How accurately does The Conjuring: Last Rites depict the Smurl Haunting? Here's what we know

The Conjuring: Last Rites brings to the screen one of Ed and Lorraine Warren's most infamous and dangerous cases, the Smurl Haunting that took place in the 1980s. The film depicts the family's claims of experiencing supernatural instances and the presence of a poltergeist in the house that brought in foul smells and shadowy figures, and physical assaults. Taking place in Pennsylvania, the case attracted much coverage from the media, most of which was driven by the Warrens, who became vocal defenders of the case.

However, as was the case for previous films in the franchise, the film surely takes some creative liberties while retelling the Smurls' story, and everything on screen may not exactly be what happened. So, how accurately does The Conjuring: Last Rites depict the Smurl Haunting? Here's what we know.

What happened during the Smurl Haunting?

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The Smurl family of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, moved into their duplex in 1976 without incident. Almost a decade later, the quiet unraveled. Objects moved, ceilings cracked, lights crashed down, and strange odors filled the rooms. Their German shepherd was allegedly hurled across the house. Even darker, Jack Smurl, the family's patriarch, claimed to have been physically attacked by a demonic force. By 1986, the family sought out the Warrens, who concluded their home contained not one, but four entities, including a demon manipulating the others.

The case quickly spilled into the national spotlight. The Smurls appeared on Larry King Live and Entertainment Tonight, their nightmare amplified by headlines. They eventually chronicled the ordeal in the 1988 book The Haunted: One Family’s Nightmare, later adapted into a TV movie. Still, skepticism followed them. Neighbors reported nothing unusual, and clergy debated whether prayers or suggestions had chased away the disturbances.

The Smurls left the house in 1987, though whispers of the haunting lingered. Jack passed away in 2017, while his daughter Carin has since taken up paranormal work. As for the infamous home, later owners reported no activity, leaving the Smurl haunting somewhere between terror, faith, and legend.

How does The Conjuring: Last Rites portray the Smurl Haunting?

For The Conjuring: Last Rites, Michael Chaves wanted to ground the scares in the Smurls’ lived experience, so he sat down with the four sisters themselves. They admitted that the 1988 book The Haunted never really captured their truth, though the film still bends history into horror. The infamous “demonic mirror” is pure invention; in reality, the Warrens claimed four entities tormented the family, while the movie condenses this into three, including a spectral man wielding an axe and carrying a tragic backstory.

The Conjuring: Last Rites isn't the first time this story has been adapted for the screen. In 1991, Robert Mandel was the first to work on a film that depicted the Smurls' case. Although the film received much appreciation, it was not a portrayal that the Smurls were happy with.

Chaves tells Bloody Disgusting in an interview,

“They had a lot of issues with it, and I was like, ‘What can I do in telling your story?’ And they said, ‘Don’t make that movie again.’ Not to comment on the filmmaking or any of that, I think that they just didn’t feel like it was true to their story. They don’t feel like it really listened to what they experienced, and that was the big thing with this. In every way possible, we really tried to ground it in their experience and based on things that they had gone through. That really fueled so much of the story.”

Still from The Conjuring: Last Rites (Image via Warner Bros.)

The director also reimagines the mirror as a grotesque symbol: carved with two infant faces and a maternal figure, it first appears in the 1960s during Lorraine’s troubled pregnancy. That same mirror later finds its way into the Smurl's home, tying Judy’s birth to their haunting.

Talking about the mirror in The Conjuring: Last Rites, Chaves tells Bloody Disgusting,

“This is the Smurl case, but there’s also the mirror. It was not in the Smurl house. That is another case of theirs. That mirror is real. It exists. If you stay to the very end, there’s something there. Obviously, we had to weave that in and then weave in the Warren story. So, it was a kind of juggling act of all those things.”

One of The Conjuring: Last Rites' most unsettling sequences sees Dawn Smurl coughing up shards of glass, a stylized exaggeration of stories the sisters shared about sudden sickness during the Warrens’ visits. The film shows how the family goes on to live at the house for a few years, and it may seem like peace is restored, but the Smurls feel differently. According to Chaves, the family “all believe that this entity has followed them into their own separate lives, into their own separate families.”

The film also raises the stakes for the Warrens’ daughter. Judy’s birth is portrayed as nearly fatal, and years later, her inherited clairvoyance makes her vulnerable to possession. Chaves admits these were creative liberties, but insists they deepened the emotional weight of the Warrens’ final battle.

Like most of Ed and Lorraine's cases, the Smurl Hunting too faced allegations of fabrication. Many believed it to be real, while skeptics commented on the story's loose threads and supposed untruth. Either way, the case garnered much attention for the Smurls and the Warrens, which proves why it was the perfect pick for The Conjuring: Last Rites.

In the end, The Conjuring: Last Rites isn't anywhere close to a true documentary that would have narrated the story of the Smurls, but rather a cinematic interpretation that blends faith, fact, and folklore for a fitting goodbye to the Warrens. By weaving together the Smurls' statements and the Warrens' records, Chaves makes an attempt to bring to fans a case that gave the Warrens widespread attention, and it's clear to see why.

Most of the films in the franchise have taken creative liberties with their portrayal of the incidents but it's a natural process that is a part of the translation between statements to screens. Whether seen as truth, exaggeration, or legend, the Smurl haunting remains one of the most talked-about chapters in the Warrens’ legacy, making it a fitting finale for the franchise.