“What you’re seeing is a re-imaging of those events,” the narrator in The Enfield Poltergeist trailer tells us. “But what you’re about to hear is real.”
The trailer for the four-part docuseries premiering on Apple TV+ on October 27 is brilliant. First, the narrator’s voice is deliciously creepy and chilling. Second, his voice perfectly matches the throwback, gritty 70s atmosphere that the docuseries strives to capture. Then, they share one of the alarming recordings.
“I came to torment you,” an alleged disembodied voice hisses (growls?) in response to a woman asking, “What do you want? Tell us what you want?”
It’s an example of why the case of the Enfield Haunting remains the most famous poltergeist hauntings in history. But was it real or a hoax inspired by movies like The Exorcist? And will the docuseries explore that side, too?
I’m not sure, but let’s look at what we do know, starting with the case’s real-life history.
The Enfield Poltergeist
In 1977, the terrifying haunting of an everyday family in Enfield, London, dominated headlines across the United Kingdom. It would have a tremendous impact on an entire generation of children.
It all started when single mom Peggy Hodgson called the police to report strange activity in the council house she was renting at 284 Green Street. Apparently, she’d witnessed furniture flying around the room, and two of her daughters reported hearing knocking on the walls. Janet (11) and Margaret (13) would later grace the pages of many newspapers after a photo caught them allegedly levitating above their beds.
But on that first night, the police officer who showed up also witnessed activity. She said she saw a chair “wobble and slide,” but she couldn’t figure out what caused it.
The activity continued for the next several months. The Hodgsons claimed to be harangued by disembodied voices, loud, unexplainable noises, and more objects and furniture being thrown. And, of course, there was the levitation.
Researchers for the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) came to investigate but were torn as to whether it was an actual haunting or faked. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), whose members included stage magicians trained in the art of deception, also investigated. They criticized SPR believers after CSICOP members pointed out how some of the activity was hoaxed.
Whether it was real or not, the mysterious case forever changed ideas about the supernatural. The Hodgsons demonstrated hauntings were no longer restricted to castles and stately homes. If a regular, average, run-of-the-mill family could be subjected to paranormal phenomena, anyone, anywhere could.
And its legend endures. The Enfield Poltergeist case has inspired fictionalized versions of the case, including the film The Conjuring 2, as well as a television series and two stage plays.
About the Docuseries
The docuseries combines more than 250 hours of rare audio archive, meticulous recreation of the setting of the haunting, and original interviews with the people impacted by the case. It’s described as “an ambitious genre-bending story that explores the human fascination with the unexplained and its impact on those who live it.”
Throughout four episodes, the events at Enfield are reconstructed using the real recordings captured by Maurice Grosse, a paranormal investigator who archived all of his interviews with those affected by the phenomenon. Building a replica of the house where the incidents took place, performers reenact what is heard on the actual tapes, allowing an interplay by the archival voices and appearances of those originally involved in the incident through present-day interviews.
For More Info
All episodes of The Enfield Poltergeist premiere globally on Friday, October 27, 2023. Visit https://tv.apple.com.
Check-In
Whether you have Apple TV+ or not, is this a docuseries you’d like to watch?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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