NARRATOR: In this world,
there is real evil.
It can lurk in the most innocent of places,
and attack the most innocent of victims.
When the Parker family moves into a new house...
...they discover the home's grim past...
...and find themselves confronted
by an unimaginable horror.
They must choose
between fighting an entity bent on consuming them...
...or giving in to their fear.
To win, they must rely on their faith...
And an exorcist...
To stop the destruction of their family
from the haunting.
synced by dom.smrc -addic7ed.com-
this is the story of a family
that believes they were haunted
by an evil entity.
Karen Parker's oldest child, Paul,
was diagnosed with cancer.
He was only 14 years old.
Doctors gave Paul six months to live,
unless radical treatments put his cancer into remission.
Karen was devastated.
KAREN: I didn't think he was gonna survive the treatments.
As I looked at Paul and watched him diminish
in size and in strength...
[ SOBBING ] ...I began to realize...
...that I could lose him...
...and that wasn't an option.
NARRATOR: The Parker family lived in upstate New York,
but Paul's treatments required him to see specialists
at a Connecticut hospital 300 miles away.
The eight-hour daily round-trip commutes
made it impossible for Karen to take care of her family.
And the long hours on the road were taking a toll on Paul.
KAREN: I decided we had to make some changes,
and I knew the best option
was to get him closer to his doctors.
I discussed it with my husband, and he agreed.
He could transfer to a company in Connecticut.
So I began looking for apartments in the area.
It was very difficult because I had four children.
I was having to beg people to rent to me,
and they still refused.
NARRATOR: Despite the dim prospects, Karen persevered.
She happened on yet another house that was for rent.
Hello!
[ HAMMER POUNDING ]
Hello?
May I help you?
I saw the "for rent" sign outside,
and I wanted to take a look around.
Yes, go right ahead and look around.
Although the interior was being renovated,
the work crew allowed Karen to see the house.
KAREN: I was very afraid it was out of our price range,
but we had to do something.
We didn't really have any options.
NARRATOR: Karen was struck by the home's grandeur.
KAREN: It had beautiful hardwood floors,
paneling, beautifully finished.
It was a huge home.
NARRATOR: The kitchen was just big enough to cook for her large family.
Do you know how many bedrooms this house has?
Well, there are two upstairs...
The more she saw of the house,
the more she envisioned her family living there.
But there are some downstairs you could use as bedrooms.
Thanks.
Most importantly, it was only minutes from the hospital
where Paul was being treated for cancer.
KAREN: I looked around the house.
It had very large rooms. It was perfect.
Do you know where the stairs to the basement are?
Oh, it's right there.
Thanks.
She hoped the basement could be converted
into additional bedrooms for her oldest sons.
KAREN: I thought that it was gonna be nice when they finished it.
I thought it would be great for the boys to share downstairs.
NARRATOR: When Karen contacted the home's property manager,
she was surprised to find the rent was within her budget.
The house seemed almost too good to be true.
KAREN: Everyone was crazy about the idea...
Getting Paul close to the hospital and his doctors
was the most important,
overriding thought in the entire family's mind,
so they were happy to be moving to Connecticut.
NARRATOR: Karen and her husband, ed,
moved a few things into their new home.
It looks good.
It was Ed's first look at the place.
The, uh, living room,
dining room, kitchen.
Two bedrooms upstairs.
Closet in here.
Kitchen's really bright.
Ed liked what he saw.
This is nice.
What do you think?
It's great.
Great... you did good.
Karen was eager to inspect
the basement now that it was clean.
Yeah, it's cleaned up a bit.
I haven't seen this room yet.
There was at least one room in the back
she hadn't seen.
The room held clues to the home's past.
Look at all this stuff.
It's a saw and a blade of some sort.
What did they use all these things for?
I work with tools all the time.
I've never seen anything like this.
This thing...
Karen, do you know what this is?
No.
This is bizarre.
Chemicals, jars...
What the...
What's in there?
Freezer of some type.
KAREN: At that point I realized
that it was a funeral home.
Ed, we cannot live in this house.
I thought, "How can we live in this place?"
"How can I bring my children into this home?
"What kind of environment is this gonna be
if they see this stuff?"
NARRATOR: Ed attempted to calm his wife.
He told her even if it had been a funeral home,
no one had died there.
The couple now realized why the rent was so inexpensive.
I don't want the children...
They had no choice but to move in.
KAREN: We'd used every dime
of the money that we had saved
on Paul's illness
and on renting this house and moving down here.
We had no place else to go.
NARRATOR: Karen and ed agreed...
They would hide the home's morbid past
from their children.
KAREN: My precious Paul, as sick as he was,
should not be exposed to these things.
I did not want Paul to think about death at all...
...because he was just a child.
And I didn't want him to think about his own mortality
or even the possibility of his death.
[ COUGHS ]
NARRATOR: But as they passed the cemetery next to their new home,
Karen realized that was going to be very difficult.
[ WIND HOWLING ]
Oh, hi. Thank you.
The realtor moved
the embalming equipment from the basement
but left the freezer and other large items
that might be useful to the family.
Karen hoped Paul would warm to his new surroundings.
KAREN: He was walking from room to room.
He was moving slow, and he was very weak and pale.
I had brought him so I could mop the kitchen floor
before we brought in all the furniture.
NARRATOR: But as Karen began to mop,
there was a sign all was not well in the house.
It was a sign that could not be ignored.
NARRATOR: In the bitter cold of a Connecticut winter,
the Parker family moved into a house
that was minutes away from the hospital
treating their son Paul for cancer.
Karen Parker and her husband, ed,
later discovered the house had been a funeral home.
They were determined to hide their home's past
from their children.
Then, something happened that made that impossible.
KAREN: The mop water was blood-red.
I mean, it was a deep, thick red.
It made my skin crawl.
What's wrong with this floor?
I started getting nervous that I was ruining the floor.
NARRATOR: As Paul descended the basement stairs for the first time,
he felt an icy chill in the air.
He believed he was being watched by someone.
[ DOOR HINGES CREAKING ]
MAN'S VOICE: Paul...
Paul...
Mom, we need to leave this place.
What? It's evil.
KAREN: He was scared to death.
I want to go home.
He told me of a voice that called him by name.
And I thought this was an inner voice,
I didn't believe he was really hearing someone call his name.
And I'm looking at my boy, my sick boy,
thinking, "He is so close to death
that he can sense that this was a funeral home."
I didn't know what to think.
...treatment so that you can get better.
Shh, we have to be here.
NARRATOR: In difficult times,
the Parker family often turned to the catholic church
for spiritual guidance.
KAREN: I took Paul to the priest
that had married my husband and myself
and asked him to do a healing on Paul.
Well, he put his hands on him, and he prayed.
PRIEST: We ask this through our lord Jesus
who healed those who believed.
Amen.
NARRATOR: Paul's siblings moved into the house,
including his sister, Connie, and his youngest brother, Mark.
This is big.
It is big.
Oh, wow.
You'll have to get a tour. There's a lot of rooms.
Bobby was Paul's closest brother,
only two years younger than him.
Bobby.
BOBBY: The house was huge, about big enough to get lost in.
Somehow, Paul discovered the home's secret past.
BOBBY: Within ten minutes of me coming in the house,
my brother told me it was a funeral home.
And he took me around.
He gave me the grand tour of the basement area.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, neat, huh?
Get up on it. I'll give you a ride.
All right.
My brother actually had me lay down on the gurney in the morgue
without telling me what it was.
Yeah!
Come on, it's fun.
It did freak me out real bad,
but I didn't want to run because my older brother,
you know, I had to look tough around my older brother.
It was pretty creepy. It scared me pretty bad.
NARRATOR: Karen relied on her faith to give her strength
while she waited for her husband's transfer
from New York.
Although ed would be home on weekends,
she still had to run this strange new house alone.
Now you turn that...
And as the days went on,
things seemed to get even more strange.
You turn on that,
and you say, "I'm gonna go over there and talk,"
and you say, "I'll talk with you."
Mommy!
Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy! There's a woman in my room...
KAREN: She told me that there was a woman
looking at her in her bedroom.
There's a woman in my room.
What I noticed the most was
she grabbed hold of me and wrapped ahold of me,
and as I touched her, she was trembling all over.
And I mean trembling.
And she wasn't a skittish child,
so it was very unusual to feel her trembling.
There's something there.
NARRATOR: Karen's inspection of the room
showed nothing out of the ordinary.
Connie, there's nothing here. Look, sweetie, look...
Yes, there is, mama, there's something,
there's nobody in there...
Yes, listen, there's... But, mom...
Shh, shh, sweetheart, listen to me.
That's just your brothers putting things in your mind.
Shh.
Come on, go downstairs and help me unpack. Come on. Shh.
KAREN: I know Paul told the other kids that it was a funeral home
because that's what brothers and sisters do...
They confide in one another, and it really made me angry.
I thought for sure the boys were playing tricks on her.
Stop it.
Hey, I just came from your sister,
who is scared to death because she thinks she saw a ghost.
Stop playing tricks on her. She is too young.
Mom, I swear...
Swear, swear... I didn't tell her anything.
But you told me. Shut up.
Both of you, cut it out.
Mom.
Geez.
NARRATOR: Karen was feeling the stress of running the household alone.
Her only peace came at night when the kids were in bed.
But in the basement, her sons weren't getting much sleep.
BOBBY: You could see something moving around,
and we thought it was shadows at first.
But then we got to watching what was going on in there,
and it was more like someone's walking around in there.
And that's when my brother Paul told me
there was weird things that happened in the house.
NARRATOR: Night brought terror
to Paul and Bobby Parker
in the form of ghostly apparitions.
By morning, the boys had moved out of their basement bedroom
and were camping out in the living room.
What are you two doing in here?
Mom, we saw a guy in the basement.
He was in the lab.
And it was really dark, and we couldn't see him.
This is last night? Yeah.
How did he get in?
I don't know. -We don't know. He was just there walking around the lab.
- Honest. - Yeah, yeah, we both saw him.
Well, I'm gonna start charging rent if he hangs around.
He was there, honest.
There was a man in the basement.
He was there.
NARRATOR: Karen expected things to improve
when her husband, ed, arrived to spend the weekend.
He'd convince the boys they had nothing to be afraid of.
Ah-ah. Do me a favor.
Um, why don't you go downstairs and get some bread
out of the freezer so we can have some toast, okay?
Downstairs? Mm-hmm.
Mom, you know what happened down there.
KAREN: My family could go through a lot of food in a week,
so I had to buy large quantities and freeze it.
[ TIMER RINGING ]
[ GASPS ]
I thought I was losing my mind.
I know I set the table, but the dishes weren't there.
NARRATOR: Bobby dreaded going into the old morgue alone.
MAN'S VOICE: Paul...
Paul...
I knew there was something definitely going on in the house
because you'd see things and hear things.
Mom, I just heard a voice
down in the basement calling for Paul.
Where's the bread?
In the freezer.
Well, let's go check it out.
- Mom, I don't want to go down there. - I'm gonna go, too.
I just thought the house was haunted.
You'd hear a really deep, grindy voice.
I didn't think I was going crazy,
I didn't think my brother was going crazy.
I thought it was just something in the house.
KAREN: I thought, "Paul's got you scared to death, hasn't he?"
NARRATOR: Karen didn't believe the house could be haunted.
She thought its macabre past
was fueling the children's imaginations.
KAREN: I didn't believe in ghosts.
I believed in the spirit world,
but I didn't believe that it could interact with our world.
Of course, I didn't hear a voice
calling from the freezer.
Bread.
Let's go eat.
And I kind of teased Bobby about it.
Oooh, oooh.
And he was adamant there was a voice that called Paul.
NARRATOR: Karen's husband, ed, arrived later that morning
to spend the weekend.
Look, kids, I know about the stories
about the house, okay?
With the kids already gossiping about the home's past...
Doesn't mean that it's haunted...
Ed and Karen acknowledged
they were living in a former funeral home,
but they said it was no reason for the house to be haunted.
It's just a house, it was a house before it was a funeral parlor,
and it's just a house now. That's all.
We saw a guy in the basement, though... we did.
I saw him, too. You can't argue with two people.
Look, it's a new place, a new environment.
It takes some time to get used to it.
Okay? Are you done eating?
KAREN: My husband was pretty much of the same mind I was
that there was nothing real in these stories,
and we had to find a way to put a stop to them
and get the children to stop being afraid
of the house.
NARRATOR: Ed asked Paul to set an example for his brothers and sisters,
and not fill their heads with ghost stories.
Okay.
Hey, cutie, I got your medication. How you feeling?
BOBBY: I did look up to my brother.
He was everything I wanted to be.
Before he got sick, he played sports and everything.
He was easygoing.
And then after he got sick,
it put a lot of stress on my family.
NARRATOR: Paul's daily cancer treatments
slowly drained the family's resources.
Come on.
BOBBY: Paul told me that
he'd see things, and he'd tell mom and dad,
and they'd say that it was his illness,
so he wasn't really seeing anything.
It was a reaction to his medication.
I know, I know, I know, honey,
come on...
NARRATOR: His mother thought his mental health was deteriorating.
KAREN: I didn't believe him,
so I wasn't frightened... I was scared for him.
I was concerned about his health.
NARRATOR: She chose to ignore subtle signs
that something evil was lurking in the house.
KAREN: I noticed these crucifixes were disappearing.
Never quite knew where they went.
[ LIGHT SWITCH CLICKS ]
NARRATOR: At night, the Parker children
reported seeing ghostly apparitions
in the house they knew was a funeral home.
They were frustrated when their parents didn't believe them.
[ INDISTINCT WHISPERING ]
Paul and Bobby struggled to contain their fears
in the face of new sightings.
BOBBY: It looked like they were looking through papers.
They were picking objects up, putting objects down,
talking amongst each other.
They sounded like four guys whispering,
but you could still hear them talking.
We didn't say anything.
[ PAUL COUGHING ]
Mom, mom! Dad, dad, dad!
Dad, get up, dad!
Dad, we just saw four men in the basement.
NARRATOR: For ed and Karen,
the middle-of-the-night disturbances
were becoming routine.
Fine, fine, fine, we'll check it out.
Please, dad, they're there, trust us.
Sure. Sure they are. [ COUGHING ]
Down here?
Tell us exactly where they were.
Okay...
They were right there.
ED: Where?
BOBBY: By the bookcase.
Over here?
KAREN: They described these men as being in dark clothes
or something like that.
I went from room to room looking for these men.
ED: I don't see anything.
KAREN: I don't know what to tell you, sweetie...
There's no one down here.
NARRATOR: Ed was determined to prove
no one could've gotten inside their house.
[ WIND HOWLING ]
BOBBY: They checked the doors, they checked the windows,
and everything was locked up tighter than a drum.
There was no way anybody could've gotten in the house.
It was just a dream.
NARRATOR: There were no tracks in the snow
or signs that anyone had been near the house.
But he was there. You have to believe us. He was there.
Dad, he was there.
Let's go to bed... Now. Let's go.
Nothing.
They were here... All of them.
NARRATOR: Ed was weary of being woken up on a nightly basis.
It's been a long night, okay? Long night.
Get to bed, both of you. Now.
BOBBY: It was upsetting that they didn't believe us.
Bed. Now.
Karen...
You don't understand.
KAREN: Shh!
Get to bed now.
Now.
NARRATOR: The children were tired of not being believed.
BOBBY: We'd just sleep with the lights on.
When something happened to one of us,
we'd tell everybody, because we needed someone to hear us,
to let us know we weren't crazy, so we'd talk amongst ourselves,
and that way you don't feel like you're crazy
because it's not just happening to you.
That's where we got our strength from, was from each other,
because our parents didn't believe us.
NARRATOR: Karen was convinced Paul's medication
was the cause of his hallucinations
and that he was influencing the younger children
to see things as well.
KAREN: The next office visit I had with his oncologist,
I asked him about it.
He said that there was no chance
of him having hallucinations or delusions
with the medication he was on.
You'll have to look somewhere else for that one.
NARRATOR: The doctor's answer was troubling.
If it was the medication's fault,
Paul's behavior would make sense.
But now it seemed
Paul might have a psychological problem
in addition to his cancer.
The possibility of yet another medical crisis
was too much for Karen and ed to bear.
KAREN: At that point, him and I both were working
all the hours we possibly could,
and the medical bills was staggering.
There was a two-inch stack every day in the mail.
NARRATOR: Ed was stunned by the latest electric bill.
He quickly isolated the cause.
The children were keeping all of their lights on
when they slept at night.
Dad, please don't do this! The light keeps them away.
Dad, please!
I don't want to see them anymore, dad!
Paul's ghost stories caused ed and Karen to lose sleep.
Now they were costing the family money it didn't have.
See what you've done to your brother?
Ed removed all but one of the lightbulbs.
[ WIND HOWLING ]
[ HOWLING CONTINUES ]
The lights that used to bring them relief
now brought them new horror.
[ DOOR HINGES CREAKING ]
[ CHILD LAUGHS ]
[ LIGHT SWITCH CLICKING ]
BOBBY: And there was my sister, Connie.
And she was flipping the light switch on and off.
The lights were coming on and off, on and off,
even though there was no bulbs in it.
[ CHILD LAUGHING ]
And then she ran up the stairs, and I ran up after her.
Bobby!
What are you doing?
Mom, where's Connie?
She's upstairs asleep. What are you doing?
What are you talking... she just came up the stairs. I was chasing her, mom.
I tucked her in two hours ago.
She was in our room, and she turned on the light...
You can go check for yourself... I put her to bed.
And my mother said, "She didn't just come down to your room."
She's been in there for two or three hours."
Go check for yourself.
And I didn't believe my mother, of course,
so I walked back, and I looked.
And she was sound asleep in her bed.
What really scared me
was 'cause it took a form of someone in my family,
and it was really unnerving.
MAN'S VOICE: Paul...
NARRATOR: Paul quit trying to convince his parents
that something diabolical was lurking in the house.
MAN'S VOICE: Paul...
NARRATOR: He decided to confront the voice that haunted him.
[ INDISTINCT WHISPERING ]
[ EXHALES SHARPLY ]
NARRATOR: In the bone-chilling cold
of a Connecticut winter,
cancer victim Paul Parker felt isolated
from his own family.
His parents refused to believe
he was being tormented by evil spirits.
[ HEAVY-METAL MUSIC PLAYING ]
A disturbing change came over him.
KAREN: Him and I were very close,
and he just started gradually pulling away,
and he started becoming more reserved
and quiet.
NARRATOR: He insisted on his own bedroom
and no longer feared sleeping alone.
The radical change in Paul alienated his brother Bobby.
BOBBY: He started wearing a lot of dark clothing,
didn't talk to me as much.
He just went downhill.
Paul...
Your lab... It's normal.
You're in remission.
NARRATOR: While Paul seemed to be suffering from mental problems,
his physical condition improved.
I'd just like to see him back in about three months.
But Paul seemed to take no joy in the astounding news.
[ KNOCK ON DOOR ]
With Paul's cancer no longer a crisis,
Karen took in her first houseguest
since moving into their new home,
her 17-year-old niece, Teresa.
TERESA: My mother and my father were divorcing.
Just didn't work out too well,
so my aunt called and invited me to come be with them.
We were pretty close.
Hey, Teresa.
Hey, what's up, buddy?
How you doing? Where's Mark?
NARRATOR: Teresa noticed that someone was missing.
You look great. I love your hair.
ED: How was the trip?
Good. Where's Paul?
Um, let me take your coat.
You want to help me get the luggage upstairs?
Okay.
You boys pick up those toys in that room, okay.
BOY: Yes, sir.
NARRATOR: Paul and Teresa had always been good friends.
Karen hoped Teresa's presence
would help Paul be a part of the family again.
Paul was a good kid. I felt sorry for him when he was sick.
You know, just pitting him a lot.
Paul!
Hey!
How are you?
Good. How are you?
TERESA: Paul was...
A lot different from what I had remembered.
He went from this really sweet kid
to being angry.
It was almost like he had this meanness
coming over him slowly
and was not a happy person.
NARRATOR: While Teresa was surprised by the changes
in Paul's appearance and disposition,
what he was saying concerned her the most.
TERESA: Paul would tell me about
how he had heard things and seen things
and aunt Karen and uncle ed did not believe him.
He felt alone, he said it never got better, it always got worse.
It went from, "I heard this thing scratching on my door"
to "This thing won't leave me alone. He's in my bed every night"
"and he's talking to me." He would talk bad about his mom and dad
and he would talk bad about his little brothers and sisters.
"And he would tell him to do a bad things to them."
The look on his eyes, you would see it was not like him.
It was just not himself.
ED: I know what the problem is in this house... you are!
PAUL: You're so blind, you don't even know what's going on in this house!
It was like suddenly hate was a part of the household.
You don't even hear half the time. You don't even know what's going on.
It doesn't matter. It's my house, and you're gonna live by my rules.
They were arguing at this point about Paul's behavior.
Everybody is seeing it, too.
You're the only one that doesn't know what's going on.
You've got them so scared,
they're not gonna say anything else.
Don't you walk away from me.
'Cause he was just getting out of control.
[ DOOR CLOSES ]
This demon got stronger and meaner to him
every time it came to him.
Paul got to where he couldn't leave the room.
He couldn't talk back.
This demon would tell him,
"Go upstairs and do something bad."
Good morning.
Hey, good morning. How did you sleep?
NARRATOR: Teresa didn't want to violate Paul's trust.
Not so well. No?
But she was deeply concerned about him.
What?
She told his mother
about some of the dark thoughts he was harboring
and the demon that Paul believed was controlling him.
There's something wrong with him.
KARREN: There were a lot of things that Paul went through at this time that really
frightened me. He was writing things down. There was this one poem,
it was very dark. He told me that it came
from the man in a suit.
NARRATOR: Karren worried that Paul's obsession of the macabre was a result
of his facing his own mortality at such a young age.
Only one person could have exposed.
Paul's innermost secrets to his mother...
Teresa.
TERESA: Paul could see these people
walking around that were dead and buried,
and they were all in our basement.
...if I did the things he told me to do.
He was told that this demon was going to do things to him
if he didn't listen and do what he was told.
No!
Come on! Where you going? No!
Come back, please! Paul, stop!
Teresa! No!
Where are you going? I'm not finished.
Please, get off of me. Paul!
Just come back.
Get off her.
TERESA: Our relationship started to disintegrate.
At that time, it wasn't... I didn't trust him anymore.
KARREN: Bobby and Teresa were afraid of him.
His temper was flaring and he was a lot of unpredictable.
I felt uncomfortable in the house,
and I felt there were bad things in there.
And I needed something, so she gave me rosary beads.
I slept with it as a necklace, as strength,
because when you held these rosary beads,
there was so much comfort in them.
Shh.
See? It's okay.
NARRATOR: The incident prompted Karen to take Paul to a psychiatrist.
We'll need him to come back in for some more tests.
The doctor was concerned about Paul's behavior
and his writings.
He suggested further counseling and therapy.
Karen agreed.
Four, five more times, we can get this settled.
But it was already too late.
Shh! Shh! No! Get off! No!
Shh!
Get off! Down.
ED: Paul! Get off!
Get off me!
[ CRYING ]
My god.
BOBBY: Paul was removed from the house
because of how violent he became.
And everybody thought he went crazy
'cause he was off the deep end.
PAUL: No!
And then an ambulance showed up,
and he started crying and saying,
"Where am I going? Where are they taking me?"
And they put him in an ambulance and took him away.
Get them off of me!
Go to bed. We'll be home soon.
NARRATOR: Ed and Karen followed the ambulance to the hospital.
NARRATOR: Paul issued an ominous warning to his parents.
Now that I'm out of the house, they'll be after you.
KAREN: He warned me that things would get worse now.
It made me kind of afraid
that... my son's mind
was never gonna be normal again.
NARRATOR: The Parker family was shattered
by having to hospitalize their son Paul.
He believed he was being controlled
by a demonic entity.
Now that he was out of the house,
Paul warned his parents
that the entity would attack the rest of the family.
Ed...
The water basin's missing from the wall.
By the time ed and Karen returned home,
it was time for ed to leave for work.
KAREN: I was exhausted,
emotionally drained,
and I wanted to go to sleep... That's all I wanted.
I kind of had this little nagging voice.
What if this is real?
What if this is going on?
I wanted to believe that Paul wasn't going crazy.
And I sat on the steps,
waiting for this man,
almost hoping to see him.
And I felt a fear
and an energy
that I couldn't explain.
And I got very cold.
I couldn't really see anything,
and I was looking hard as I could
to see something,
freezing to death.
NARRATOR: She dared the evil that Paul said was in the house
to show itself.
KAREN: It was a challenge to anything in the house
to leave my children alone.
But I never saw anything.
NARRATOR: Ed hoped his work would distract him,
but he couldn't stop thinking about Paul.
He worried about his wife
being home alone in such an emotional state,
and what his children and his niece, Teresa, had seen.
NARRATOR: He had no idea that there was so much more to worry about.
[ SIGHS ]
[ WATER RUNNING ]
[ MUFFLED ] Help! Help!
[ SCREAMS ]
[ MUFFLED ] Help! Help!
Help!
NARRATOR: This time they couldn't deny
what they had seen with their own eyes.
Are you okay?
KAREN: It was a horrible situation.
It was just so frightening.
I didn't think I was gonna get out.
All I kept thinking is, this is not happening.
This is in my mind. I'm going crazy.
NARRATOR: Whatever attacked Karen and Teresa
seemed to have followed ed to work.
[ ENGINE TURNS OVER ]
[ ENGINE REVVING ]
[ TELEPHONE RINGS ]
Hello?
[ CHILD LAUGHING ]
KAREN: I did not know how to handle this.
I could not protect this child who needed me to protect her.
And this black darkness came over us.
Teresa thought she saw a man
on the ceiling.
TERESA: [ VOICE BREAKING ] It was like a thousand hands
are all over you.
You couldn't do anything about it.
And Karen was there attacked too. And she...
She knew, you know, it was finally at the whole house.
[ CREATURES SQUEAKING ]
I couldn't scream. I couldn't talk.
And I had my rosary,
and it literally lifted up off my head,
just levitated up in the air.
I can't tell you
what came over me at that point.
It was as if someone had taken
every belief I'd had in my entire life.
They were all in a box, and it took them
and dumped them on the floor and scattered them around.
[ TELEPHONE RINGS ]
Hello.
ED: Karen! [ CRYING ] Oh, ed!
My god, you're not gonna believe what happened.
You don't even know what's been going on here.
My truck just drove itself through my office.
What?
Yes! Into my office. I've got the keys in my hand.
NARRATOR: The Parkers now feared
the entity would follow them wherever they went.
They agreed to call their priest for help.
Father Thomas...
They hoped he would arrive
before it was too late.
We have something happening here.
NARRATOR: The Parker family was convinced
they were under siege by a demonic entity
that lived in their house.
They called their priest and hoped he would arrive
before it was too late.
MALE VOICE: Bobby...
Bobby.
NARRATOR: The voice sounded like his brother...
But Paul was in the hospital.
Paul?
[ VOICE LAUGHING ]
Paul, where are you?
Come on down.
I need your help.
Paul?
[ KNOCK ON DOOR ]
BOBBY: When the priest started to show up,
I knew things were actually getting serious.
KAREN: And then after I spoke with you this morning...
NARRATOR: Karen expected answers along with a solution
for what was happening in the house.
KAREN: We told him the things that had been going on,
and he listened very attentively.
And at the end of it, he said, "I believe you."
Now I want you to forget about it,
"and it will stop."
NARRATOR: Many of those who accept
the possibility of supernatural activity
believe that to acknowledge evil is to give it strength,
and that the best defense against such evil
is to ignore it.
Say your rosary daily. Carry it with you.
KAREN: I thought that he didn't have a clue
what we were talking about.
How could you forget something like this going on?
While you're under attack,
how do you say, "Okay, this isn't happening"?
How do you do that?
NARRATOR: If the church wouldn't solve the family's problem,
Karen would look for help from less conventional sources.
Find this article I saw today.
Weeks earlier, she saw an article
about a husband-and-wife team of demonologists.
She discounted it at the time, but now she was desperate.
[ TELEPHONE RINGS ]
WOMAN: Yes?
Ed and Lorraine Warren have spent decades
confronting the supernatural.
Several of the cases they've worked on
have appeared in books and movies,
including "The Amityville Horror."
My husband, ed, and myself are called in on cases
dealing with all aspects of the paranormal...
From a human haunting to an inhuman haunting,
to possessions
and exorcisms.
This occurs chiefly at night?
Yes.
Who's present when it happens?
The boys have seen it.
Connie says she saw a presence.
Everyone in this house has had something happen
except for Mark.
NARRATOR: The family told the warrens
about the supernatural things they'd experienced in the house.
Don't be alarmed. Lorraine moves like this
when she's starting to feel the presence
of an entity.
Lorraine Warren believes she has the gift of discernment,
which is an extrasensory ability to detect spirits
and supernatural phenomena.
She was immediately drawn to the basement.
LORRAINE: When I got downstairs...
It was... It was just horrible.
The infestation was very, very bad.
And that thing that had chosen this house...
That was no human spirit.
It was overwhelmingly sickening.
TERESA: They considered that we had a doorway
straight to hell in our house,
and it was in the basement.
And you couldn't see it but, you know,
physically could feel it.
NARRATOR: To remove the entity, the warrens told them,
they needed the catholic church to officially sanction
an exorcism.
According to Michael cuneo,
a professor of sociology and anthropology
at Fordham university,
the type of exorcism the Parker family needed
is rarely performed.
He's the author of the book "American Exorcism."
CUNEO: True believers in exorcism
will believe that... Tend to believe
that it's individuals who first and foremost
are the targets of possession.
But there's also a widespread belief
that physical properties, physical domains...
Houses, cottages, offices,
even individual rooms in houses...
Can be infested or infected somehow by demonic presences.
NARRATOR: To help convince the church
an officially sanctioned exorcism was needed,
the warrens contacted their chief researcher, John zaffis.
ZAFFIS: For the researcher end of it,
it's very important to go in there
to be able to get these things documented.
Filming things, seeing things happen,
get the voices documented on your audiotape,
witnessing these things,
so they have the evidence at hand
to be able to determine
whether an exorcism will be necessary.
The warrens' research team literally moved into the house
to record evidence of supernatural activity.
They relied on video, audio,
and other sensing equipment to record their evidence.
ZAFFIS: It was very important for us
to actually move into this home.
It was an emergency situation.
Everybody in the home was exhausted.
Nobody was sleeping, everybody was petrified to sleep.
They needed someone there to explain
some of the things that were going on,
why these things were happening,
and what they could do to relieve some of the things
as they were going on.
NARRATOR: To prevent the entity from isolating any one person
and attacking,
the warrens recommended
that everyone stay together at all times.
BOBBY: Everybody moved out of the rooms basically,
and everybody slept in the living room.
And having someone... They were there...
At least one of them was there 24 hours a day.
There was always someone in the house with you.
This is a classic case of demonic possession.
NARRATOR: The Parker family asked the warrens to explain
what was happening to them and Paul.
Ed described the five stages of demonic possession.
First is called encroachment and this is where the demons perform
an?? Or so to speak to select some individual.
The second is infestation. Infestations is when they isolate the target.
The third is oppression. Individual become very violent to others.
The fourth is possession and that's when the individual
is total out of control of himself.
The fifth step is death.
NARRATOR: Karren asked why the entity chose Paul
over the others in the family.
LORRAINE: When a family is under attack like this
and one son who had medical problems, he would be the most vulnerable
of all of them, because of his medical condition, probably also
his emotional state of mind, because of the fact that he was
diagnosed with a fatal illness and it is always the most vulnerable
member of the family that will come under attack first.
NARRATOR: With Paul out of the house,
the entity now had to choose
the next most vulnerable person.
NARRATOR: The Parkers believed they were alone
in their battle against an evil entity
that lived in their house.
They got help from demonologists
who were trying to convince the catholic church
to conduct an exorcism.
But time was of the essence.
The entity was looking
for the most vulnerable target in the house.
Karen had suffered immense psychological stress
from the ordeal.
She felt a crushing sense of guilt
for not believing her son Paul.
KAREN: My neck swelled, and my face contorted.
ED: Karen?
I was in this hole.
There were blacker shapes.
Their emotions were permeating in my skin.
They were all the negative human emotions...
Anger, hatred,
jealousy, distrust.
And the one that startled me the most
was hopelessness.
In the name of the father and of the son
and of the holy ghost...
The sadness was overwhelming for me.
It was such a sad place, and such darkness.
...on earth as it is in heaven.
NARRATOR: But Karen had allies in her struggle.
ZAFFIS: With these things that we bring in
and the things that the family use...
Your relics, your rosary beads, the holy water and everything,
this is our defense to fight against this.
These are blessed objects. The holy water is blessed.
These things are used to help combat it,
to help it to subside,
till we can get the clergy or the priest in there
to be able to help that family.
ED: Okay? You all right?
NARRATOR: The fervent prayers seemed to have
at least temporarily freed Karen of the entity.
KAREN: When I got back to my body,
they said I'd been gone for eight hours.
The knowledge that I gained
was that you have true evil in the world,
and you have true good.
And you have a choice,
so you have to make a wise choice.
NARRATOR: The researchers stayed with the family
until they had enough evidence
to obtain a church-sanctioned exorcism.
They got little rest.
KAREN: Researchers had mattresses
that they were laying on,
and you could see them breathing.
They had a pulse,
then a heartbeat.
I don't why it made mattresses breathe,
or why it made them vibrate.
I guess just to get your attention,
like a spoiled child.
NARRATOR: John zaffis had investigated
dozens of paranormal incidents,
but he had never encountered a demonic possession
as strong as the one in the Parker home.
Even those experienced felt vulnerable.
How do you fight something you can't see?
How do you fight something you can't grab?
You can't go up to it like most of us would
with our families, to try and protect 'em.
Can't see it. How do you fight it?
NARRATOR: The entity seemed to prefer isolating its targets.
John zaffis made the mistake
of leaving the safety of the group.
ZAFFIS: When I was jotting down the events from the day,
it started getting very cold.
And I know when it starts getting cold,
a lot of the energy is getting drawn.
At that point,
I started calling for anybody in the house.
I was calling for the children. I was calling for the parents.
Nobody was responding to me.
And I knew this one particular incident
was focusing some way just for me.
What I seen and what I experienced that night,
I don't think I'll ever forget.
NARRATOR: John zaffis brought suitcases full of sensitive equipment
to record evidence of demonic activity.
What I believe was a full-formed demon.
But all he needed were his own two eyes.
I'm very shaken at this point.
The terrifying experience
was forever seared into his memory.
ZAFFIS: I would not go back onto that case
and left the house.
Did I get scared?
That was the most scared I've ever been.
I have never witnessed something since then
to that degree and that intense.
I'm going to be taking a few days off.
NARRATOR: Ultimately, only one authority
had to be convinced by the warrens' methods.
According to Michael cuneo,
it was the most skeptical one of all.
CUNEO: The Roman catholic exorcism ritual
is one of the only,
perhaps the only religious ritual in the world
where the practitioner is counseled to adopt
a posture of incredulity.
In other words, the priest exorcist
who are undertaking investigation
is supposed to do this from a position of skepticism.
Rather than assuming that demons and evil spirits are present,
the priest exorcist is supposed to assume
that they're not present.
NARRATOR: The warrens convinced the Connecticut diocese
to investigate.
The church sent father frank to the Parker home.
May I take your coat, father?
What?
May I take your coat? Yes. Yes, of course.
His report would determine
whether an exorcism would be granted.
It's cold out there.
Yes, it is.
NARRATOR: He began the investigation as he did on all of his cases.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: As an extreme skeptic.
Father?
The priest exorcist is supposed to subject the particular case,
any particular case to intensive and exhaustive psychiatric,
psychological investigation, is supposed to rule out possibility
of neurological disorder, psychiatric disturbance, is supposed to rule out
paranormal possibilities, is supposed to rule out even the possibility
of fraud. And having ruled out all those possibilities is supposed
to say, "Listen, let's rule out again." In other words,
the last thing that should be assumed is that there is real diabolical possession
in this case and that demons truly are active
in this particular situation.
NARRATOR: The priest investigator listened
to the family's version of events and toured the home.
His reaction was inscrutable.
The family couldn't tell if he would be an advocate
for or against the exorcism.
But exorcism as a ritual is supposed to be very, very, very rarely
performed and only in those... Those very rare
and special cases where demonization as it were seems to have been proven.
But nevertheless, in exceedingly rare cases it might very well take
in place. There is the possibility of it.
So, let's make provision for that and that's
where the exorcism ritual comes in.
NARRATOR: Father frank presented his findings to a superior.
Although the church declined to be interviewed
for this program,
it did ultimately Grant an exorcism
for the Parker family.
Save us from illness,
and drive away the forces of evil.
Protect us.
Father Richard would perform the exorcism.
Make us worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Be very careful with this one.
Father Richard's first step was to cleanse the house.
In doing so, he provoked the entity.
KAREN: When father Richard was downstairs in the boys' room,
I could see a point on the back of his shirt,
and it got pulled away from his skin.
And I could see an expression on his face,
but he didn't say anything.
NARRATOR: Rather than acknowledging the evil
and giving it strength,
father Richard tried to ignore its provocations.
This is the word of the lord.
But the entity refused to be ignored.
For the exorcism to be successful,
the supernatural presence would have to be confronted
with the faith of the priest and those in the room.
NARRATOR: The entity would not go without a fight.
NARRATOR: The darkness cast over the Parker home by an
evil entity and lasted fro months.
Now, the catholic church at last granted the rare
official exorcism to rid the family of the demonic presence.
Father Richard was the exorcist.
He knew the entity was prepared for a fight.
KAREN: We were engulfed in evil all around us,
and it was going to take a higher power to get rid of it.
NARRATOR: The more they prayed
the more they seemed to provoke the demonic presence.
Do you reject Satan,
father of sin and prince of darkness?
In your mercy.
However violent the entity became,
those in the room struggled as much as possible
to ignore it.
The coming of our savior, Jesus Christ.
The kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and forever.
ALL: Amen.
[ CHOKING ]
I was off the ground,
and I was being choked by this huge force.
I mean, I literally wasn't touching the ground at all.
All I remember is not being able to breath.
[ COUGHING ]
NARRATOR: Although the terror was very real to those in the room,
skeptics would find other ways to explain it.
There's a powerful, powerful expectation
of healing during an exorcism.
There's a powerful expectation that whatever your problems are,
they will be taken care of.
And so exorcism can be a very effective therapy,
at least in the short term.
We ask you to bless this water as we use it in faith,
forgive our sins.
Save us all from illness
and drive away the power of evil.
Protect us always
by the presence of your holy spirit.
NARRATOR: In the end,
those who participated in the exorcism
credited their faith
with purging the entity from the house.
TERESA: It was as if someone opened the windows in the house.
The sun came through the windows.
It was so wonderful.
The house was warm,
and it was comfortable, and you were free.
You knew you didn't want him to stop praying.
You didn't want it to end.
You wanted just to stay in that peace
because finally after nine weeks, you know,
of fighting, and hitting, and being hit and touched,
that it was gone, and you knew it was gone.
NARRATOR: What really happened in the Parker house
is open to interpretation.
Perhaps it ultimately depends on what one is willing to believe.
We want to believe in one last domain of mystery. Here we have supernatural
evil, absolute evil locked in mortal, fateful conflict
with supernatural good.
That's the best theory you can possibly get. And so I think
that there's a strong cultural openness to this, because
we don't want to live in a thoroughly disenchanted world,
completely secularized world, a world in which all mystery has been
bled out and so I think that this is one reason why
the law of exorcism lives on, why the exorcism retains,
such a moment and such a mystique in our culture, because it
is one of the last true domains of mystery.
NARRATOR: To the believers,
the exorcism was an unqualified success.
The demonic spirit had left the house.
Mom, where do you want these?
KAREN: Sweetie, put them at the front door.
Your dad will get them.
Even so, the Parker family chose to move
shortly after the ritual was performed.
Last of the kids, honey.
We moved out because we didn't want to take a chance
of somebody else opening a door that we closed.
We had too many bad memories of the house.
We had too many negative emotions attached to the house.
My son and what had happened to him and all these negative
things became attached to the house instead of the entity
and we had to leave from there.
BOBBY: It's a chapter of our life
that everybody feels that is done,
and it's in the past.
You might as well bury it, and just leave it buried.
And I believe this will probably be the last time
I talk about it myself.
NARRATOR: Paul was released from the hospital in the spring.
His cancer never returned.
...captions by vitac... Www.Vitac.Com
captions paid for by discovery communications
the family has moved forward with their lives
but still feel tormented
by the horror they endured
so many years ago.