The True Story Of The Conjuring: What Really Happened?

6. The House Was Haunted By Many Ghosts

After moving into the 14-room farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island in January 1971, despite the property seller's warning to keep the lights on at night for safety, the Perrons immediately noticed paranormal activity. Like the well-made horror adaptation’s slow build-up, the ghosts of the old Arnold estate first made their presence known by being rapscallion pranksters; they would hide the family’s broom and place small piles of dirt in the centre of a newly-clean kitchen floor.

In both the film and reality, Carolyn researched the history of the estate and discovered that it had been home to a bunch of gruesome fatalities.

Andrea Perron, the oldest of the sisters, said that the farmhouse belonged to the extended family of the Arnolds for eight generations, and the Black Book of Burnville confirms that during its existence the land had been host to two drownings, two suicides by hanging, one suicide by poison, and the rape and murder of eleven-year-old Prudence Arnold.

April, the youngest of the five Perron girls, befriended an entity named Rory in Wan’s flick. In reality, the boy was named Johnny Arnold, and all the Perron girls were fond of his presence. Still, despite changing his name, the film was honest to him having been hanged in the farmhouse’s attic in the mid-18th century.

A benevolent apparition not mentioned in the film, however, was Mrs. Arnold; an entity reported to have sweetly kissed the girls on their forehead after tucking them in at night. While that does sound creepy rather than comforting, it was most definitely better than when the spirits told the sisters there were seven dead soldiers buried in the wall.