While million-dollar homes throughout the country add never-ending lists of amenities to attract buyers, a modest farmhouse in Rhode Island is banking big on its terrifying history.
The house that inspired the Conjuring movie franchise has traded hands in 2022 — commanding an impressive $1.525 million sale price.
Located in aremotepart of Harrisville, a town about 40 miles northwest of Providence, Rhode Island, the Conjuring house was listed for sale back in October 2021 for $1.2 million.
But despite its bone-chilling history of hauntings, remote location, and outdated interiors, it attracted 10 offers from interested buyers, shooting the price up to $1,525,000 (27% over the asking price).
The buyer is a Boston real estate developer, Jacqueline Nuñez, who bought the roughly 3,000-square-foot home from couple Jenn and Cory Heinzen.
The Heinzen family made quite a profit from the sale; they only paid $439,000 for the property back in 2019. But things were far from ‘normal’ during their stay here.
The previous owners bought the house in 2019 and opened it to the public, despite their own accounts of hauntings taking place here
When Cory and Jennifer Heinzen bought the notorious Rhode Island house that inspired the horror movie ‘The Conjuring,’ they knew exactly what they were getting into.
They’d always been fascinated with the supernatural, and they knew the sordid history of their new home when they moved in during the summer of 2019.
So the couple wasn’t exactly surprised when strange things started happening around the house.
The couple purchased the 1736-built Rhode Island home in June 2019, around the same time that ‘The Conjuring 3’ entered production. Coincidence? We think not.
For a short while, the couple got to enjoy the three bedrooms and four fireplaces by themselves — well, that’s if you don’t count all the ghosts.
But their enjoyment was short-lived. The couple reported strange occurrences, like doors opening and closing on their own, weird voices, random knocking, and electronic voice phenomena.
In their generousness, the Heinzens thought they’d share the strange happenings with fans of The Conjuring movies and opened the house to the public.
For horror movie buffs like ourselves, the chance to set foot in a reportedly haunted house that inspired one of the best-known series in the horror genre can be quite the experience.
But even thrill seekers might find it to be a bit too much to bear.
Boston Globe reporter Amanda Milkovits had a sleepover with her sister at the house in October 2020, and she summed up the experience in one straightforward sentence: “I’m glad it was just one night.”
The Discovery Channel hosted a two-hour Halloween special in 2019 as part of Travel Channel’s ‘Ghostober’ event. The lead paranormal investigator, Zak Bagans, told People Magazine that the house made him sick, and he only recovered from the experience three weeks later.
Clearly, this house is not for the faint of heart.
So if you’d like to avoid any ghostly encounters but still dive into the terrifying history of the real Conjuring house, you should check out the 2020 documentary, Devil’s Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
It features interviews and archive footage of the real-life investigators The Conjuring was based on. That might keep you occupied for a bit until another movie comes out.
The bone-chilling 300-year history of the real Conjuring house
Those of you who’ve watched movies from The Conjuring series may already know that the house in the movies is not the actual house in Harrisville.
But it does owe its story to the Rhode Island farmhouse.
The house at 1677 Round Top Rd, in Burrillville, Rhode Island served as the inspiration for the movies, which were based on events that took place here during the 1970s.
Sitting on an eight-and-a-half-acre property, the farmhouse was built in 1736 and has had many names over the years, including the Dexter Richardson House, the Old Arnold Estate, and Old Brook Farm.
Nowadays, we just call it the Conjuring house.
Back in the 1970s, the creepy-looking house was owned by Carolyn and Roger Perron, who lived there until 1981 with their five daughters.
The family experienced all kinds of weird, inexplicable things while they lived in the house, and they eventually moved out in the early 1980s.
While living in the house, Carolyn allegedly became possessed by a supernatural spirit, which prompted the involvement of Ed and Lorraine Warren, renowned paranormal investigators at the time.
The filmmakers of the first Conjuring movie actually consulted with Lorraine Warren several times during production, to ensure that they had all the details down to a tee.
The Conjuring movie universe
The first movie premiered in 2013 and was widely acclaimed for its top-notch acting by Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, and Lili Taylor, and for its eerie atmosphere.
The movie did not, however, get a good review from the house’s owners at the time, Norma Sutcliffe and Gerald Helfrich.
They actually sued the filmmakers because the movie prompted fans to constantly vandalize their property.
Despite the backlash from the former house owners, The Conjuring became a fan favorite – we might go as far as to say it’s become a cult classic.
The success of the movie led to a sequel; The Conjuring 2 was released in 2016, with Farmiga and Wilson making a comeback.
But that wasn’t the end of the Conjuring journey.
There have been several spin-offs inspired by characters and villains in the Conjuring universe, including The Nun and the Annabelle series.
But more importantly, a third Conjuring movie came out in June 2021.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It saw Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as paranormal investigators in a new storyline based on the 1981 trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson — the first court case in the U.S. where the defense sought innocence based on the claim of demonic possession.
The case became known as the ‘devil made me do it’ case, which inspired the title of the movie.
Soon enough, we’re going to see our favorite ghost-hunting couple in action again soon, as a 4th Conjuring movie is officially in the works.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick will pen the script with James Wan and Peter Safran, rounding up the filmmaking team behind every film inthe‘Conjuring’Universe to produce the latest horror thriller in the series.
Hopefully, the Conjuring house in Rhode Island will never again provide source material for the filmmakers.
More horror movie & TV homes
Is it Real? The Mansion in ‘American Horror Story: Murder House’
The Creepy Mansion in ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
The Exorcist House, Fact vs Fiction
Behind the Evil Eyes: The (Real) Story of the Amityville House
