During a week in which truth versus fictionalization in paranormal pop culture has been very much at the forefront of my mind, I finally caved this evening and watched The Conjuring 2.
Before I go any further, I have to admit right off the bat that I have some baggage where this particular story is concerned. When I was growing up and feeding my interest in the paranormal by voraciously reading every book on the subject that the Syston Library had, perhaps my very favorite was This House is Haunted, by Guy Lyon Playfair. Playfair’s book was, and remains, the definitive account of what came to be known as The Enfield Poltergeist. The book scared the living shit out of me when I was a kid, and I must have checked it out of the library a good six or seven times before I finally just bought my own copy. Playfair writes well, and the narrative is superbly done.
Guy Lyon Playfair had the distinct advantage of having been in on the case from its inception, and then living with the tormented Hodgson/Harper family during the poltergeist outbreak for 20 nights and alone in the house while they were on holiday. He would stick with the case until the cessation of the activity the following year. One of the book’s real strengths is that thanks to the caliber of Playfair’s deft writing, the reader feels that they are really there, experiencing each new instance of paranormal phenomena (including a number of fraudulent incidents perpetrated by the Hodgson/Harper children) as it happens. It’s a real page turner, and all the better for being true. If you haven’t read it, I can’t recommend the book highly enough.
Why am I prefacing this review by discussing another author’s book? Because one of the things that annoys me most about The Conjuring 2 is the focus upon its two lead characters, Ed and Lorraine Warren. The movie is being billed as (and I quote the Blu-Ray sleeve) “The next TRUE STORY from the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren.” The copy on the back of the sleeve ends with: “Discover the truth behind the event that shocked the world.”
Well, in a word: BULLSHIT.
And therein lies my problem with the movie, or at least one of them. The Warrens’ involvement in the case was at best tangential, happening just as the case was winding down. They spent very little time with the family at all, and in Guy Lyon Playfair’s own words, “they really didn’t contribute anything at all, so far as I know.” (To hear Mr. Playfair’s personal take on the involvement of the Warrens at Enfield, please visit my friend Patrick Keller’s website and listen to his interview over at https://bigseance.com/2016/03/02/guy-lyon-playfair-and-the-truth-about-the-enfield-poltergeist-the-big-seance-podcast-56/) The interview is very well done and highly illuminating.
For those unfamiliar with the story, the spirit who would later become known as The Enfield Poltergeist was believed to be that of an old man named Bill, a former resident of the council house in Green Street who had died in a chair downstairs of a massive brain hemorrhage. Bill didn’t seem to want to accept that he was dead, and couldn’t understand why his home was now full of “trespassers.” And so, he decided to torment them, playing pranks that ranged from the merely annoying (pools of water appearing around the house) to the downright terrifying (a fireplace being wrenched away from its mounting). It wasn’t long before Bill was speaking through the daughter Janet, even when Maurice Grosse had filled Janet’s mouth with water: you can hear Bill speaking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Xhed0jP50
The case attracted national press attention at the time of the outbreak, buoyed by the fact that the local police had visited and declared themselves stumped. You can see the BBC Nationwide segment on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JI8Pk1qbfo
One thing that The Conjuring 2 does well, is the buildup. Despite the fact that the house on Green Street was recreated in a soundstage on the Warner Brothers lot, both the house itself and the era of 1970s London are expertly recreated, even down to the British Rail train carriage that the Warrens end up on at the end of the film. The production design team have done a superb job, and they managed to evoke a few moments of genuine nostalgia for me, which I really wasn’t expecting at all.
When treated as pure fiction, the movie itself is a surprisingly well-crafted ghost story. If you’ve seen the first Conjuring movie, then you’ll pretty much know what’s in store going in. There are the obligatory jump scares and long, tracking shots down dark and mysterious hallways that seem to have become the trademark of director James Wan. Where things really go off the rails, however, is when the Warrens find (wait for it…WAIT…FOR…IT….)
A DEMON!
Yup, you read it right, folks. Not content with telling the true story of one of the most fascinating poltergeist outbreaks on record, the film-makers have to crowbar in yet another demonic entity, in the form of Valak, the demon nun. While Valak exists in demon-lore, the entity has nothing at all to do with the Enfield Case. As Guy Lyon Playfair so memorably states, if there had been traces of the demonic at Enfield, “such as horns,” then he would surely have noticed! The producers obviously felt that the spirit of an old man wasn’t a sufficiently threatening villain, and therefore needed to spice the movie up a bit…reality be damned. When the movie’s supposed big twist is revealed
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU THERE ARE BLOODY SPOILERS
and we find out that Bill has in fact been manipulated by a demonic entity, all pretense at sticking to the actual events of the case is thrown right out of the window. The Warrens had a habit of finding demons in a lot of their cases, and even though there is not the slightest inkling of such an occurrence at Enfield, we are nonetheless saddled with it now, thanks to The Conjuring 2.
A number of people are given short shrift and sometimes actively maligned by the movie. Conspicuous by his utter absence from the film is Guy Lyon Playfair himself, who wasn’t even contacted by the writers or producers of the film. His vital contribution in documenting the case is totally ignored, most likely because to acknowledge him would have required Warner Brothers to pay him. Maurice Grosse, the senior investigator on the case, does have a small part in the film (in actuality, he spent thousands more hours at Enfield than the Warrens ever did) but is very much playing third fiddle to Ed and Lorraine Warren. This is an insulting way to marginalize a man who went to great lengths to help out the troubled family at the heart of the case, particularly when he is upstaged by a man and a woman who are cast as the hero and heroine of the piece despite the fact that they did little more than wander in, take a look around, and bugger off again.
Then again, anybody who disagrees with the Warrens is portrayed in a negative light. Stephen Kaplan, author of The Amityville Horror Conspiracy, dared to question the veracity of the Amityville haunting and the Warrens’ involvement in it. The Conjuring 2 portrays him as a shrewish and petty-minded man who is out to bring down our heroes. Much like Ed Warren, Stephen Kaplan isn’t around to defend himself any longer, but unlike Ed Warren, Kaplan is being shown in a very negative light.
Yes, only the Warrens can defeat the demon and save the day, because it is ultimately all about them. Not about Bill, the Enfield poltergeist, or the family at the heart of the case; not the investigators, writers, journalists, and police officers who were involved; no, this is all about burnishing the myth of the Warrens, pure and simple. Where there are demons, there’s money to be made in Hollywood these days, and boy, did the Warrens find demons!
When my friend Dave Schrader interviewed Guy Lyon Playfair for Darkness Radio, Mr Playfair had the following, rather damning comment regarding the Warrens: “They did turn up once, I think, at Enfield, and all I can remember is Ed Warren telling me that he could make a lot of money for me out of it. So I thought, “well that’s all I need to know from you” and I got myself out of his way as soon as I could…” Here the interview here: http://twincitiesnewstalk.iheart.com/onair/darkness-radio-24463/just-how-involved-were-the-warrens-14254983/
A true analysis of the discrepancies between the accounts of Playfair and Grosse and that of the Warrens is beyond the scope of this blog post, and I would encourage interested readers to head over to Tom Ruffles’ article over at http://tomruffles.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/ed-and-lorraine-warren-and-enfield-demon.html
There are those who maintain that Ed and Lorraine Warren were (and still are, in Lorraine’s case) caring people who genuinely tried to help those in distress. Others take the line that they were self-promoting charlatans who never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Whichever side you come down on, it’s impossible to deny that the big screen adventures of the Warrens almost certainly aren’t done yet, if the box office numbers for The Conjuring 2 are taken into account.
Based upon the diatribe I’ve just served up, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I hated the movie. Actually, I rather enjoyed it…with the caveat that it is necessary to treat The Conjuring 2 as a straight-up horror movie, one that runs along the same lines as Insidious. If you can forgive or forget the inaccuracies, get over the nausea-inducing Warren-worshiping, then it’s an entertainingly scary thrill ride that will make for great viewing on a dark and stormy night.
Just don’t mistake it for fact…
