Halloween Auction of Real-Life ‘Conjuring’ Home Is Canceled—Marking Latest Twist in Property’s Eerie History

A planned Halloween auction of the Rhode Island home that inspired the terrifying "Conjuring" movie franchise has been canceled—weeks after comedian and paranormal fanatic Matt Rife revealed his desire to buy it.

The eerie 8.5-acre Harrisville property had been scheduled to go under the hammer in a mortgagee's foreclosure auction at 11 a.m. on Oct. 31.

However, auctioneer Justin Manning, with JJ Manning Auctioneers, revealed on Wednesday that the sale will no longer be taking place—after the property's mortgagee, Needham Bank, "concluded a sale at the underlying mortgage loan," leaving it with "no interest" in auctioning off the home.

It is currently unclear who has purchased the dwelling—or how much they offered to save the home from going on the block.

Rife and YouTuber Elton Castee, both fans and entertainers in the paranormal space, had previously expressed interest in buying the "Conjuring House" earlier this year, having already purchased a Connecticut home that was once owned by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

The Warrens have close ties to the house, having investigated claims of eerie activities that were said to have taken place inside it.

Over the years, the property has become a hot spot for tourists seeking out the truth about the so-called haunting that inspired the wildly popular "Conjuring" franchise, which has spawned nine different movies since 2013—including the recently released "The Conjuring: Last Rites."

While accounts of the events that led to the first movie vary, the home's sinister reputation has all but been written in stone, so much so that Manning previously admitted that he was reluctant to set foot inside the front door.

“I don’t even know if I want to go in the home,” he confessed. However, "at the end of the day, this is business before it’s a show. This is a forced sale and a distress sale."

The home's spooky history began in 1971, when the Perron family moved into the 19th-century home, where they were said to have experienced a number of terrifying encounters with spirits. These were chronicled by one of the daughters, Andrea Perron, in the 2011 book "House of Darkness: House of Light." 

"We all experienced encounters with spirits," Andrea told Global News in 2021. "Some were unpleasant, some were lovely, cordial and communicative. From benign to benevolent to oblivious to mean-spirited, the spirits were just like us, a wide variety of personalities."

It was during this time that the Warrens were called in to investigate—and are understood to have staged a seance with the family in a bid to help them rid the property of the spirits.

"My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own," Andrea recalled of the seance in a 2013 interview. "Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room."

Eventually, the Perron family decided to move out of the property in 1980. (The movie that was inspired by their experiences portrayed the events as taking place over a much shorter period of time.)

According to Andrea in 2021, the move was made after her mother reached her breaking point: "My mother told my father she would not survive another winter in the house, she had been under attack in that house for 10 years."

While the events that took place in the home were wildly dramatized for the purposes of ensuring a Hollywood hit, the first "Conjuring" movie, released in 2013, launched the Perrons' former home into the paranormal limelight. It quickly became known as "The Conjuring House."

Cory and Jennifer Heinzen capitalized on that notoriety when they purchased the house in 2019 for $439,000. The couple would host events at the site and rent rooms out to people who wanted to experience the spooky property. 

The business continued after the property changed hands in 2022, when Jaqueline Nuñez purchased it for a whopping $1.5 million. However, controversy soon ensued.  

In 2023, it was widely reported that a worker at the house, Brian Dansereau, was fired by Nuñez, who claimed that the spirit of the 1800s owner told her he had been stealing from the business. Talking to WRPI, Dansereau denied any wrongdoing. 

The incident started a series of accusations from staff about mistreatment by Nuñez, and criticism from paranormal fans. In 2024, the Burrillville Town Council opted not to renew Nuñez’s entertainment license, citing her strained relationships with neighbors, former employees, and the police department. 

By summer this year, Nuñez defaulted on her mortgage payments on the property, which prompted the move to auction it. 

News of the cancellation will no doubt cause heartbreak for the many interested parties who had already been in touch with Manning to express their desire to buy the home, with the auctioneer previously revealing to Realtor.com that he'd received "hundreds, if not thousands of inquiries."

"They’ll fall into three buckets: builders, investors, and fans of the property’s supernatural history," he said of the interested parties.

Manning added that he'd been making some spooky preparations of his own to mark the auspicious occasion, revealing: "I was joking with the attorney that, instead of wearing a suit, maybe I would dress up as Count Dracula. But I want to keep it professional, [so] I’ll probably just stick with the suit.”