James Wan’s The Conjuring (2013) revolutionized horror cinema by masterfully blending paranormal investigation with emotional family narrative, transcending traditional genre expectations and resonating with audiences worldwide. Based on the Perron family’s terrifying experiences in their isolated Harrisville, Rhode Island farmhouse during the 1970s, the film builds psychological dread through methodical pacing, atmospheric cinematography, and compelling character development throughout its runtime. This thoughtful narrative approach transformed a modest USD 20 million production into an astonishing USD 319 million worldwide commercial success, launching an expansive multimedia franchise and definitively shifting the industry away from torture-focused horror toward more sophisticated supernatural storytelling with emotional depth.
While marketing heavily emphasized “based on a true story” credentials, historical reality proves significantly more nuanced than portrayed on screen. The real Bathsheba Sherman wasn’t a Satan-worshipping witch but rather a 19th-century resident whose reputation was tarnished by unsubstantiated rumors and local gossip. The Perron family experienced what they believed were supernatural events between 1971-1980, thoroughly documented by daughter Andrea in her trilogy House of Darkness, House of Light. The Warrens remain controversial paranormal investigation figures, with skeptics questioning their methods while believers praise their work—creating fascinating tension between dramatization and documentation that enhances the film’s cultural impact and scholarly discussion.
Early Signs of Haunting
The story introduces the Perron family, consisting of Carolyn (Lili Taylor), Roger (Ron Livingston), and their five daughters, who move into a secluded farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. April (Kyla Deaver), one of the youngest daughters, plays beneath a tree near the house and spots something invisible to everyone else. Their dog Sadie refuses to enter the house, a behavior often interpreted in paranormal lore as animals’ heightened sensitivity to supernatural presences and a potential warning of malevolent energy or entities. These early clues strongly suggest that something sinister resides within the house.
As night falls, the children play hide-and-clap—a hide-and-seek variant where hidden players guide seekers with clapping sounds. During the game, they stumble upon a boarded-up cellar entrance. Roger investigates the cellar but, finding nothing immediately unusual amid the thick cobwebs, leaves a box of matches on the stairs. Later that evening, as the family prepares for bed, Carolyn notes the dog’s incessant barking and its continued reluctance to enter the house, though she tries to dismiss her concerns.
She wakes up to discover unexplained bruises across her body despite no strenuous activity during the night. Carolyn wakes the children, and one daughter, Nancy (Hayley McFarland), complains about a foul smell in her bedroom. Downstairs, Carolyn discovers all the clocks stopped at exactly 3:07 AM, significant in paranormal lore as the “witching hour” or “devil’s hour” when supernatural activity peaks, often viewed as demonic mockery of the time of Christ’s death. Avoiding supernatural explanations, she chalks it up to dead batteries.
Meanwhile, Roger, deciding to inspect the cellar more thoroughly, returns to its cobweb-filled depths. Upstairs, April asks about their dog. Carolyn sends her outside to check, but within moments, a piercing scream cuts through the house. Roger and Carolyn rush out to find April standing over Sadie’s lifeless body. The dog’s sudden and unexplained death is deeply unsettling, amplifying the sense that something malevolent has taken hold of their home.
The scene shifts to introduce Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga), a married couple of paranormal investigators who maintain a collection of haunted artifacts in their home. Ed claims expertise as a demonologist, while Lorraine possesses clairvoyant abilities. Their collection is treated with special care, particularly the Annabelle doll, their most notorious artifact, which is allegedly possessed by a demonic entity and linked to several violent incidents before being secured.
Escalating Paranormal Activity
Back at the Perron house, dimly lit night scenes show Roger startled awake at his desk by mysterious knocking. He investigates but finds nothing and then heads upstairs. The following morning, he discovers clusters of dead birds scattered beside the house. This puzzles him, as hunters never frequent the area. With the four eldest children at school and Roger away at work, only Carolyn and April remain at home. The young girl spends her time chatting with her “imaginary friend” Rory. April then tells her mother about a music box, explaining that when the music stops, Rory is supposed to appear in the mirror inside the lid.
Later, April invites her mother to play hide and clap. As Carolyn searches the house blindfolded, she enters one of the bedrooms, where a wardrobe door suddenly swings open by itself. She calls for another clap and hears it coming from inside the room. Believing April is hiding there, she removes her blindfold only to find the room empty, April is hiding elsewhere entirely. These disembodied sounds intensify Carolyn’s growing fears, strongly suggesting that Rory is real and supernaturally interacting with them.
That night, Roger leaves on a work trip, leaving Carolyn alone with their five daughters. Christine (Joey King), their third daughter, wakes up to something pulling at her leg. After finding nothing beneath the bed, she witnesses her door moving on its own and a shadowy figure lurking behind it. Terrified, Christine wakes her sister Nancy, who investigates but sees nothing until the door violently slams shut by itself, accompanied by a chilling gust of cold air.
The scene shifts to Ed and Lorraine, who are investigating a case in which a couple keeps hearing strange noises in their attic. It turns out to be nothing more than loose wooden boards creaking when pushed by the wind. This incident illustrates that despite their deep involvement in the supernatural, Ed and Lorraine approach their investigations with rationality, dismissing cases that lack genuine paranormal evidence. Their commitment is to uncovering the truth, not fabricating events, emphasizing their integrity and dedication to honest investigations.
Tension builds again as Carolyn wakes to objects breaking spontaneously in the night. She goes downstairs to investigate the cellar, becomes trapped when the door slams shut, then watches as a ball rolls across the floor by itself. When she lights a match in the darkness, ghostly hands clap behind her, intensifying her terror. Upstairs, the sleeping children remain unaware until Andrea (Shanley Caswell), the eldest daughter, finds her younger sister Cindy (Mackenzie Foy) sleepwalking toward the wardrobe.
After guiding Cindy back to bed, Andrea hears a sound from the wardrobe and investigates, finding nothing initially. As she checks the wardrobe, Cindy, now awake, sees a witch’s spectral form materialize atop it, leading to a terrifying attack. Roger, returning earlier than expected from his business trip due to a growing unease, arrives home to find his family in terror. The severity of this attack compels Roger and Carolyn to seek immediate outside help, fearing for their family’s safety.
Explore More:
The Warrens’ Investigation Begins
Carolyn attends a public seminar held by Ed and Lorraine about supernatural phenomena. After the event, she pleads with them to investigate her family’s troubles. When they arrive, the Warrens meet the family and quickly learn about several strange occurrences, including knocking sounds, clocks stopping at 3:07 AM, foul odors, dead birds, falling photographs, and unexplained bruises. Ed considers these to be clear signs of supernatural activity. As the events become more intense, involving moving objects, physical contact, apparitions, and specific targeting of family members, the Warrens begin to classify the case as an intelligent haunting, possibly with demonic elements.
In the cellar, Lorraine detects horrific past events. Ed interviews Carolyn and her daughters for detailed accounts while Lorraine talks with April, who reveals her friendship with invisible Rory, visible only through a mirrored music box. After witnessing a disturbing apparition through this device, Lorraine examines the exterior of the house. Standing beneath a massive tree, she experiences a vision of a spectral figure hanging from its branches, strongly suggesting a historical suicide that left a strong spiritual presence, lingering with dark, malevolent energy in the environment.
As a result, Ed and Lorraine recommend an exorcism, a religious ritual that expels evil entities from a place or person. This procedure requires Catholic Church authorization, granted only with compelling evidence of genuine haunting. Therefore, the Warrens will return with specialized equipment and personnel to document the paranormal activity. The family faces an agonizing wait, forced to endure the escalating spiritual torment while the Warrens prepare for the next stage of their investigation, their home becoming a battleground between light and darkness.
Back at their own home, Ed and Lorraine review the audio recordings from their interviews with the Perron family, including Roger and Carolyn. They are startled to discover an additional voice on the recording, seemingly that of a supernatural entity speaking at a different frequency, its presence sending chills down their spines. Soon after, Ed and his team, including his assistant Drew Thomas (Shannon Kook) and police officer Brad Hamilton (John Brotherton), begin installing cameras and detection equipment throughout the house. Just as they finish setting everything up, a door suddenly opens by itself. In the tense silence that follows, everyone approaches the door, only to discover that it was actually Brad who opened it.
During the investigation’s first night with the Warrens’ equipment, only faint cellar noises are detected. This relative quiet leads the investigators to suspect the entity might be deceptively dormant or observing them, despite its previous aggressive displays. The following morning, breakfast brings warmth and vitality to the house with the investigators present. Lorraine encourages the exhausted Carolyn to rest while she handles household chores. While hanging laundry outside, Lorraine watches the sky suddenly darken as a gust of wind transforms a sheet into a humanoid shape that flies toward the window of the room where Carolyn is sleeping, signaling the spirit’s malevolent focus on her.
Simultaneously, as Lorraine witnesses the ominous transformation of the laundry sheet outside, Carolyn lies in bed, attempting to rest. Suddenly, she is overwhelmed by an oppressive force pressing down on her chest, rendering her immobile. The familiar, inexplicable bruises reappear on her body, now more pronounced and painful, resembling stigmata. Her breathing becomes labored as the weight intensifies, and she experiences the horrifying sensation of an unseen entity climbing atop her. In a terrifying climax, a vile, dark substance is forced into her mouth, choking her and leaving her gasping for air. This grotesque act signifies the malevolent spirit’s deepening control over Carolyn, marking the commencement of a sinister possession that threatens to consume her entirely.
That evening, during his patrol, Brad spots a shadowy figure. As he investigates, he is suddenly attacked and violently pushed to the ground by the unseen entity. By the time the others arrive, the figure has vanished. Meanwhile, Cindy begins sleepwalking again, heading toward her bedroom wardrobe. When someone checks on her, she has mysteriously vanished. Ed uses ultraviolet light to track her to a hidden crawlspace behind the wardrobe, accessible through a secret passage. After Cindy is rescued, April reveals that this is her friend Rory’s hiding place. Lorraine then bravely enters the crawlspace.
Hidden History Revealed
In the hidden crawlspace, after Ed passes her the music box, Lorraine begins to uncover details of the house’s dark history—related to its past and the malevolent presence—just before the weakened floorboards give way, sending her crashing into the cellar. Ed frantically searches for her downstairs. Still dazed, Lorraine scans her surroundings through the music box mirror, witnessing a female apparition that disappears when looked at directly, though its presence lingers, suggesting a historical tragedy. Furthermore, Lorraine senses an overwhelming supernatural force nearby, making her retreat quickly upstairs.
Ultimately, Lorraine determines that in the past, a mother named Bathsheba (Joseph Bishara), possessed by evil, murdered her child before taking her own life. This malevolent entity now attempts to possess Carolyn, compelling her to harm her children, suggesting a cyclical haunting where historical trauma repeats through new inhabitants. Shortly afterward, a crucifix falls on its own, and then Nancy’s hair is violently pulled by invisible forces, creating terrifying chaos. Profoundly alarmed by these direct attacks, Roger resolves to move his family out of the house immediately. However, the malevolent entity intensifies its assault before they can escape.
Following these escalating attacks and Roger’s decision to evacuate his family, Ed and Lorraine present their compelling evidence to church authorities, including eerie voice recordings, photographs of inexplicable shadows, and documented paranormal activity, as they seek approval for Carolyn’s exorcism. However, authorization proves challenging because the Perron family’s non-Catholic status creates procedural hurdles within the Church’s strict exorcism protocols. According to Catholic doctrine, major exorcisms that address severe demonic possession are typically reserved for baptized, practicing Catholics. However, bishops may authorize the rite for non-Catholics under exceptional circumstances.
That night, while Roger coordinates with the Warrens and authorities, his children reveal that Carolyn has abducted April and Christine back to the house. Roger alerts Ed immediately before speeding home, fearing for his family’s safety. Upon arrival, they discover Carolyn possessed by Bathsheba, menacing Christine with scissors while April remains missing. As they restrain Carolyn, unseen forces violently drag her into the cellar. With Carolyn’s condition rapidly worsening and official Church authorization not immediately forthcoming, Ed makes the critical decision to perform the exorcism himself.
During the exorcism, an oppressive darkness envelops the Perron household. Outside, Christine witnesses birds violently crashing into the windows—a harrowing manifestation of the demonic presence and a symbol of spiritual chaos. Inside, Ed Warren, drawing upon his extensive experience as a demonologist, resolutely recites the exorcism rites. His voice rises above Carolyn’s guttural screams as Bathsheba’s influence contorts her body unnaturally, her eyes rolling back in a horrifying display. The walls shudder, and the dim candlelight flickers, casting distorted shadows that seem to pulse with the entity’s rage.
Drew discovers April hiding beneath the kitchen floorboards. When he calls out, the noise alerts the possessed Carolyn, still under Bathsheba’s control, who immediately tries to reach April to complete the ancient curse. Lorraine intervenes by reaching through the boards and pleads with Carolyn to remember a joyful family moment at the beach. The memory breaks through the possession just enough for Ed to finish the exorcism and expel the demon. Carolyn collapses, finally free, and embraces her family as the darkness lifts from the house, leaving behind a profound sense of relief and closure.
