Inside ‘Devil’s Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren’ (VIDEO)

Kate Hahn September 4, 2020, 10:00 am

Comments

Lorraine Ed Warren Devil's Road Shock Docs Special — Bob Child/AP/Shutterstock/COURTESY OF THE HISTORY CHANNEL

To launch its new umbrella series Shock Docs, which chronicles America’s most infamous true-life horror tales, Travel Channel couldn’t have picked more fascinating subjects than Ed and Lorraine Warren (above, in 1981) for Devil’s Road.

Working from the 1950s to 1990s, the demonologist and his clairvoyant wife were the nation’s first modern-day paranormal investigators. Their cases inspired the 2013 blockbuster The Conjuring (catch it September 9 at 8/7c on BBC America), which starred Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the Connecticut pair and launched a franchise.

The Warrens’ only child, Judy Spera, previews her parents’ story.

Check out an exclusive sneak peek at the special below:

Each had paranormal experiences as a child.

Little Lorraine — raised Catholic, as was Ed — saw auras; nuns told her not to speak of it. (“My mother never wanted to be different,” Spera notes.) Ed grew up in a haunted house; his dad advised seeking rational explanations for the ghosts, which Ed would later do on every case.

'Hotel Paranormal' Narrator Dan Aykroyd Shares His Ghostly Experience

Ed started out as an artist.

As young marrieds (Spera describes them as “so in love”), the Warrens traveled to legendary haunted houses around New England. Ed would do a painting, and Lorraine, a skeptic at first, would then knock on the door, show the occupants the artwork and ask if they could look around. One such outing launched the Warrens’ career.

They never asked for payment from the families tormented by evil spirits.

With the “Conjuring house” (1971), Amityville (1976), and other real-life hauntings — all covered in the doc — “the Devil tried to stop my parents,” Spera says. “But they stuck with everything. They did all they could to help people.”