The Conjuring 2 grossed $102.5 million in the United States and Canada and $217.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total gross of $320.4 million. It was the 14th most profitable movie of 2016. So basically people are loving the horror genre. Maybe things aren’t true but it’s good for entertainment. In this article I am going to discuss the true story behind the Conjuring 2 which focuses on the most famous supernatural cases in history – The Enfield Poltergeist.
A single mother named Peggy Hodgson (portrayed by Frances O'Connor in the movie) started living in the Enfield home in North London with her 4 children - Margaret 12, Janet, 11, Johnn, 10, and Billy,7. In 1977 they heard loud noises coming from her daughter’s bedroom.
According to real Janet Hodgson the supernatural activity started after she and her sister Marget played with a Ouija board. Janet and her siblings were bullied as ‘Ghost Girl’ by the other kids at school.
Did paranormal experts Ed & Lorraine Warren really investigate the Enfield Poltergeist case?
In conjuring 2 it was shown that Ed & Lorraine Warren (portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively) was the main character to help Janet Hodgson’s family. But it’s not. They were just two of the many visitors. Most articles about the Enfield poltergeist case don’t even mention the Warrens, leading one to conclude that their role in the case was significantly dramatized for Conjuring 2. In fact according to a paranormal investigator named Lyon Playfair Warrens just stayed for a day. So, the conjuring 2 depicted as “based on the true case of the Warrens” is somewhat misleading.
Now the main question is,- Was Janet Hodgson really possessed by a dead man named Bill Wilkins?
In a scene of Conjuring 2 we see that Janet Hodgson (played by Madison Wolfe) is talking in an eerie voice. Supposedly that voice is of Bill Wilkins.
Now this scene is inspired from the audio tapes of the real Janet Hodgson. “Just Before I died, I went blind,” said the voice, “and then I had a hemorrhage and I fell asleep and I died in the chair in the corner downstairs.”
According to the real Janet Hodgson she felt a force that nobody understands. "I really don't like to think about it too much. I'm not sure the poltergeist was truly 'evil'. It was almost as if it wanted to be part of our family. It didn't want to hurt us. It had died there and wanted to be at rest. The only way it could communicate was through me and my sister." -Daily Mail Online
But in another interview she(real Janet Hodgson) said that maybe the idea of talking in a possessed voice has been encouraged and planted in Janet’s mind by another paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse.
Did the man who possessed Janet die in the downstairs living room?
Yes. Bill Wilkins’ son Terry Wilkins confirmed that he died in a matter similar to what Janet described when she was possessed, i.e., in an armchair downstairs after suffering a Brain Hemorrhage.
Did furniture really move?
A female police officer claimed that a chair was moving. And there were more than 30 witnesses (including two neighbors Vic and Peggy Nottingham) to similar strange incidents in Janet’s home. Some of them also claim to witness objects flying around, pools of water appearing on the floor, voices, graffiti and perhaps most incredibly, matches igniting automatically. But despite all of this the female police officer didn’t help them as no one was breaking the law.
Did Janet was locked in the room by some supernatural force?
Yes. Peggy witnessed the drawers moving, in the direction of the door, by a seemingly invisible force, as if some supernatural presence was trying to trap her kids in that room.
“We didn’t understand what was happening,” Margaret told PEOPLE at The Conjuring 2 premiere in Los Angeles. “We went through periods where we just couldn’t believe what really happened. It’s frightening. We didn’t like to be on your own in the house or anything.”
Did Janet Hodgson really levitate?
In the movie we see Janet rises high in the air and she was pinned against the ceiling. In real life, according to a baker and a lollipop lady, who were passing by outside, witness Janet Hodgson. The photographs of real Janet Hodgson “levitating” only show her a short distance above her bed. These photos was taken by Daily Mirror photographer Graham morris after the family contacted the press. Now I also don’t think that this photos are reliable. And daily Mirror is a UK tabloid newspaper whose stories have often proven less than credible.
“I thought I might actually break the window and go through it,” said Janet.
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| Photos by Graham Morris |
How did it stop?
The real Janet Hodgson believes that after a priest visited her house in 1978 every supernatural activity stopped, not the Warrens as shown in Conjuring 2. But after all Janet’s mother Peggy still heard noise in the house from time to time. And according to Janet's brother Billy it felt like you were being watched all the time.
“It stays with you. Every step of the way, it’s just like death really, it gets a little bit easier as time goes on. But the fear and the memories of it and what happened never leaves you,” - Margaret(Janet’s Sister)
Is it possible that the whole thing was a hoax?
Yes. In 1980 Janet admitted to faking roughly 2 percent of the supernatural occurrences just to see if Mr. Grosse and Mr. Playfair would catch her. And according to Janet they always did.
For me the events may be real or entirely psychological, but they're frightening either way.
Most importantly Janet once told that “she was being stifled – somebody was putting a hand over her nose and mouth to stop her breathing” and that “there was an old man sitting on that chair”. Anybody who experienced sleep paralysis (including me) can understand the situation.
Interestingly Lyon Playfair noted that Janet had a habit of suddenly changing the topic and when possessed by Bill Wilkins she had the same habit. Illusionist Milbourne Christopher thought the only spirits involved in the case were the high spirits of the girls(Bipolar disorder - rapidly changing topics while talking to someone).
And Janet’s griefing voice may be a vocal trick.
Last but not the least, people frequently see what they expect to see, their senses being organised and shaped by their beliefs in a process called ‘top-down processing’. In top-down processing, perceptions begin with the most general and move toward the more specific. These perceptions are heavily influenced by our expectations and prior knowledge.
Lyon Playfair said that the whole family of Peggy Hodgson was seeing visions or apparitions of faces at windows, shadowy figures on the stairs…
Maybe that’s because of ‘top-down processing’.
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