The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It reveals that the Perron family from original Conjuring movie are still in touch with the Warrens - and they're still grateful to them for ridding their house of an evil witch ghost. Directed by James Wan and released in 2013, The Conjuring was based on a 1971 case in which the Perrons, after moving into a new home in Rhode Island, began to experience terrifying supernatural phenomena.
Thanks to its good old-fashioned ghost story, some bone-chilling scares, and the added frisson of being "based on a true story," The Conjuring was a huge hit. One of the things that made the movie work so well was how it took time to make the audience really care about the victims of the haunting, rather than just treating them as vehicles for the next jump scare. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga were particularly compelling as Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are portrayed as a couple who love and trust one another deeply, and are both willing to sacrifice their own safety in order to help the Perrons.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is set in 1981, ten years after the Perron family haunting, and it features a touching reference to the original Conjuring movie. When Ed Warren is attacked by a demon during an exorcism and has to spend time in the hospital, the Warrens receive a number of "get well soon" flower bouquets (a detail that later proves pivotal to the plot). After Ed returns home from the hospital, just before the Warrens are called away to help with the Jessica Strong case, Lorraine receives a new bouquet delivery. Checking the card, she says, "Look what the Perron family sent."
Although The Conjuring's retelling of the Perron family haunting wraps up the story and defeats the ghost of Bathsheba in a relatively short space of time, the true story didn't have a neat ending. The Warrens did conduct a séance to relieve Carolyn Perron of her direct possession, but Roger Perron was so upset by the trauma that the ritual inflicted upon his wife that he threw the Warrens out of the house as soon as it was over. Speaking to the Providence Journal after the release of The Conjuring, Andrea Perron said that "the Warrens tried to help, but we essentially found things got worse around them."
The ghostly activity in the Perron house never completely ended. "Eventually the family accepted the fact that we were not living there alone," said Andrea Perron. Since all their money was tied up in the house, the Perrons had to remain living there for ten years, until they were finally able to move out in 1980, a year before the "Devil Made Me Do It" murder. Though the Warrens may not have been able to help them, there was no long-term ill feeling towards the couple from from the Perrons. In her memoir House of Darkness, House of Light, Andrea wrote that the two paranormal investigators were "fondly remembered by the Perron family as kind and compassionate human beings who did everything in their power to help, a beacon of light in a storm."