The Enfield Poltergeist: Inside the Real Story that InspiredThe Conjuring 2

Mar. 15, 2025

Janet Hodgson, pictured at age 11, appears to be possessed in her bedroom.Photo: Graham Morris

The Conjuring 2gave horrorphiles a chance to enter the “house of strange happenings” … even if it was just on the big screen.

The case involved strange voices, levitation, flying objects, furniture moving through the air, cold breezes and more — and while some called it a hoax, plenty of others are convinced it’s one of the most compelling supernatural cases ever documented.

So what really happened during the case of the Enfield poltergeist? Here’s an inside look at the real story that inspiredThe Conjuring 2.

Peggy Hodgson first heard odd noises from her daughters' bedroom

The children’s bedroom where many of the events happened, circa September 1977.Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo

Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo

It all started in a quaint home in Enfield, London, in 1977 when Peggy Hodgson, a single mother of four children, heard loud noises coming from her daughters' bedroom. When she went to tell her daughters Margaret, then 13, and Janet, then 11, to settle down and go to sleep instead of roughhousing, she found them huddled in the corner with terrified expressions on their faces.

Terrified, the Hodgson family ran across the street to ask for help from the neighbors, Vic and Peggy Nottingham. When Vic went into the house to investigate, he, too, said he heard strange noises coming from around the home. The Hodgsons called the police, and even though one officer claimed to have seen a chair move clear across the room, they deduced that it was not a police matter.

According to the family, that was just the beginning of what would become their nearly 18-month haunting.

The Hodgson family’s haunting lasted a year and a half

Peggy Hodgson (right) and others investigate a carpet at the Hodgson household in Green Street, Enfield, on Feb. 17, 1978.Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo

“We didn’t understand what was happening,” Margaret told PEOPLE atTheConjuring 2premiere in Los Angeles in 2016. “We went through periods where we just couldn’t believe what happened, really. It’s frightening. We didn’t like to be on [our] own in the house or anything.”

When the strange incidents continued, the Hodgsons decided to call a popular U.K. publication, theDaily Mirror, to come and investigate the supposed supernatural occurrences. However, when the reporter arrived, the house sat silent for hours. It wasn’t until the reporter was about to leave that something happened.

“The photographer came back, and a Lego brick hit him above the eye. He still had the mark a few days later. And then Maurice Grosse came in on the case,” Janet said,perThe Telegraph.

TheDaily Mirrorcalled the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), who sent Grosse to investigate the case. During his stay at the house, Grosse has said he witnessed more than 2,000 incidents of supernatural activity.

It was during his time in the house that the supposed poltergeist started speaking through Janet.

Janet Hodgson claimed she was possessed

Janet Hodgson sits in her home in Green Street, Enfield, on Feb. 17, 1978.Graham Morris/Mirrorpix via Getty

Graham Morris/Mirrorpix via Getty

Throughout the 18-month experience, several additional paranormal researchers visited the house, including famed demonologists Ed andLorraine Warren. Though the 2016 film takes liberties with time and the extent to which the Warrens were involved with the case, they publicly stated they were convinced that the supernatural was responsible for the strange happenings inside the house.

“Those who deal with the supernatural day in and day out know the phenomena are there — there’s no doubt about it,” Ed said,according to All That’s Interesting.

Janet Hodgson admitted to faking some supernatural incidents

From left: Margaret, Billy and Johnny Hodgson sit on the couch in their home in Green Street, Enfield, on Feb. 17, 1978.Graham Morris/Mirrorpix via Getty

Of course, many cast their doubts on the events, claiming the children were behind the elaborate hoax and were faking their demonic symptoms. Two SPR experts adamantly questioned Janet’s gruff voice and later caught the children bending spoons themselves.

She later told the outlet that “two percent” of the events in the house were faked.

Even after all this time, Janet and Margaret said that while they’ve managed to move on from that traumatic time, the haunting “stays with you.”

“Every step of the way,” Margaret told PEOPLE at the L.A. premiere ofThe Conjuring 2in 2016. “It’s just like a death, really: It gets a little bit easier as time goes on. But the fear and the memories of it and what happened never leave you.”

source: people.com