THE Enfield poltergeist is back… 30 years after his last haunting the spooky spectre is set to return on the big screen.

Producers John Kyriacou, 34, and Jay Stewart, 36, of Dead House Productions, hope to make the mysterious, inexplicable events of three decades ago into “the best horror film ever”.

It was in August 1977 that the media descended on a council house in Green Street, Enfield, to report on the huge amount of disturbing paranormal activity happening there.

Over 14 months the house’s occupants, Peggy Hodgson and her four children, were terrified by a series of inexplicable happenings.

Furniture would move of its own accord, knockings on the wall were heard, children’s toys would fly across the room and then become too hot to be touched, and small fires and puddles of water would appear and disappear without warning.

Most startling of all were the incidents involving Peggy’s youngest daughter Janet, who would become seemingly possessed by the poltergeist for more than an hour at a time. In these periods she would speak in the voice of an old man, something which medical professionals have said is almost impossible to fake.

During one such incident the poltergeist possessing Janet revealed himself as being called Bill Withers and claimed to have died in the corner of the room after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

After some research it was discovered that the previous occupant of the house had been a Mr Withers who had indeed died suddenly in the corner of the very room in which the recording had been made.

The voice recording of this incident has been reworked to become the teaser for the film to be made by the local production company.

Since launching a Facebook page last November widespread interest in the intriguing tale has earned them more than 500,000 hits.

Jay said: “The sense of unease created by these events is so enduring because we cannot escape that primal fear of the unknown. This is not something you can run away from, it is an unknown entity.”

Most unusual about the events that occurred in that council house is the fact they were verified by more than 30 independent witnesses including professional investigators of the paranormal, police officers and journalists, many of whom were highly sceptical before entering the property.

Hazel Short, 65, was the lollipop lady at Brimsdown Primary School in Green Street in 1977. She said: “I was sitting on the wall outside the school, opposite the house, I looked across and I could see Janet in the window. She was horizontal and was just going up and down, up and down.

“I was disturbed by the activity in the house, I didn’t believe it at first but now I don’t know. Peggy invited me inside one day. Despite it being a hot August day her house was freezing cold. She led me to the toilet where the brushes, toilet roll and bleach had stuck themselves to the wall.”

Jay said: “I read the book, This House Is Haunted, by Guy Lyon Playfair, about the events when I was 13 and it scared the living daylights out of me. I had attended Brimsdown Primary School, the same school as all four of the Hodgson children, opposite the council house. It was a story that caught the imagination of the entire community.”

The two producers plan to bring the events into modern-day Enfield, shooting the film around the town.

Since announcing their plans they have received a huge amount of interest from people who remember the events and have even been granted permission by a homeowner to shoot in a council house in Green Street.

Jay and John hope that the good publicity for Enfield generated by the film will restore pride in the town following the riots last summer.

People will get the chance to take part in the telling of this spooky piece of local history as the team plans to recruit extras and set hands from the area, as well organising visits for school parties around the set. They are even considering holding the premiere at Enfield Cineworld, less than a mile from the house where the events took place.

Jay and John said: “The movie will be the first horror film centred around a poltergeist since the release of Stephen Spielberg’s Poltergeist in 1982.

“This is an amazing concept for a film and it’s particularly resonant for Londoners due to the geography and timeline of these events. This will not be a low budget concept film, like the Blair Witch Project, but a slick project that relates how terrifying the events that took place in Green Street were for all those involved.”