“There’s a huge amount of evidence there, which is something that is normally absent from paranormal cases,” says Robins. While people have referred to Enfield as one of the UK’s most credible hauntings, he says, “there’s a case to be made that it’s just the most photographed”.
The case also took place at the “sweet spot”, in Robins’s words, when there was a lot of public interest in ghosts, UFOs and other unexplained phenomena, and when newspapers also had the resources to send journalists to investigate these cases. There was also a degree of public trust in the media that led the Hodgsons to call the paper for help.
In general, when it comes to the supernatural, Robins is neither believer nor sceptic, but approaches every case with an open mind – as he does, too, the Enfield Poltergeist. “Enfield is a really murky, complicated and deeply intriguing case,” he says. Though Grosse and Playfair had, he feels, the best intentions, “their presence certainly created a very heightened sense of drama around it”. But despite this, the case is “clearly robust enough to deflect sceptic inquiry”, he believes – for while there have been many convincing sceptic theories on it, “none [has been] significant enough to completely debunk it in the same way that the Amityville haunting has been debunked in the US”. Enfield remains culturally resonant, Robins concludes, because “it retains its mysteries”,
The Enfield Poltergeist is out now on Apple TV +. The Enfield Haunting is at the Ambassadors Theatre in London from 30 November until 2 March 2024. Uncanny is on BBC2 in the UK, and Danny Robins is currently touring the UK with Uncanny Live: I Know What I Saw.
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