Weird Things Happened on the Set of The Conjuring

Weird Things Happened on the Set of The Conjuring June 19, 2016

"INT PERRON HOUSE - CELLAR Carolyn flips upside down and shoots up to the ceiling John Brotherton (Brad), Vera Farmiga (Lorraine), Patrick Wilson (Ed), Ron Livingston (Roger)"
“INT PERRON HOUSE – CELLAR Carolyn flips upside down and shoots up to the ceiling John Brotherton (Brad), Vera Farmiga (Lorraine), Patrick Wilson (Ed), Ron Livingston (Roger)”

(As a part of The Conjuring coverage, we’re republishing this article from my blog The Rogue about some of the weird stuff that happened on the set of the first movie.)

Some pretty weird things happened to the cast and crew of The Conjuring.

For those of you who don’t know, The Conjuring is based on the true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are asked to help a family in crisis. The problem? A demonic witch is terrorizing the Perrons, a family who bought a haunted house in the country.

The Warrens (Ed passed away a few years ago) are noted Catholic demonologists who help people establish a haunting in their house or explain strange occurrences with natural causes. In the case of possession, they call on a priest.

This gives the film an extra scary vibe. Knowing something terrible happened to this family adds to the tension on the film, whether you believe in possession or not (I do). Allow me to add to your unsettled feelings for the film but telling you about what I heard from the cast and crew. They experienced some pretty bizarre things during the filming.

Some Examples:

-When the screenwriters (the Hayes brothers) worked with Lorraine Warren on the script, their conversations got cut off by strange sounds and static on the phone. After a few moments, the line would go dead.

-Late one night, when director Jame Wan worked on the script, his new puppy started staring at an empty corner and gave a vicious growl. Then, the dog’s head started following something all across the room while Wan could see nothing.

-When the real life Perrons visited the set in North Carolina, a strange wind whipped through the set. Not very odd until you consider the trees didn’t move at all.

-The mom from the family started to experience dark feelings, similar to the time of the incident portrayed in the film. She then tripped and suffered injuries that put her in the hospital.

-When Vera Farmiga, the actor who plays Lorraine Warren, opened up her computer to continue reading the script, she saw something on the screen that made her skin crawl: five claw marks across the screen. Farmiga said, “I don’t know how to explain it. I do know I hadn’t dropped the computer, my children didn’t step on it, so I closed it, put it away and my brain went berserk.”

Strange stories indeed. I’ll end with a cool quote from James Wan, the director who has made scary movies before: “On my other films (Saw, Insidious), it was comforting to tell myself those things weren’t real, I’d just made them up. But for The Conjuring, I didn’t have that luxury”.

 

 


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