl. The family tried to move on, but the stigma stayed. Janet has spoken in recent years about how traumatic the experience was. She wasn't a movie star; she was a kid who was bullied, called "Ghost Girl," and eventually spent time in a psychiatric hospital to deal with the stress of the ordeal.
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She’s always been consistent, though. She says it was real. She says it was terrifying.
Actionable Insights: Digging Deeper into the Real Story
If you want to move beyond the Hollywood jumpscares and understand the actual history of this case, you shouldn't just rely on the movie. The film is a masterpiece of horror, but it’s a work of fiction layered over a skeleton of truth.
- Listen to the Enfield Tapes: Look for the original audio recordings of the "Bill Wilkins" voice. You can find snippets online through the SPR archives. The sound of a young girl’s vocal cords vibrating in that specific way is much more disturbing than the movie's sound design.
- Read "This House is Haunted": Guy Lyon Playfair’s book is the definitive account. It’s dense and dry, but it provides the day-by-day logs of what actually happened without the "demon nun" subplot.
- Watch the 2023 Documentary: There is an Apple TV+ docuseries that uses the actual audio tapes and reconstructs the rooms exactly as they were. It’s a much more grounded look at the Hodgson family’s reality.
- Distinguish Between Poltergeists and Demons: In paranormal research, these are two different things. The Enfield case is classically "poltergeist" (noisy ghost), usually associated with a living person. The movie turned it into a "demonic" case to fit the Warrens' specific brand of theology.
The real story of the Conjuring 2 is a fascinating study of human belief, family trauma, and the unexplained. Whether you believe Janet was a master manipulator or a victim of a spiritual entity, the Enfield case remains the most documented paranormal event in the UK for a reason. It just won't go away.
To truly understand the events, look at the testimony of the neighbors and the local news reporters who also witnessed the strange occurrences. Their accounts provide a broader perspective beyond the family and the primary investigators. Analyzing the social context of 1970s North London can also offer clues into why the case captured the public's imagination so vividly.