Ed and Lorraine Warren gained popularity with most people when Hollywood started creating movies based on their real-life cases. These worldwide known ghost investigators had a talent for assisting families who moved into haunted homes. Their journey began in the late 1960s, and over the decades, they worked extensively with haunted houses and families who unfortunately lived in them. Let’s delve into the movies that were inspired by the Warrens’ experiences.
Movies Based On Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Investigations
Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror is one of the most terrifying films ever made. The film is based on the same book and was released in 1979. The book was based on the haunting experiences of the Lutz family when they moved into the home.
In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six of his family members in the home on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. He was eventually convicted of second-degree murder in November 1975. He was sentenced to serve 25 years to life in prison. He died while he was in prison in 2021. Unaware of this story, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the Amityville house in December 1975. The realtor did end up telling them that there were some horrible murders in the home, but that didn’t seem to bother them at all. They felt that it was their dream come true. This house seemed to be a new start for them, and they were ready to raise their family there.
After living there for a very short time, the Lutz family began to experience some unexplainable paranormal events. When they moved into the house, one of George’s friends mentioned that they should get the home blessed by a priest. Neither George nor Kathy were religious, so they didn’t know what that meant.
The Catholic church sent Father Mancuso to their home to bless it. When he went into their home, he felt terrified. He heard a masculine voice telling him to leave the house. He told no one about his visit to the home and allegedly ended up getting very sick with a high fever and blisters after he left the home. The symptoms were much like those of people who claim they have stigmata.
The Real Amityville House
The Lutz family began to experience horrifying paranormal events in their home. Some of the rooms would be swarmed with flies for one second, and then they would vanish. They would also feel a “very strong force” that was trying to push them out of the house. There were stories of green ooze coming out of the walls and the water sometimes turning black in the baths and toilets. Not only this, but the children claimed to see a pig face with red eyes and a demon figure in a white hood. The Lutz family was driven to their breaking point on January 14, 1976. They left everything they owed behind and would never step into the house again.
Ed and Lorraine Warren were called to help the Lutz family with these paranormal events. Lorraine could feel the terrifying spirits in the home, so they did everything they could to help. After being there, the Lutz family wanted nothing else to do with the home.
Rumors have circulated that the Lutz family faked everything to become rich off of this story. Although proof of some of the paranormal events has been found, the Lutz family continues to say that it all happened to them in the Amityville house.
The Haunted
The Haunted was released in 1991, and it was one of the first films to actually use the Warrens as characters. This film didn’t get too much attention when it was released and has practically been forgotten about. It was based on the Smurl family haunting, a case that Ed and Lorraine Warren worked on and spent quite a bit of time on.
Janet Smurl moved into a home in Pittston, Pennsylvania, and felt it was the perfect home for them. It didn’t take long for the family to start encountering paranormal activity. The family would see strange figures walking around their home, and they would hear horrifying sounds at night. Strange stains would also start to show up on the walls of the home.
The Smurl family wasn’t sure how to deal with everything happening in the home. Janet found out about Ed and Lorraine and called them to get some help with these encounters. She felt like someone was trying to push her family out of the home, but she knew they couldn’t leave; they had put everything into this house. The Warrens discovered that there was a lot more going on in the home than anyone ever thought.
The Haunting in Connecticut
Released in 2009, The Haunting in Connecticut, based on the Snedeker House, focused on a family going through a terrible time in their lives. Sara Campbell and her son, Matt, were going through a challenging time in life. Matt, her son, was going through cancer treatments, and she and her husband, Peter, needed to find a home closer to the hospital.
The Real Snedeker House
Sara and Peter were also going through a hard time in their marriage. He was an alcoholic, and she was waiting tables and picking up any odd jobs that she could in order to help her son. As the couple discussed finding a rental home, Sara drove by one and knew it was fate. The homeowner was frustrated that no one wanted to live in it. He offered the family a free month if they would move in quickly. This didn’t strike the family as strange, and they felt that this was supposed to be their home.
The family decides that this is a deal they can’t refuse. They move in, and immediately, paranormal events begin to occur. Matt finds some strange pictures in his room, which is in the basement, and then Peter finds out that the home was a funeral home at some point. Matt begins to see visions in the home, and soon, there are figures in his room, and the more they show up, the closer they get to him.
A Haunting in Connecticut got a lot of backlash. Critics claim that Ed and Lorraine Warren sensationalized this entire story, and none of these events ever happened to the family. The Warrens always stood by their story that all of these events did happen inside this house.
The Conjuring Films
The Conjuring
The Real Conjuring House
The Conjuring franchise solidified Ed and Lorraine Warren’s validity in these paranormal cases. The movies began with the paranormal tales from the Perron family and their haunted house. Many critics claim that the first Conjuring film was fictionalized to add to its horror. This movie was one of the first-ever movies to show the Warrens as heroes to those who called them for help. The franchise has made Ed and Lorraine seem more positive than all the rumors about them in the 1970s and 80s.
The Conjuring 2
The Conjuring 2 featured a family’s home in England. In the 1970s, the family was terrified by a poltergeist. In this film, the Hodgson family experiences a lot of paranormal activity in their home. Interestingly enough, Lorraine actually had a vision during the seance of a demonic nun figure. This ended up being the demon that was haunting the Hodgson family. This was the first film where the demon Valak was introduced into the Conjuring film franchise.
The Real Conjuring 2 House
In the Hodgson home, some of the children began to show signs that they had been possessed. One of the children, Janet, was seen levitating and growling like a demon. The Warrens found out about their story and wanted to know what was happening in this home. They wanted to be able to prove if this possession was a hoax. Lorraine wasn’t sure that she wanted to get involved after seeing visions of Ed being killed there.
The Warrens did come to see the Hodgson’s home and got help from other paranormal experts. The Warrens felt as if the family was lying to become famous, but later found out that Janet was, indeed, possessed by the demon in the home. Ed and Lorraine ended up saving Janet and her family, and they ended up moving away from the home.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is yet another film in The Conjuring franchise in which Ed and Lorraine Warren appear. This movie is about a man who asks a demon to possess him instead of his girlfriend’s child. Ed Warren watches as the man is possessed, and that is when he suffers from a heart attack. Arne Johnson begins to act very strangely after being possessed.
Arne ended up killing his landlord after he stabbed him 22 times. He told the police that the demon inside of him was what made him do it. The Warrens felt they needed to testify for Arne since they saw the possession and were part of it. However, Arne ends up going to prison no matter how much Ed and Lorraine stand up for him.
The Annabelle Films
Annabelle
The Annabelle movies gave horror lovers a big scare with the face of this creepy doll. A medical student named John Form bought the creepy doll for his expecting wife, Mia. In the movie, it was a porcelain doll, but in real life, Ed and Lorraine Warren kept a Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle in a glass case.
It turned out that the doll was possessed by the spirit of a girl named Annabelle. Paranormal events began to happen in John and Mia’s home, and as soon as she gave birth to their daughter, Leah, things seemed to get even worse. They contacted a priest to help them; they just wanted peace from this spirit. After the doll disappeared, it reappeared when a woman bought it for her daughter, Debbie. Debbie was a nursing student and took the doll to her home. Her story is seen in the first half of The Conjuring film.
Annabelle Comes Home
Annabelle Comes Home is yet another installment of a film inspired by Ed and Lorraine Warren. In this film, the Warrens have a babysitter come over to watch their daughter Judy for one night. The babysitter, Mary Ellen, invites a friend over. Daniela, her friend, goes into the Warrens’ haunted and cursed objects room. As she pokes around, she sees the Annabelle doll and decides to let her out. This ends up causing some horrible paranormal events.
Although most of the events in this movie were made up, fans of the franchise enjoyed it. This movie was dedicated to Lorraine Warren, who died on April 18, 2019.
Other movies seem to be inspired by the Warrens but do not give them much credit in the films themselves. The Nun, The Nun 2, and various seasons of American Horror Story were all inspired by the Warrens in some type of way. All of the movies in The Conjuring franchise pay homage in one way or another to the Warrens and everything that they did for families that faced paranormal events in their homes.
