"The Conjuring," which topped last week's box office, was called "too scary" by some critics, who noted that the haunted-house film was given its R rating by the MPAA not for gore or language, but for pure fear potential. Now it's become a real-life horror for the family who lives in the Harrisville, R.I., home that inspired the movie.
Norma Sutcliffe, who said she is in her 60s, told Jim Baron of the Rhode Island newspaper The Woonsocket Call that fans of the film have been making pilgrimages to her home. The visits are disturbing her and her 70-year-old husband, who isn't in good health, she said.
“We haven’t slept in days,” Sutcliffe told the newspaper. “Because we wake up at 2 in the morning (and) there are people with flashlights in our yard.” People call on the phone and ask, 'Is this ‘The Conjuring’ house?' "
The Sutcliffes bought the house 25 years ago from the Perrons, the family depicted in the film, The Call reported. Andrea Perron wrote a trilogy of books about the supposed haunting of the house.
Sutcliffe said she received no money from the moviemakers and is angry they distributed photos of her house, making it easy for fans to find her address. A lawyer has told her she probably has no case to sue, and she said she doesn't want money, just to be left alone.
Sutcliffe told The Call she has seen the movie and doesn't think much of it. “I just laughed at the whole thing," she told the paper. "I thought it was so ironically ridiculous. I thought it was an insult to the Perrons.”