I thought this piece by Greg Newkirk at WeekInWeird was all
rather interesting. I'll refrain from being..."out spoken" on the Warrens!
Conjuring the Truth: Enfield
Poltergeist Investigator Says Ed and Lorraine Warren Never Investigated
Case
Hot on the heels of the debut trailer for The Conjuring 2:
The Enfield Poltergeist comes a new revelation from Guy Lyon Playfair, one of
the original investigators of the famous British ghost appearance, who says
that controversial paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren were never
involved in the case.
Billing itself as being ripped from the “true case files of
Ed and Lorraine Warren”, the sequel to The Conjuring claims to follow the duo
to Brimsdown, Enfield, England, where they proceed to
investigate one of the most famous cases of poltergeist activity ever recorded.
There’s only one problem: Guy Lyon Playfair, member of the Society for
Psychical Research and one of the chief investigators of the Enfield
Poltergeist case, says they showed up “uninvited”, stayed for only a day, and
alleges that they manufactured their own paranormal evidence simply “to make
money out of it.”
The claims come from a brand new interview with Darkness
Radio host Dave Schrader that aired on Thursday evening. You can listen to the
whole interview with Playfair here (which I highly recommend), but I’ve taken
the liberty of transcribing the relevant revelation for your convenience:
Above: Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Gross
Dave Schrader: Mr.
Playfair, I’m sure you’re familiar with Ed and Lorraine Warren and their
research and work. Have they ever worked along with the Society for Psychical
Research?
Guy Lyon Playfair:
No. I bumped into Ed Warren once or twice, and Lorraine… and I got the impression that Ed
Warren was, well.. (laughs) fill in your own expletive. I wasn’t impressed at
all. Lorraine
is still living, so I’ll refrain from commenting on her, but she was very…
quite pleasant when I met her.
They did turn up
once, I think, at Enfield,
and all I can remember is Ed Warren telling me that he could make a lot of
money for me out of it. So I thought, “well thats all I need to know from you”
and I got myself out of his way as soon as I could. I said was not impressed.
He didn’t spend… I don’t think he went there more than once. And I did read
somewhere a transcript of a lengthy interview which he’s alleged to have with
one of the girls – which they couldn’t remember giving him – and it was
describing all sorts of marvelous wonders which I don’t think ever happened. I
think he was a complete…um… well… (laughs)… fill in whatever word…
Dave: (laughs) I
understand. So you don’t feel that – and especially in the interactions you had
with him – you don’t feel that maybe they had the best intentions when it came
to the investigations of these cases?
Guy: No, they just
wanted to make money out of it.
Dave: Okay. Did –
have you heard, or in your research, have you come across any proof that Ed or
Lorraine Warren had anything to do with consulting or being a part of this
investigation?
Guy: Certainly
not. Nobody ever mentioned them. I mean, I don’t think anybody in the family
had ever heard of him until he turned up. Uninvited. And uh..
Dave: Oh, so just
came out…
Guy: …he said who
he was and he didn’t come again and we just sort of forgot about him.
Dave: So he came
out to the site uninvited, and just showed up to try and insert himself into
the story, is what you maintain?
Guy: Thats what I
remember, yes.
Dave: Okay,
fascinating.
Guy: It was quite
brief. He was just one.. we had so many people coming and going. I mean I
remember one day he did turn up. I think Lorraine
was there as well – I’d also met them in Brazil. They sort of pop up all
over the place. And it was just no big deal at all. I mean, I had a brief
conversation with Ed at Enfield,
and as I say, he was telling me how much money he’d help me make, and I
politely declined his help, and I strained that that’s not what we exist for in
the SPR, and that was the last time I saw him.
Above: Ed and Lorraine Warren
The claims shouldn’t come as any surprise to those who’ve
taken even a cursory glance at the Enfield Poltergeist case themselves, in
which there’s no real record of Ed and Lorraine’s involvement save for their
own. Admittedly, as someone who grew up reading the Warrens’
books and was a big fan of the first Conjuring film, I was a little perplexed
when the plot for the sequel was announced, already knowing that it was SPR who
handled the entire Enfield
case.
The question is: why would a studio take two paranormal
investigators who worked on cases like The Amityville Horror, wrote six books,
and were featured in seven others, and jam them into a story they barely earned
a cameo in? Turns out, they probably don’t own the rights to their real cases.
In the wake of the
original film’s box office success, Warner Bros. was subject to a lawsuit that
aimed to prevent them from making any sequels. The suit came from producer Tony
DeRosa-Grund’s Evergreen Media Group, who owned the rights to the “real-life
case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren” before licensing them Warner Bros..
Evergreen Media claims that ‘New Line was only granted rights on a “very
limited, selection of the Case Files – i.e., less than one percent (1%) of the
total number of Case Files – and the Warrens’ life stories, in exchange for a purchase
price for each theatrical production or use of those select Case Files as well
as a crediting and employing Mr. DeRosa-Grund as producer.” Fun fact: Evergreen
also sold the rights to a Conjuring television series to Lionsgate, which
opened a whole other can of worms.
According to Evergreen Media, the Warrens’ career resulted in some 8,000 “Case
Files”, of which 25 were licensed as possible films. Evergreen also claims that
in order to circumvent their licensing agreement, Warner Bros. simply optioned
rights to The Demonologist, a 1980 book by written by Gerald Brittle about the
Warrens, which included brief mentions of their “Case Files”, including one
that led to the Annabelle spinoff and another in which Ed and Lorraine claim
that they were present for the Enfield Poltergeist investigation. Sneaky stuff,
if true.
Sneakier still, is the claim that The Conjuring 2 is from
the “true case files” of the Warrens when not only can the original witnesses
to the Enfield Poltergeist not recall speaking to Ed Warren, but one of the
head investigators for the Society of Paranormal Research adamantly states they
allegedly manufactured “marvelous wonders” to make money off their very brief,
uninvited house call.
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