The Conjuring: Last Rites - The real story behind the horror, explored

The Conjuring: Last Rites ended the series with one of the most controversial, scary and publicized cases that Ed and Lorraine Warren dealt with. Based on the Smurl Hauntings that took place in Pennsylvania, the film goes into the details of a family that was attacked by multiple spirits. The family made claims that their house was plagued by sinister forces. Jack and Janet Smurl reported foul odors, pounding walls, levitations, and even violent assaults. The Warrens declared the home infested by multiple entities, including a demon.

Although The Conjuring: Last Rites takes a few creative liberties for the narrative, adding in a primary plotline of a haunted mirror that has followed the Warrens for decades. Director Michael Chaves has confirmed the fictional nature of the mirror narrative, the rest of the story is rooted in reality and was a high profile case in the 70s. The Smurl Haunting spawned a 1988 book, The Haunted, and a 1991 TV movie, long before Hollywood brought it into the Conjuring universe. If The Conjuring: Last Rites had you spooked, here's everything you need to know about the real case that inspired the movie.

Smurl Hauntings- The real case that inspired The Conjuring: Last Rites

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

In 1973, Jack and Janet Smurl moved into a seemingly ordinary neighborhood with their family of eight. What should have been a normal start to their new life soon turned into a highly publicized case and one of America's most notorious incidents of ghostly activities.

According to the family, they experienced strange disturbances that started unfolding not long after their move in. They described foul odors being filled in the house, inexplicable banging noises echoing through the night, and objects moving on their own. Their family dog was attacked, and members of the family underwent physical and sexual assaults by an unseen force. One of their daughters was pushed down the stairs, and there was one case of levitating too. The Conjuring: Last Rites depicts some of these incidents the family faced, although the film also gets creative with a few spooks.

Lorraine and Ed Warren (Image via YouTube/@warnerbrosentertainment)

Ed and Lorraine's attempts to drive the spirits away with prayers and hymns only seemed to intensify the ghostly activity. They insisted they captured unexplained knocks and raps on audiotape during their long investigation. Meanwhile Janet claimed that multiple exorcisms were performed by priests, but none of it proved to be successful.

Despite the notoriety the case gained, members of the clergy took no part in these beliefs. Many priests blessed the house but claimed to have not felt anything sinister. Others spent nights without experiencing anything paranormal. The Smurls maintained that they have been disturbed by these forces for the last decade, which has led them to face the media and the public. Finally, Reverend Joseph Adonizio, a local priest rid the house of it's entities.

The Smurl Haunting also received much skepticism from critics

Jack and Janet Smurl (Image via X@/The Conjuring)

As shown in The Conjuring: Last Rites, the case also faced a lot of skepticism from the media and critics. As is the case for many supernatural incidents, the Smurl Haunting received their fair share of skepticism and criticism. Many saw the case as a manifestation of psychological strain, misinterpretation and a need for media attention.

Paul Kurtz, who was a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and served as the chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, dismissed the Warrens as unreliable investigators. He stated that the case had shaky foundations and that the family was influenced by delusions and hallucinations and even medical conditions. Psychologists agreed, and suggested that the case could be due to family issues, misread as paranormal activity.

One major detail noted by critics was Jack Smurl's medical history. In 1983, Jack underwent surgery to remove water from his brain which was a lasting impact of his childhood meningitis. He had also had issues with short term memory loss, all of which contributed to skeptics' refusal to believe in the Smurls.

Journalists, too, were wary. The book The Haunted was criticized for being one-sided and lacking in evidence. Reviewers noted that Robert Curran, the reporter who co-authored the work, appeared to abandon objectivity in favor of dramatization. Mary Beth Gehrman, writing for a local paper, remarked that the book was not only poorly written but also difficult to take seriously given the absence of physical proof.

By the late 1980s, even as Janet Smurl continued to claim that shadows and noises plagued her family, other residents of the Chase Street home reported no unusual experiences. Debra Owens, who moved into the property in 1988, told reporters she never encountered anything supernatural during her time there.

For skeptics, these contradictions sealed the case. To them, the Smurl haunting stood less as evidence of the demonic and more as a cautionary tale of how stress, belief, and media attention could create a perfect storm of sensational storytelling.

What happened to the Smurls later?

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The family documented their experience in a book called The Haunted that the Warrens and journalist Robert Curran also worked on. They also worked on a movie depicting the case, although the family has talked about how the film did not do them justice. Years later, The Conjuring: Last Rites is the first time this case has been reopened.

In 1987, the Smurls moved out of the house and although the house was sold, the new owners did not report any paranormal activity. Over the years, the case has gained more and more notoriety, and Chaves, who took the family's creative advice while creating The Conjuring: Last Rites has noted that the Smurl sisters “all believe that this entity has followed them into their own separate lives, into their own separate families.”

The Conjuring: Last Rites takes much creative liberty while portraying the story as the film gives center stage to the Warrens, and a subplot that involves their past. Despite that, multiple instances of the real case are shown in the film. Chaves makes great effort to translate one of the most prolific horror cases in America on screen with much heart and horror. The result is a film that not only gives Ed and Lorraine closure, but also ends the franchise on a spooky, sinister and scary note.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is now in theaters.