Conjuring: Last Rites: Movies often market themselves as “based on a true story.” It’s a trick that especially works in horror. Even if you’re not sure the story is real, the thought that it might be makes it scarier. That formula has been around for decades, and no franchise milks it better than The Conjuring. The franchise has a reputation for exaggerating, bending facts, and playing loose with the truth, but fans still love them because they’re based on real cases Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated, with family drama always at the core.
The newly released The Conjuring: Last Rites closes the first era of the franchise. This time, the focus is on one of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s most disturbing cases: the haunting of the Smurl family in Pennsylvania. It’s arguably the most googled paranormal case ever, not just for its intensity and shocking claims, but because sceptics still can’t agree if it was real.
The story begins in 1973. Jack and Janet Smurl, with their daughters and Jack’s parents, moved into a duplex in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, after losing their home in the Hurricane Agnes flood. Jack, a Navy veteran and neuropsychiatric technician, put all his savings into the new place. Later, the couple welcomed twins there.
For five years, life was calm, until 1985, when strange things started happening. It started with things like tools disappearing, random electrical problems, the foul smell of sulfur and rot filling the house. But soon, it turned violent. A hanging light crashed onto one of the kids, leaving her with a head injury. Over the next year and a half, the family claimed the activity only got darker, their German shepherd was thrown against a wall, their daughters were pushed down the stairs, and Jack even alleged a demonic shadow sexually assaulted him. Janet even said she was attacked by a succubus.
“Up until a year ago, I thought that these types of things only happened in movies,” Jack told Lorraine during an interview in 1986 after the case caught media attention. “And I always felt, of course, that movies were, you know, always overstated to begin with, so I wasn’t really a believer.”
The Smurls sought the help of the Catholic Church. Several priests blessed the house, but nothing changed. Meanwhile, neighbours grew hostile, accusing the family of making it up for attention, and some even threw stones at their home. Trapped between ridicule outside and terror inside, the Smurls grew desperate. That’s when Ed and Lorraine Warren stepped in, vowing this would be their final case. By then, the Warrens had a reputation, and locals urged the family to call them. They arrived with their psychic nurse friend, Rosemary Frueh, and began documenting everything.
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The Warrens believed the Smurls weren’t to blame for inviting the evil in. Ed called them “The Chosen,” claiming spirits had targeted them for reasons beyond human control. Their investigation suggested four entities haunted the home, including the spirit of an old woman, a violent young girl, a man who had died there, and a demon controlling the other three to torment the Smurl family. The Warrens claimed they collected audio tapes and claimed how the temperature suddenly dropped, saw some shadows, and even found threatening messages written on mirrors. Despite prayers and chants, the evil didn’t go quietly. Ed later said this was one of the few cases they could never fully solve.
The Debate surrounding the case
Not everyone bought the story when it went public. Some pointed to Jack’s 1983 brain surgery, suggesting it may have clouded his judgment. Other investigators found nothing unusual in the house. Psychologists said either stress, health issues, or family tensions could explain it all. Even the Catholic Church kept its distance, saying priests hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Still, Janet insisted exorcisms were performed, but the entity slipped away by moving from room to room. The Smurls hit national headlines, appearing on shows like Larry King Live. In 1986, they teamed up with the Warrens for a book, The Haunted: One Family’s Nightmare, later adapted into a 1991 TV movie of the same name.
The case eventually wound down. Reverend Joseph Adonizio from a nearby parish led “intense prayers” that supposedly drove the evil out. By 1987, the Smurls sold the house and moved on. Later residents claimed they never saw or heard anything unusual.
