The Enfield Poltergeist - Real or Not?
Back in 1977 a small family in Brimsdown, Enfield, England began to experience a haunting. The family consisted of single mother Peggy Hodgson, her two daughters - Margaret and Janet, and her two boys Johnny and Billy. In August of 1977, Peggy called the police after her children claimed furniture was moving on its own and there were knocking sounds coming from the walls.
When the police arrived, a constable saw a chair slide across the floor but could not say whether it moved by itself or was pushed.
The family was visited by some members of the Society of Psychical Research including Maurice Grosse who was an inventor and Guy Lyon Playfair, a writer. Both men believed the haunting to be a genuine poltergeist. Interestingly enough, two professors of psychology claimed the young girls had faked the incidents and some members of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry believed it was all a hoax.
This bizarre story attracted a lot of attention especially from British Newspapers like the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror and has been turned into books, documentaries and inspired horror films.
Aside from the knocking sounds and the moving furniture, there were also claims of demonic voices, rocks and toys being thrown and the children levitating. Maurice Gross and Guy Lyon Playfair also reported whistling and barking noises coming from Janet. Playfair wrote a book about this whole haunting titled This House is Haunted: The True Story of a Poltergeist and in it he doubted some of the events, thinking perhaps the children were exaggerating or playing tricks. This was proved when Janet was caught on tape (a video camera had been set up in the house) bending spoons and banging a broom handle against the ceiling. Both men do believe that even though the children played tricks, parts of the haunting were genuine.
Obviously this was all a long time ago but it's a case as old as time, and something that still happens today - was it truly a haunting? Do poltergeists exist? And when children are involved, how much faith should we put in their stories?
There's some great documentaries on this case which I encourage you all to watch and to form your own opinion on. Let me know where you stand!
In May of 2015 we were given the mini series; The Enfield Haunting, directed by Kristoffer Nyholm (The Killing) which comes in three parts. The series is based on Playfair's book. Matthew Macfadyen (Ripper Street) plays Playfair and Timothy Spall (Harry Potter) plays Maurice Grosse.
The first episode is absolutely stunning! Timothy Spall remains an incredibly talented actor, playing Grosse with emotion and charm. Grosse's daughter passed away a year before these events and Grosse and his wife are clearly still struggling with the grief. When Grosse receives the call to investigate the Hodgson family his wife practically shoves him out the door.
The Hodgson family are so real and adorable, Janet is the lead in this story and is an absolute spit fire. I'm obsessed with her. Grosse begins to experience the haunting and becomes a solid believer when he sees a teapot go flying off the kitchen counter. Him and Janet bond very quickly and the two of them become extremely fond of one another.
When Playfair arrives unexpectedly he throws off the dynamic - a non-believer, he is there simply to prove this is all set up by the kids. But at the end of episode one, he is forced into believing.
Episode one is flawlessly put together with some very subtle scares. It treats the haunting realistically and spends a perfect amount of time showing us the every day side of these poor kids as they deal with the fact that not only is their house haunted, it's now filled with gawking strangers looking to prove or disprove the poltergeist.
In episode two things are heating up in the Hodgson household. The activity is getting more and more intense and now that Playfair is a believer, things are moving along quickly. Grosse is starting to experience violent hallucinations and they're done very cleverly where every time you believe he's really committing these acts, only to be pulled back into reality.
Playfair pays a visit to the Grosse household and we learn more about Grosse's wife and what happened to their daughter Janet. She died tragically in a motorcycle incident and Grosse and his wife believe she's been trying to contact them.
Playfair invites a medium couple to visit the Hodgson house and are treated to a real possession. The woman advises our team of investigators to not contact the spirit, that the house is a "house of death". Grosse doesn't believe her and believes she's a fake, but Playfair and the Hodgson family believe everything.
Grosse does a little investigating about the spirit from some clues given during the possession. He learns that an old man named Joe died in the house and he was a horrible and cruel old man. Playfair decides they should make contact with the spirit, despite the warnings from the medium. Joe uses Janet as a voice box and things start to get very intense.
Playfair and Grosse invite the SPR to come visit so they can prove to them it's really happening and get some proper help. When Joe remains quite, Grosse oversteps his boundaries and asks Janet to fill her mouth with water and then tapes her mouth shut. Joe's voice still comes through, convincing SPR that Joe is real, but causing Janet to lose trust in Grosse.
Janet runs away in anger but Grosse manages to find her and make amends, only to find out when he gets back to the Hodgson house that Peggy doesn't want him there anymore.
Another absolutely brilliant episode. Grosse is a character so deep and rich with emotion and backstory that I could cry, I feel for him and love him dearly. And little Janet remains so innocent yet so adult at the same time. She is fully aware of all that is going on and terrified, but she can also banter with the adults like she's one of them. I commend the actress that plays her.
In episode three, the SPR is now involved and they are extremely skeptical. Now that Grosse isn't allowed to be involved the SPR is performing tests and being overly critical of the two young girls. The girls then decide to go to the newspapers and claim they were faking the whole thing so that SPR would go away.
They show up at Grosse's house and let him know they lied about faking it and then show him bruises and bites that have come from Joe. Grosse and his wife remain believers and so does Playfair. They all head back to the house and decide to perform a type of exorcism to rid the house of Joe.
But of course, like any horror film, the first exorcism never holds. Joe comes back with a vengeance and this time he's brought some friends. Janet is put in the hospital but the nurses and doctors believe she's doing it to herself so they keep her under watch and perform electro-therapy on her. Grosse and his wife meanwhile are starting to show some cracks, she needs him home with her while she continues to deal with her grief, but Grosse has put all his grief into the Hodgson family and needs to be with them.
To get Janet out of the hospital, Peggy lies to the hospital administrators and says she's been making the whole thing up. Janet is released and put back in her house. Immediately the poltergeist goes nuts only this time it looks like there's multiple spirits, they've counted 35 separate voices.
After taking Janet out of the house and showing her the original Janet's grave, Janet realizes that Grosse is the reason the poltergeist isn't leaving. They call back the medium woman and she allows all the voices to come through. Janet's voice finally makes it through and tells Grosse that she doesn't forgive him, because there's nothing to forgive him for. Aka, stop blaming yourself for her death Grosse! She then passes on and takes all the spirits with her leaving the Hodgson house free at last.
The ending copies The Omen, allowing Janet to break the fourth wall and smile directly into the camera.
Absolutely brilliant show, enjoyed every moment of it. Perfect length, perfect cast, gorgeous scenery, and scares that are subtle but stick with you.
So there you have it - is the Enfield Poltergeist real? Or is it just fodder for a great ghost story that the film and TV industry has used to create scary stories for the past decades. Were those children victims or liars or just not believed? It will always be a fascinating case and in my opinion, The Enfield Haunting is the best adaptation of this story, yes….even better than The Conjuring 2. It just feel so much more grounded and real, while Conjuring has tones of great jumps scares it does drag on and become slightly predictable. The Enfield Haunting treats this case like a very real story that the BBC wanted to share with the world.
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