Who Were the Real Ed and Lorraine Warren of 'The Conjuring' Movies?

"The heroes of The Conjuring movies are based on a real-life couple: Ed and Lorraine Warren. They were professional ghostbusters with a knack for packaging their experiences into books, TV and movie deals. The Conjuring movies all draw explicitly from the Warren's real-life cases. (Ed Warren died in 2006, Lorraine Warren died in 2019.) In The C onjuring movies, the Warrens are heroes. But in lively conversations on social media, many horror fans disagree."

"Hendrix said the idea that Satan attacks Christians and their faith with demonic entities was enticing to some old-school believers. But the real people who became characters in The Conjuring movies suffered from terribly sad backstories that often included histories of substance abuse, other forms of abuse, generational trauma and mental health crises."

"Spera directs the New England Society for Psychic Research, which the Warrens started. Spera and his wife, Judy Warren, are major characters in the new movie and positioned to be central ones if the franchise continues. "I really struggled with just even the morality of that story, and, you know, we were telling the story of a murderer," Chaves said. He acknowledged that the victim's family now must live with the knowledge that a movie, that earned more than $200 million at the box office, argues the killer was innocent because he was under the influence of a demonic force."

The Conjuring franchise adapts cases tied to Ed and Lorraine Warren into major supernatural horror films that achieved significant box office success. The Warrens were real-life paranormal investigators who monetized their experiences through books, television and movies. The films portray the Warrens as heroic exorcists, while some viewers and critics contest that portrayal on social media. Many real people depicted in the cases experienced substance abuse, abuse, generational trauma and mental-health crises. Filmmakers and successors at the New England Society for Psychic Research have expressed moral unease about dramatizing violent or tragic real events. Critics warn that cinematic exorcisms can oversimplify complex psychological and social problems.

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