Matthew Macfadyen and Timothy Spall looking off at something in 'The Enfield Haunting'Image via Sky Living
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The horror genre is largely bulletproof on the silver screen, where even a debacle like Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare can make over six times its production budget. Horror series on television are a bit trickier to pull off, as viewers need to remain steadily engaged and scared across multiple episodes. Those that do find success tend to lure viewers with something deeper, not just jump scares and mood music, but with how the horror elements weigh on relatable characters and their relationships.
A great horror series like Evil is able to sustain that draw over the course of four seasons, while a great horror miniseries knows where to cap the story off before losing that captivating quality, such as Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. 2015's The Enfield Haunting, now available to stream for free on Tubi, falls in the latter category, a three-part miniseries detailing the bizarre events surrounding the "Enfield Poltergeist," a story that would serve as the plot for 2016's The Conjuring 2. Despite telling the same story, The Enfield Haunting does what The Conjuring 2 failed to do: find the humanity in the story, warts and all.
'The Enfield Haunting' Terrifies Without Sensationalizing True Events Like the Conjuring Franchise Does
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren sitting in The ConjuringImage via New Line Cinema
Credit where credit is due: The Conjuring universe is heads and devil's tails above the typical Hollywood horror when it comes to the human element of the stories. However, it greatly exaggerates details (Ed and Lorraine Warren played a very minimal part in real-life) and neglects the nuances of the emotions of the family and the real investigators in favor of a clear "good vs. evil" battle that leaves no room for ambiguity — what the Hodgson family experienced is true, period. The Enfield Haunting, on the other hand, keeps its focus on the people actually involved and the questions that face them about what they experienced to this day. Based on the book This House Is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair, the series details the chilling story of the "Enfield Poltergeist," who began causing disturbances in the Enfield, London, home of single mother Peggy Hodgson and her four children in August 1977, and continued to torment the family over a period of 18 months.
Playfair is played by Matthew Macfadyen, a skeptical investigator who partners with paranormal researcher Maurice Grosse (Timothy Spall) to investigate the strange goings-on in the Enfield home, just as they did in real life (sorry, Warrens). But there are no crosses turning upside down on the walls, no shaking bed, but rather smaller moments — a chest of drawers hurtling across the bedroom, quick glances of the phantom in windows and mirrors, a paralyzing scene where a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night is fraught with the shadow of danger — and the poltergeist's single-minded focus on eleven-year-old Janet (Eleanor Worthington-Cox, more on her soon) build up, gradually escalating the tension and terror.
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Posts 4 By Brad LaCour Apr 12, 2025Where The Enfield Haunting really succeeds is in layering ambiguity to the proceedings. It's psychological horror at its best. Did we really see something in the mirror? Are the girls simply acting out after their father left? We hear the inhuman voice of "Joe" coming through Janet, and she can't possibly know the things he is talking about, but by the same token, Janet admits to faking "two percent" of the phenomena. In The Conjuring 2, there was a definite presence. In The Enfield Haunting, that presence holds just enough doubt that the terror doesn't come from the acts themselves, but from questioning if what we see happening is real.
Exceptional Performances Heighten the Emotional Impact of 'The Enfield Haunting'
The Enfield Haunting has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great performances. The cast, as a whole, keeps the series grounded. It doesn't feel like actors in roles, but rather that we're watching real people, exhibiting real emotions, fearlessly. We believe because they firmly believe, and we doubt because they are flawed. The Hodgson family is holding on by a string, with the patriarch having abandoned them long before. That subtly comes through in the actor's portrayals, giving them a starting point from which they build their characters. Grosse has a deep fatherly connection and a driving need to try and help Janet, who shares the name of his own daughter who died tragically in an accident, and Spall, who was almost too scared to accept the role, is absolutely brilliant in expressing it, often without even saying a word.
The one actress that earned plaudits from almost every review is 13-year-old Worthington-Cox, and with good reason. Worthington-Cox is absolutely magnetic, commanding the screen every moment she's on it. Like Spall, she doesn't have to say a single thing to express what she's feeling, but unlike her co-star, those feelings she expresses run a wide gamut, from terrified innocence one moment, to guilty prankster the next. She's also downright chilling, standing perfectly still as the spirit of "Joe" inhabits her while emitting a silent presence that feels like it could leap off the screen and attack you at any moment. And when she does talk as a vessel for the poltergeist, it's as a foul-mouthed child molester that isn't over-the-top or spewing empty words, but a truly separate, and very real, personality. The Enfield Haunting isn't perfect (it's partial to dragging in the quieter moments) but has the rare distinction of being a series about a real event that actually feels real from the top down... and that may be the scariest thing about it.
The Enfield Haunting
Like Follow Followed Drama Mystery Horror Release Date 2015 - 2015-00-00Cast
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Timothy Spall
Maurice Grosse
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Matthew Macfadyen
Guy Lyon Playfair
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The Enfield Haunting
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Matthew Macfadyen
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