The Conjuring: Documentary Crew Stayed in House That Inspired Movie and Came Out “Messed Up”

As viewers of the film may recall, one of the big selling points for James Wan’s 2013 film The Conjuring (and the entire franchise that it spawned) was that it was based on a real case. Hailing from the files of “paranormal investigators” Ed and Lorraine Warren, the film told the story of a house in Rhode Island which was supposedly haunted by the spirit of suspected witch Bathsheba Sherman. A new documentary, The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home, saw a team of modern paranormal investigators returns to the house and in a new interview they revealed the uncomfortable feelings of dread it produced in them.

“Being in the house for two weeks really messed up the whole team’s psyche,” co-director Kendall Whelpton told Cinema Blend. “Day three we start getting worn down, day four you can’t sleep because things are happening, there’s a lot of activity in the house. Coming out of the experience, when you go home, you’re still thinking you’re in the house, you’re attached to the house. You have an overwhelming sense to go back to the house. It’s a different beast than I’m used to. I’ve done over 500 locations and I’ve only stayed at about 4 of them and doing a long amount of time like this is a different experience.”

Whelpton and his co-director/partner Vera Whelpton previously worked together on the Ghost Hunters and another paranormal doc last year, The House in Between.

As fans of The Conjuring know, most of the film franchise is rooted in “true stories” and real locations around the world from the Warren’s case files. 2016’s The Conjuring 2 took the action across the pond and focused on “the Enfield poltergeist” while this year’s third film in the main series, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, dramatized the story of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a convicted murderer that attempted to plead not guilty by reason of demonic possession.

The other movies in The Conjuring Universe are mostly just the stuff of invention however. Though the trilogy of Annabelle spinoff movies are rooted in a real haunted doll by the same name, the Annabelle seen on the big screen looks drastically different from the one that lives in the Warren’s museum. 2018’s The Nun spinoff is also based solely on a monster invented for the second movie and not one found in their archives.

The Sleepless Unrest will debut in theaters and on VOD Friday, July 16th. The Conjuring movies are streaming on HBO Max.