hauntings

Maybe Buying The Conjuring House Wasn’t the Best Idea

The movie version of The Conjuring house, which looks quite different in real life. Photo: New Line Cinema

The 1736 Harrisville, Rhode Island, home that inspired The Conjuring, 2013’s instant classic addition to the spooky-movie genre, has new owners. Although the house looks nothing like Hollywood’s version, it reportedly remains a hot spot for strange happenings.

If you have not seen The Conjuring, allow me to spoil it for you now. An unwitting family moves into a creaky old Rhode Island farmhouse already occupied by a witch demon, plus a whole host of other ghosts. The witch demon latches onto our protagonists, the Perrons, and is ultimately vanquished by famed paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren in an unsanctioned exorcism. But the film leaves a few questions open: Did obliterating the witch demon liberate all those other spirits, too? Or are we expected to believe the Perrons moved back into a still-haunted house, even after it attempted to turn their matriarch into a filicidal maniac?

The Conjuring is based on allegedly true events, amplified and embellished for cinematic effect. Still, the couple who purchased the house that inspired it attest that their abode remains a hot spot for the same brand of strange happenings depicted in the film.

“We had doors opening, footsteps and knocks” as soon as day one, haunted homeowner Cory Heinzen, a paranormal investigator, told the Sun Journal. “I’ve had a hard time staying there by myself. I don’t have the feeling of anything evil, (but) it’s very busy. You can tell there’s a lot of things going on in the house.”

Apparently, Heinzen met one of the real-life Perrons, Andrea, before buying the house, and heard the stories firsthand from her. The Perrons continued living on their haunted homestead for years (they moved out in 1980) after the real-life Warrens got involved in 1974. Andrea Perron told USA Today that the Warrens never performed an exorcism, only a séance, which may explain the sustained activity the Heinzens allegedly experience today.

Cory and Jennifer Heinzen closed on the house on June 21. “We immediately fell in love with it,” Cory told the Sun Journal. “Eight-and-a-half acres, a river in the back and a pond, it’s so serene down there, never mind the story behind the house, it’s a beautiful home.”

“This whole journey has been both scary — for many reasons other than paranormal — and exciting all at once,” Jennifer added. “I love that we have the opportunity to share the home with others.”

Optimistic!

Maybe Buying The Conjuring House Wasn’t the Best Idea