Enfield is not a superstitious place. Anyone passing through this dull corner of suburbia south of the M25 will find neither grand Gothic castles nor historic tales of bloodshed. And yet somehow, it remains the site of Britain's most famous ghost story.
In 1977, a council house in the town became the subject of international media attention following claims of paranormal activity. Tabloid journalists and police visiting the property reported unexplained knocking sounds and furniture being flung across the room. Single mum Peggy Hodgson, who lived in the house with her daughters Janet, 11, and Margaret, 13, became convinced that the house was haunted by an evil spirit. This “ghost” channelled its energy through Janet, whose behaviour became increasingly disturbing and bizarre.
The case caught the eye of Maurice Grosse, a “paranormal investigator” (yes, that is an actual job) at the Society for Psychical Research who spent two years staying with the family and documenting the ghostly activities at the house. During this time, he recorded hours of conversations with family members and clips of the “poltergeist” causing havoc. Jerry Rothwell’s docudrama, The Enfield Poltergeist, brings these tapes to life by dubbing them onto scenes performed by actors. This is interspersed with reflections on the period from journalists and paranormal researchers who investigated the events, as well as the Hodgson family themselves.
Ghost stories easily lend themselves to parody. Anyone who grew up in the Noughties will remember the faintly ridiculous Most Haunted series, in which Yvette Fielding and a team of hapless psychic mediums traipsed around old castles pretending that the sound of a tree branch snapping was a terrifying demonic spirit. The paranormal events in Enfield have already been given the Hollywood treatment in James Wan’s The Conjuring 2, a fairly straightforward “girl possessed by evil demon” horror flick.
The Enfield Poltergeist is a more intelligent, thoughtful exploration of society’s obsession with the spirit world – but it still manages to be genuinely scary. A large part of this is down to the outstanding quality of the acting, which likely won’t receive the plaudits it deserves. Christopher Ettridge is brilliant as the brooding Maurice Grosse, a man doggedly pursuing answers to the intangible. Olivia Booth-Ford impresses as Janet, who is at turns mischievous and deeply vulnerable.
Horror film enthusiasts will find something to love here, as the show is packed with tense scenes. After observing the strange activity in the house, Maurice and his team eventually attempt to communicate with the spirit, which begins to speak through Janet in a gruff, croaky voice. It later identifies itself as Bill Wilkinson, who died in the house aged 72. Disturbingly, the voice can describe exactly how Bill died – details that Janet was unlikely to have known. These scenes are juxtaposed against the backdrop of the suffocating tedium of 1970s Britain, a world of drab furniture and quiet desperation recreated perfectly.
It's mostly brilliant, which makes it doubly frustrating that The Enfield Poltergeist is let down by its inexplicably messy structure. We do not encounter the real Hodgson sisters until quite late on, which was presumably intended as a grand reveal but ends up robbing the earlier episodes of vital context and balance. The docudrama format is fiendishly difficult to pull off given the complexity of balancing fact and fiction, and at times The Enfield Poltergeist feels like it's having an identity crisis. It is disconcerting for the viewer when a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in The Exorcist is suddenly interrupted by a bespectacled psychologist.
As the series progresses, the Hodgson sisters shed more light on their parents’ divorce and the unhappiness of their childhood. Janet appears utterly traumatised by this period and has seemingly not recovered. Many investigators and commentators have dismissed the events in Enfield as a hoax carried out by a bored teenager, but the haunting appears more to be a cry for help from a girl in deep emotional pain. The search for meaning is consistent with Rothwell’s other documentaries, which cover everything from punk bands to the origins of Greenpeace.
While your enjoyment of The Enfield Poltergeist might depend on the extent of your interest in the paranormal, this is a compelling examination of a series of events that captivated the nation. Those looking for a fright ahead of Halloween should look no further.
