The Conjuring 2, like all installments in the popular franchise, explores a different case file from renowned paranormal investigators and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren; the sequel covers, in part, the true story of the Enfield Poltergeist.
James Wan's popular The Conjuring universe debuted in 2013 and explored a haunting that occurred at a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. Ed and Lorraine Warren took on the Perron family's case, among many other cases, as they supposedly worked in tandem with the Catholic Church to exorcise malevolent spirits from people, places, and objects. They have been accused of being cons and hoaxes over the years, but had a popular museum where they kept many of their haunted objects that they had collected from houses over the years, including the haunted doll, Annabelle. The museum is currently closed, and, after Lorraine's death in 2019, its future is uncertain.
Whether the Warrens are to be believed or not, Wan has adapted their stories into some of the most terrifying pieces of modern paranormal horror to date, and has created a lasting franchise that has dominated over the last decade. Its newest installment, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, is based around the real trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who claimed demonic possession made him commit murder.
The Conjuring 2's True Story: The Enfield Poltergeist
Some consider the Enfield Poltergeist case to be the most witnessed and valid case of paranormal hauntings of all time, while others believe it to be one of the biggest hoaxes. The hauntings occurred at the Hodgson family home in Enfield, which is a borough of London, England in 1977; the case went on until 1979. Peggy Hodgson, who had four children, responded to loud noises in her daughters' bedroom. It was then that Margaret (age 13) and Janet (age 11) told their mother that the chest of drawers in their room moved toward the door by itself. Peggy said, after that event, she also witnessed the drawers moving as if propelled by an invisible force; it almost seemed, by her recollection, that the furniture was trying to trap her daughters in the room. According to Peggy and the girls, the haunting sustained for 18 months.
In an interview with iTV in 2012, Janet Hodgson recalled her mother calling a reporter from the Daily Mirror to come investigate, and that a photographer was hit in the eye with a LEGO on their way out of the house after concluding their investigation. After that occurrence, Maurice Grosse, from the Society for Psychical Research came and spent a great deal of time in the home, where he claims to have witnessed around 2,000 incidences of activity. Many of these included things like furniture being moved, fires starting for no reason, water filling inside cups, and hearing voices, though Janet recalls another instance where a curtain near her bed wrapped around her neck all on its own. Eventually, she claims the poltergeist started speaking through her, which signified possession.
Eventually, Ed and Lorraine Warren came to investigate the house and concluded that there was "no doubt" about the evidence of paranormal activity inside the Hodgson home. Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair, who wrote the book This House Is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist in 1980 about his experiences, did believe some activity was manufactured by Margaret and Janet; Janet has since confessed to falsifying some of the activity, citing "two percent" was untrue. Still, others who have investigated the case consider it to be an elaborate hoax, which strengthened the argument about the Warrens being con artists. Some of the faked events included Janet bending metal spoons, banging on the ceiling and walls with a broom handle, and her use of ventriloquism to create the spirit named "Bill". Whether true or not, it provided an interesting background for The Conjuring 2, and the Warrens' cases, which are plentiful, will likely inspire more films of its kind.