The ‘Conjuring’ Universe Has A Pretty Creepy Real Life Backstory
I’ve always been fascinated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real life paranormal investigators who are portrayed in the Conjuring movies. While many people believe they are grifters whose research is a “hoax” (especially when it comes to the Amityville Haunting), the ideas they talk about aren’t as far-fetched as it may first seem. Many people throughout the world believe in the concept of spiritual warfare (the idea that if god and angels are real, the devil and demons are real as well) including priests and theologians who have seen the phenomena firsthand.
In college, I had a close friend who I trust 100% tell me the story of his brush with a demonic entity which was followed by my own experience and I’ve been interested in the subject ever since. This past weekend I picked up what is considered to be the definitive book about Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Demonologist. Immediately as I flipped the first page, Vera Farmiga’s (who plays Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring movies) blurb filled me with a sense of dread as I realized she wouldn’t even let the book be in her home:
“Primarily my research relied heavily on the nonfiction book, The Demonologist. It is unlike any book I have ever read. It’s a book about mystical theology. In it, one learns just how and why mystical phenomena occur. It scared the daylights out of me. Profoundly. The preface insists that it is not dangerous to read and that ‘knowledge is power.’ Whatever. I felt a sense of terror every time I cracked it open. I never read the book in the sanctity of my home. I could only read it in flight, funnily enough. Somehow I felt safeguarded in an airplane.”
I did some searching to see if Vera had said anything else about the book and found out that she had some supernatural experiences of her own! Here she describes what happened when she started seriously considering the role of Lorraine Warren:
“The strangest occurrence for me personally, on the first one, was the day I had a creative conversation with James Wan. I had just been researching Lorraine. I wasn’t familiar with her, and so before our phone call, I was on the computer, and I had closed it. We had our conversation. At that point I was just smitten with James. I said, ‘If Patrick Wilson is in…’ – because I knew at the time he had also been offered a role – ‘…then I’m in.’ I just wanted to be sure that Patrick was going to be my partner. So we agreed, and then we said goodbye, and I opened the computer screen and there were three digital claw marks, from the upper right diagonal to the lower left.”
Months later when filming for the movie wrapped up, Farmiga had an even creepier experience:
It wasn’t incredibly painful. It might have felt like a bruise… It was these three, very distinct, what looks like claw marks, that long nails or long fingertips, like thin fingertips could make. But it didn’t hurt and I texted to James and I can’t even remember his response.”
Joey King, the actor who played one of the Perron children in The Conjuring, was also afflicted with mysterious bruises on her body during filming.
I haven’t read anyone who actually says these injuries were caused by demonic activity, but it is creepy and fun to read about.