The Conjuring House: Separating Fact from Fiction on One of America's Most Famous Haunted Locations
“When a major motion picture puts a location on the map, it becomes almost impossible to separate genuine history from the dramatized version — and my job is to make that separation before I take a single step inside.”
— Jason Hawes
Few locations in the paranormal world carry as much weight — or as much mythology — as the Conjuring House in Burrillville, Rhode Island. Made famous by the 2013 blockbuster film, the Perron family farmhouse has become a lightning rod for ghost hunters, thrill-seekers, and skeptics alike. Tonight I sat down with my community to answer your questions, cut through the Hollywood noise, and talk honestly about what we actually know about this property.
I've been doing this work for a long time, and one thing I've learned is that pop culture can do a real number on a location's reputation. The Conjuring House is probably the best example of that phenomenon in the modern paranormal era. When a major motion picture puts a location on the map, it becomes almost impossible to separate the genuine history of a place from the dramatized version audiences paid twelve dollars to see on a Friday night. That's exactly why I wanted to sit down tonight and have a real, honest conversation with all of you about what we know, what we don't know, and what actually matters when we're talking about investigating a site like this.
My approach has never changed, whether I'm walking into a $200 million Hollywood-famous farmhouse or a family's split-level in suburban Connecticut. You go in skeptical. You go in looking for every rational, explainable cause before you ever entertain the word 'paranormal.' The Perron family's experiences in that home were real to them — I'm not here to dismiss what they lived through. But there's a significant difference between a family experiencing genuinely unsettling and unexplained phenomena and the theatrical version of demonic oppression that ended up on the silver screen. One of the things I wanted to address tonight was exactly that distinction, because the fan questions I get about the Conjuring House almost always blur that line.
What actually draws me to a location like this, from an investigator's standpoint, is the layered history beneath the Hollywood version. The farmhouse in Burrillville dates back to the 1700s. The land has a documented history that goes well beyond the Perron family's time there in the 1970s. When you start peeling back those layers — the actual records, the documented accounts, the architectural history of the building itself — that's where a legitimate investigation begins. Old construction means old plumbing, old electrical systems, old settling patterns. It means drafts and infrasound possibilities and a hundred environmental factors that can produce experiences people interpret as paranormal. My job, and the job of any serious investigator, is to rule all of that out first. Always.
The conversation tonight covered a lot of ground. You all had fantastic questions — about the current owners, about what teams have found there in recent years, about whether I believe the location warrants serious investigation, and about how you can tell the difference between a legitimately active location and one that's riding a wave of manufactured hype. I also talked about the broader responsibility we have as investigators and as a community to protect the integrity of this field. When people sensationalize locations for clicks and views, it poisons the well for everyone doing genuine work. The Conjuring House deserves honest scrutiny — not because the history isn't compelling, but because it's compelling enough to stand on its own without the embellishment.
The Conjuring House is a fascinating piece of American paranormal history, and it's a location that I think merits serious, methodical investigation completely stripped of the cinematic baggage attached to it. As always, my position is simple: show me the evidence, let me try to explain it, and whatever's left standing after that process gets my attention. I appreciate everyone who joined tonight and brought such thoughtful questions — this is exactly the kind of conversation our community needs more of.