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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bradley U chapter.

The Conjuring series is a very large franchise, with a total of eight movies. The series includes The Nun, Annabelle, The Curse and La Llorona, and of course, The Conjuring. I am a huge fan of these movies because they are all connected in some way, so if you watch them in a certain order, it comes together in this long timeline from 1952 to 1981. The Warrens, a paranormal investigator couple, play a large role in these films because they attempt to cleanse the people and houses that are being haunted. Lorraine Warren has special insight into paranormal activity, and Ed Warren was a demonologist. All of the movies are loosely based on true stories that either the Warrens have experienced themselves, or just known ghost stories. 

Since Ed and Lorraine Warren are the main characters of these movies, I want to dive in and tell you about the truth behind their lives as paranormal investigators. Now, I’m usually not a huge skeptic about these sorts of things, but I still find it very interesting to learn about the part of the Warrens’ life that most Conjuring fans don’t know about. 

LAck of evidence

Many fans have been very skeptical about the Warrens because there is no actual evidence that supports their cases or Lorraine’s alleged medium abilities. Ed once admitted that he would do whatever it takes for more fame to obtain a larger audience to exploit the devil to. Of course, this statement can support the either claim of the Warrens being legitimate or not, but I have to admit, he sort of proffesses to be in it for the fame and is willing to claim whatever he needs to receive a larger audience.

Fake media

Other people have dwelled on the fact that the Warrens tended to choose to help the families that are more likely to believe whatever they tell them about their hauntings. Also, the couple would bring in their personal film crew, which leads people to believe that many of their pictures, audio and videos could have been altered in some way. There’s a famous picture of a boy at the top of the stairs that the couple claimed to be a ghost, but others claim that the little boy looks like one of the Parron children (from the first Conjuring story). 

The Annabelle doll

The Conjuring followers have been told by Ed himself that the famous Annabelle doll, that lives in the Warren’s actual house where you can see it on tours, had killed the last person who opened her glass casing. This alleged story has no actual evidence of happening, which leads people to believe, again, that the couple makes things up just to give themselves more fame. There was also an old Twilight Zone episode about a possessed doll, that had the main character in the episode named Annabelle, so many think that Ed Warren took inspiration from this story and make the whole possessed doll thing up.

Exploitation

The older brother of the third Conjuring family, claims that there was no actual haunting of their house, and the Warrens made the whole thing up for money. He tried to sue Lorraine Warren for co-writing a book about the hauntings, for exploitation. The brother thought that Lorraine was a complete fraud, and the stories she made up ruined his family.

“They’re crazy”

Finally, a co-author was writing another book with the Warrens about the haunting of the Snekedor house and wanted to get quotes from the family members to help develop the story. The author told Ed that none of the storylines matched up in the interviews, so Ed told him, “Don’t worry, they’re crazy. You’ve got some of the story, just use what works and make the rest up. Just make it up and make it scary”. This further confirms that not everything that the Warren couple was claiming was true.

In conclusion, there are many more claims that further show some questionable details about the Warren’s lives. Ed and Lorraine Warren had some really crazy paranormal stories to tell, but was any of it true? Either way, we have some awesome movies out of it! If you haven’t seen the Conjuring movies and would love a little adrenaline rush, I highly recommend!

Becky Rose

Bradley U '23

Hello! My name is Becky Rose and I am a nutrition and dietetics major at Bradley University. I have a passion for sharing with others about how to improve their health and wellness and cannot wait to share more through my writing for other students. Follow me on Instagram @becky32301 to get to know me more!