The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Haunting and real life being awkward

I find myself extremely conflicted with regards to The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Haunting. It’s a pretty well-made horror film with some great jumps and scares. The production, as a whole, is excellent. And yet, I came out of it angry and annoyed, although that’s not entirely the fault of the film-makers.

The first Conjuring movie was problematic in some ways. It’s an oddly conservative film, with all of its faith talk and actual witches. But it’s also creepy and enjoyable. While I had issues with it, I was also impressed by it.

Suspending disbelief in the supernatural

I don’t believe in ghosts, demons or god, but I still enjoy religious horror immensely. It’s all part and parcel of suspending disbelief. We understand the rules of reality change for fiction, accepting it on the terms of the story.

The Exorcist is one of my favourite films, not least because of what it shows us about humanity. It’s a film that uses the trappings of ‘good versus evil’ to explore a story of faith, doubt and hope (The Conjuring movies, on the other hand, are films that use the trappings of ‘good versus evil’ to tell a story of ‘good versus evil’).

I can believe in horror without believing in the reality of the story, even if it’s ostensibly based on a true story. The Conjuring, for me, played with this well. I didn’t need to share their faith to believe that they had it and because the true story (The Perron Family Haunting) was one I wasn’t familiar with, it worked on its own terms for the most part.

The Enfield Poltergeist

The Conjuring 2, however, plays on rather more familiar territory. This is, after all, the story that inspired the legendary BBC Ghostwatch — a TV movie that burrowed its way into a generation’s memory. More recently, it’s been the subject of a competent Sky Atlantic series, The Enfield Haunting.

The latter focused on Maurice Grosse, played by Timothy Spall — a paranormal investigator who got entangled with the Hodgson family. The drama scenes were stronger than the horror ones, which isn’t hugely surprising. After all, there’s a fascinating story to be uncovered in the Enfield poltergeist and it’s nothing to do with the supernatural.

It’s one in which two girls fake paranormal activity for attention. And then their mother joins in, either wittingly or unwittingly. They then capture the imagination of the paranormal scene, becoming effectively celebrities. This all leads to Maurice moving in with them, still grieving the death of his own daughter and desperately wanting answers to lie in this family’s home.

It’s a house full of people who have their own agendas, some of whom may be tricking others or even themselves. There’s a real life story about hysteria and hopes and needs going on in there, and I feel it’s a far more interesting one than the ghost story. Because these were real people. This really happened within living memory.

If you’re going to turn this into a TV series or a film, though, you’ll want to concentrate on the supernatural aspect, because of course you are. And that’s fine. As much as I’d love to see a film about the real human story in the middle of it, it’s also a cracking ghost story.

And in all the versions that have been told of this story, the Warrens were — at best — peripherally involved. Most accounts barely mention them. But this movie takes the Enfield poltergeist and puts Ed and Lorraine Warren front and centre.

The problem with The Warrens

The Warrens are a very strange pair indeed. At best, they’re a deluded pair of far-right Christians, believing themselves to be God’s soldiers in the fight against evil in a very literal sense. At worst, they’re parasites of the worst kind, latching themselves to families and children with serious problems and trying to turn them into profit.

If the latter, they clearly have no issues using death, mental illness and confusion to their advantage. All in the aim of being rich and famous. They’ve even been accused of trying to divert a murder investigation, attempting to convince a family that they’d become rich if their son claimed demons forced him to kill someone, rather than seek help for mental health issues.

And The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Haunting takes it even further than they did, playing into their myth more and more. Now, rather than barely visiting the place, they’re the ones fighting the literal demon infesting the house. They’re the ones braving life and limb to save children.

The real life Enfield story is just a backdrop for what will be a hugely successful film telling us what heroes these frauds are. It all feeds into their legacy and the conservative view they have of the world. Why is the haunting happening? Because of a divorce. Obviously. Why are they paranormal investigators? Because God has given them powers. Of course.

While the opening scenes, covering the Warrens’ involvement in the Amityville case, are well done, they’re also covering the murder of a real family. And the focus of the story isn’t the family, or even the supernatural. The focus of the story is the courage, bravery and goodness of Ed and Lorraine Warren. This isn’t subtext. This is text. The film even uses another real death from 2003 to add a spooky little update as well.

Breaking suspension

And that’s the point where I have difficulty separating out truth and fiction. Where we take relatively recent true stories and real deaths and use them to feed an image created by charlatans. Truths become myths and legends, subverted to feed a commercial machine that has somehow become dedicated to showing what heroes the Warrens are.

And as such, it’s mostly well done. The performances are strong, and they’ve managed to fill a movie with non-annoying child actors. The atmosphere and locations are all convincing. The design is, in places, phenomenal. While it’s patchy and doesn’t consistently work, it’s an entertaining and effective horror movie. The worst I would say is that it’s a bit toothless, with the overt Christian message making it feel a well-made horror movie made by the Hallmark channel.

But even more than the original Conjuring did, it made me think about the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren. While I had no issues with them becoming a larger part of the story in order to tell it, I did have issues with just how shamelessly they’re all over the story, being acknowledged as the heroes by everyone involved. It made me angry at the way it glorified them.

And that’s why I’m conflicted. Because while I can usually suspend my disbelief, I felt the weight of reality made it impossible in this case.