Everyone thinks they know the Perron family. If you’ve seen James Wan’s 2013 hit, you’ve seen the Hollywood version: the clocks stopping at 3:07 AM, the hanging tree, and that terrifying game of "hide and clap." But honestly, the real story of The Conjuring is way weirder and, in many ways, much more depressing than the movie lets on. It wasn't just a jump-scare marathon. It was a decade of isolation in a drafty Rhode Island farmhouse that the family simply couldn't afford to leave.
Roger and Carolyn Perron moved into the Old Arnold Estate in Harrisville back in 1971. They had five daughters. It was supposed to be a dream. Instead, they spent ten years living with things that crawled in the walls and sat at the foot of their beds.
The house that wasn't empty
When the Perrons first arrived, the previous owner didn't exactly give them a warm welcome. According to Andrea Perron, the eldest daughter who eventually wrote House of Darkness House of Light, the man who sold them the place had one cryptic piece of advice: leave the lights on at night.
They didn't listen. At least not at first.
Most people focus on Bathsheba Sherman because she’s the "villain" of the film, but the hauntings were actually more like a crowded bus station. There were dozens of reported spirits. Some were harmless, like the ghost of a man who would watch the girls play or the "smell of fresh baked bread" that would occasionally waft through the kitchen. Others were less friendly. They’d hear the sound of a broom sweeping in the kitchen, only to find the room empty and the broom moved to a different corner.
The physical reality of the story of The Conjuring was often grimy. We're talking about spirits that smelled like rotting meat. The movie captures the visual scares, but it misses the sensory assault. Imagine living in a house where the air constantly shifts from freezing cold to the stench of a locker room.
Who was Bathsheba Sherman?
Let's get into the Bathsheba stuff. In the film, she’s a satanic witch who sacrificed her baby. In real life? The history is a bit more complicated and, frankly, a bit tragic. Bathsheba Sherman was a real person. She lived in the 1800s and was buried in a nearby cemetery. There was a local legend that she had killed a child with a knitting needle, but she was never convicted.
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The Warrens—Ed and Lorraine—were the ones who pinned the haunting on her.
Lorraine Warren, a self-proclaimed clairvoyant, felt a presence she identified as Bathsheba almost immediately. She described her as a "nefarious being" who wanted to be the mistress of the house. According to the Perrons, this entity took a specific dislike to Carolyn. She saw her as competition. The movie shows Carolyn being possessed, but the family’s accounts suggest something more like a slow, psychological wearing down.
Ed and Lorraine Warren: Heroes or Opportunists?
You can’t talk about the story of The Conjuring without talking about the Warrens. They were the celebrity paranormal investigators of their time. They’d already worked on the Annabelle case and would later go on to the Amityville horror.
Here’s the thing: the Perrons didn't call them. A local paranormal group did.
When the Warrens showed up, things got intense. Fast. While the movie portrays them as the family's saviors, the reality was a lot more friction-heavy. Roger Perron was notoriously skeptical and protective. He didn't like these strangers coming into his home and stirring things up.
There was a séance. This is the part of the story that everyone remembers. It didn't happen in a basement with dramatic lighting and cinematic camera angles. It happened in the dining room. Andrea Perron has gone on record saying she witnessed her mother being thrown across the room while speaking in a language that wasn't human. Roger was so horrified he eventually kicked the Warrens out.
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He thought they were making it worse. Maybe they were.
Why didn't they just leave?
This is the question everyone asks. "If your house is haunted by a child-killing witch, why are you still making school lunches there?"
It’s simple. Money.
The Perrons had sunk every cent they had into that farm. It was the early 70s. The economy wasn't great. They had five kids to feed. You can't just walk away from a mortgage because a ghost moved your chair. So, they stayed. For ten years. They learned to live with it. They developed "rules." They knew which rooms to avoid at certain times of day.
There’s something deeply human about that. It’s not a horror movie trope; it’s a survival tactic. They normalized the paranormal because they had no other choice. It wasn't until 1980 that they finally managed to sell the place and move to Georgia.
The legacy of the Harrisville haunting
The story of The Conjuring didn't end when the Perrons left. The house still stands. It’s changed hands several times. Interestingly, subsequent owners have had vastly different experiences. Some say it’s perfectly quiet. Others, like the Heinzen family who bought it in 2019, reported seeing shadow figures and hearing footsteps almost immediately.
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They even started livestreaming from inside the house.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the "Conjuring House" has become a landmark of American folklore. It’s a case study in how a family’s trauma can be transformed into a multi-billion dollar film franchise. But behind the jump scares is a story about a family that was genuinely terrified and felt they had nowhere else to go.
How to approach the "Conjuring" lore today
If you're looking to dig deeper into the actual history versus the Hollywood fiction, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
- Check the archives: Local Rhode Island historians have pointed out that many of the deaths associated with the house in the film didn't actually happen on the property.
- Read the source material: Andrea Perron’s trilogy, House of Darkness House of Light, is incredibly dense but provides the most detailed account of the family's daily life during those years.
- Understand the Warrens: Research the controversies surrounding Ed and Lorraine. Critics like Joe Nickell have spent decades debunking their claims, and it's worth seeing the skeptical side of the coin.
- Visit (if you dare): The house is now a "paranormal business." You can actually book tours or overnight stays. Just don't expect it to look like the movie; the real house is much smaller and arguably creepier because of its mundane appearance.
The true power of this story isn't the "demon." It's the way it lingers in our collective imagination. We want to believe that there's something more out there, even if that "something" is trying to pull us into the basement.
For those researching the case, start by cross-referencing the Perron family interviews with the public records of the Harrisville area from 1971 to 1980. Looking at the property's chain of title provides a much clearer picture of who lived and died there than any Hollywood script ever could. Stick to the primary documents and the direct testimony of the sisters to separate the genuine experiences from the cinematic embellishments.