You’re Wrong About extends the spooky season with a look at Conjuring ghosthunters the Warrens
And Kiernan Shipka does the same with suspenseful new podcast Treat
Aux Features The Amityville Horror
Screenshot: Audacy
You’re Wrong About
Ed and Lorraine Warren with Jamie Loftus
Two episodes on from the departure of former You’re Wrong About co-host Michael Hobbes, it’s clear that remaining host Sarah Marshall is still ready to tackle papered-over histories with empathy, wry humor, and research. Marshall is now being joined week to week by a series of rotating guest hosts, and comedian/writer/podcaster Jamie Loftus joins to discuss Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life ghost-hunting couple made famous by their high-profile haunting cases and, later, the Conjuring film franchise. Portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga on screen, the Warrens are seen as a warm, loving pair of Christian high school sweethearts who assist in everything from exorcisms to locating deadly crime scenes using Lorraine’s psychic prowess and Ed’s background in demonology. Loftus tells Marshall, however, that the real-life Warrens’ true power appears to have been selling a whole lot of books about their dubious supernatural encounters. With a big price tag on their life rights, hefty film consulting fees, and a son-in-law who continues to keep their legend airtight, the Warrens will forever be remembered for something they likely weren’t—making them the perfect topic for an equally memorable You’re Wrong About episode. [Marnie Shure]
Close To Death
3: Taxidermy
Hosted by actor/musician Utkarsh Ambudkar, Close To Death is a podcast that looks at a few of the unavoidable facets of the human experience: work and death. More specifically, each episode of Close To Death profiles an individual working in a field closely related to death. The stories of these various morticians and obituary writers are shared by comedians and journalists who are able to contextualize fields of employment that many people might find disturbing—which is exactly the point. By listening to the experience of people who are intimately familiar with death, working in close proximity to it on the daily, listeners are able to see beyond the instinctual fear and discomfort humans react to when confronted with death. In this episode, Ambudkar is joined by comedian Mary Beth Barone who profiles taxidermist Divya Anantharaman. Anantharaman has a bright and bubbly personality and Barone’s interviews with her shines a light on the art of preserving dead animals and offers some insight to what it means to deal with loss. Listening to Anantharaman discuss her process of taxidermizing family pets, there is an understanding that as much as death is a part of life, so is the desire to memorialize those we’ve lost. [Jose Nateras]
Treat
Treat
Scorpio Season is still spooky season. Those are just the rules and Treat is going to keep the haunted-fall-vibes going. The first podcast from C13Features in an Orwellian-Goosebumps-Brat Pack moment: The feature-length podcast, billed as a podcast movie, takes us to the seemingly perfect hometown of Allie (voiced by executive producer Kiernan Shipka), who discovers that this idyllic lifestyle comes at a horrific price. Treat feels like a modern reconceptualizing of The Pied Piper Of Hamelin, but with a spooky, cobweb-covered Halloween bus roaming around town. It’s scary in that Are You Afraid Of The Dark way—it’s not going to invade your dreams and the scares get wrapped up with a bow, so you don’t have to live with a cliffhanger ending. Shipka is supreme; her presence in this haunted-ass town feels like an extension of Sabrina Spellman’s life in Greendale, as she fights a possessed mom with a drinking problem and a dead-beat dad, still finding time to enjoy a boxcar children picnic with her troubled brother and hot boyfriend. [Morgan McNaught]
38 Comments
Gee, I’d forgotten Sarah Marshall
I’m still working on it.
“Lorraine’s psychic prowess and Ed’s background in demonology”
Now that’s what I call “A very specific set of skills”.
Personally, I have a background in the Eldrich mysteries. Scholarship is dead easy when the subject (and the discipline) is made up.
The Warrens are certainly hucksters. But here’s what bugs the shit out of me about them (and it makes me judge the movies harshly because they are portrayed as these Christian do-gooders): they are hucksters of the worst possible sort because their livelihood is taking advantage of the bereaved. People who are grieving the loss of a loved one – especially a love one who passed away prematurely – are uniquely vulnerable. And these assholes take advantage of these folks and profit off the backs of their grief. Fuck these grifters.
Yeah the Warrens are absolutely horrible people and making them seem nice in movies is not a good thing 🙁
All of those movies based on the Warrens should have the tagline, “based on a real hoax”
The “sex with minors” is also a tic in the bad column.
That’s what really got Harry Houdini to start the modern skeptic movement — his wife had gotten into attending seances after the death of their son, and when he started going too he was outraged on how these “mediums” were using the same tricks he used for wholesome entertainment in order to defraud grieving people.
There’s an interesting theory floated in the episode that the Warrens might have been in on the grift with some of the families experiencing hauntings. If a family can’t afford to stay in their house and suddenly that house becomes a famous tourist attraction for all of its ghost stories, everyone sort of wins? I didn’t do the reading but I thought that sounded plausible.
I’m going with this, true or not. Rather wholesome theory.
The Amityville Horror is 100% made up by the residents to get out of the house. Oh, the original DeFeo murders were real, but the none of the rest. And the Warrens were right there.
the phrase for that is “ghouls”And it’s no surprise that the movies are so aligned with the church that they are basically religious advertising. The Church are a bunch of ghouls who have been ripping people off over their loved ones since it was whatever the church was before this one.That said, the first and third conjurings are pretty darn good 😉
“Based on real people. that you SHOULDN’T google”“The allegations about me will ruin the movie”
Hucksters and ghouls, as another poster below accurately called them. Reminds me of Sylvia Browne, another peddler of lies and false hope, who preyed most often on those suffering from grief. I don’t recall if You’re Wrong About did an episode on her, but I know Swindled did and I strongly recommend it. And, speaking of grief, I did a little grieving of my own after Michael announced his departure from You’re Wrong About. Thank goodness I can still enjoy them both; I just wish they were still doing their thing together.
Also Allison Dubois, who got a whole TV series based on her fraud.
Yes! They were so great together. I miss him.
A lot more Christian grifters out there nowadays. I wonder if the Warrens would have added Qanon to their grift if they were still around.
The ever excellent Alasdair Beckett-King in his parody of movies featuring Ed & Lorraine Warren.
I crack up about that “Seriously, do not google me, it will ruin the movie” once a week
“Scorpio Season is still spooky season. Those are just the rules”
No it isn’t, and no they aren’t.
I’m sure he’s a nice enough person, but Michael Hobbes’s manner really wasn’t my favorite so I’m kinda glad he’s out of the picture. I think there was a smugness to his criticism of how the general public responded to the events they covered, and that really irritated me. Sarah Marshall, on the other hand, can make the same points without sounding like she’s saying “you were all stupid and I never would have been that stupid.”I’m crushing a little bit on Sarah Marshall because I find her just incredibly witty and very insightful, and seemingly so in the moment. I often compare her to Glen Weldon of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Everyone seems to love Weldon, but I find his bits too scripted, too obviously prepared beforehand, and his co-hosts too gushing of how funny they think he is.Anyway, more Sarah Marshall please.
Same, I think Hobbes leaving will be for the better. He did seem to make quite a few mistakes too. When a podcast is largely about debunking the research really needs to be unimpeachable, and I don’t think Hobbes was quite there.
I mean any rational person who watches those movies should immediately realize that the real life people must have been bullshit artists. The movies are entertaining, and basically all horror movies validate exploitation and mental illness. Admittedly it is weird they didn’t just make up new characters, but I still don’t see the films as being deceptive.
The podcast episode goes beyond just them being untruthful about supernatural encounters and into some of their other awful behavior, including Ed having an underage mistress that basically lived with them and assisted in their business for decades but was then shut out of any of the profits from their media franchise.
Damn. Kinda glad I never Googled them so I was able to enjoy the films when they came out.
Yeah, I’m constantly torn between my love of the Conjuring movies (the first two, anyway), and how much I despise the real people whose reputation they’re helping to whitewash.
I knew they were bullshit artists, I didn’t know that they specifically laid out contracts (or tried) to make sure no one could accuse ed of pedophilia or child pornography (relating to his mistress, I’m imagining?) which is one of those “I feel like you don’t need this in a contract unless this is a thing that happened and you’re not wanting it out there” deals.
I’d considered them scam artists all along but mostly along the lines of “they probably made shit up to make more money” but the affair, plus the part where they ruined the lives of children with this shit, makes it go beyond just being scummy people.
Anyway, I miss Michael but I still have Maintenance Phase to enjoy and I’ve thought that Sarah’s been doing well carrying the show. There were a few moments where I missed Michael’s editing (a transition that could have been smoother towards the beginning, mainly) but honestly, still a great podcast and a highly enjoyable episode!
Yeah I definitely agree, I was speaking from a place of ignorance to the true extent of their terribleness, just went through Google earlier. Sadly not surprising though.
How do all horror movies validate mental illness?
Most horror that’s not slasher plays on our internal fears and brings them to life. I mean maybe “all” is too big a word, but I feel like a majority of horror movies involve the main character hearing voices or seeing things, etc., and at the start no one else believes them and thinks they are crazy. Then by the end all their fears are confirmed to be justified. Whereas in real life they’d just be someone with severe mental issues and the people trying to get them the help they need would be the good guys rather than antagonists.
I came for the exposure of the Warrens as grifters, I stayed for the story about how Lorraine claimed to have met Bigfoot. Apparently he just had an infection in both feet, normally they aren’t that big!
For some reason, that reminded me of the Progressive commercial where no one is taking pictures of Big Foot anymore and she calls him Big Foot and he says, “What’d you call me?” and he looks at his feet and says, “My name is Darryl.”
Every time a new movie based on the Warrens comes out a whole bunch of outlets, some journalistic and others just the entertainment press, take the editorial stance that ghosts and demons must be real. This never gets followed up on.
I’m just here to say that Patrick Wilson is awesome. Both he and Vera Farmiga are great in those movies. But Patrick Wilson is my boy!
The thing I really like about Patrick Wilson is that, reportedly, his career goal was to “be in a million movies and have no one know who I am.” Mission accomplished, my good man.
The neo-Fametracker “Hey It’s That Guy”.
The first Conjuring movie was fun. I didn’t see the second one. I recently watched Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do it and it pissed me off a little. It is based on a real murder case and the murderer was convicted, only served 5 years, and is still alive. And here we have a movie taking his bullshit “I was possessed” claim seriously and making him seem like the victim. Fuck that.