Is "The Conjuring: Last Rites" based on a true story? Inside the twisted Smurl haunting (and what skeptics had to say) Randall ColburnSeptember 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM 0 Giles Keyte/Warner Bros.
- - Is "The Conjuring: Last Rites" based on a true story? Inside the twisted Smurl haunting (and what skeptics had to say)
Randall ColburnSeptember 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
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Giles Keyte/Warner Bros.
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren and Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren in 'The Conjuring: Last Rites'Key Points -
The Conjuring: Last Rites centers on the true story of the Smurl family, who claimed they were being viciously attacked by demons in their Pennsylvania home.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren — supposedly for the last time.
The film takes quite a few liberties with the case.
The Conjuring, 2013's modest horror film about a real-life haunting and a controversial pair of paranormal investigators, grossed well over $300 million on a $20 million budget. A hit franchise soon took shape, with direct Conjuring sequels — 2016's The Conjuring 2 and 2021's The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It — intertwining with spinoffs about demonic dolls, demonic nuns, and demonic ghosts.
Now, the Conjuring universe is shifting gears. Premiering 12 years after the film that started it all, The Conjuring: Last Rites serves as a swan song for the franchise's core pair, Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
Just as the Warrens allegedly played fast and loose with their investigations, the franchise has taken ample liberties with the real-world cases that inspired each film. Last Rites, which centers on the 1980s-era Smurl haunting of West Pittston, Pa., is no exception. In Entertainment Weekly's cover story about the movie, Wilson clarified that they're "not making a documentary."
So, how faithful is the latest Conjuring film to the Smurl family's real-life account? Below, we dig into the true story behind The Conjuring: Last Rites.
Is The Conjuring: Last Rites based on a true story?
Giles Keyte/Warner Bros
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren and Mia Tomlinson as Judy Warren in 'The Conjuring: Last Rites'
The Conjuring: Last Rites is based on an incident in which the working-class Smurl family — comprised of Jack, Janet, and their four daughters, as well as Jack's parents, John and Mary — claimed they were haunted by a demon throughout the 1980s in their home in West Pittston, Pa.
Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in to investigate the case in 1986, and went on to publish a book about the incident that same year called The Haunted, which they co-wrote with Pennsylvania journalist Robert Curran. In 1991, the book was adapted into a TV film of the same name.
What was the Smurl haunting?
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The Smurl family in 'The Conjuring: Last Rites'
Reports differ on when the hauntings began — some say months, some say years, and some say more than a decade — but the Smurls detailed numerous supernatural and, in some cases, violent incidents they believed to be the work of a demonic presence.
According to the Times Leader, Jack claimed his ear was bitten by a demon and that he was attacked both physically and sexually on multiple occasions. The family also documented incidents in which their 75-pound German shepherd was slammed into a wall and one of their daughters was thrown down a flight of stairs.
On top of that, the family recounted hearing screams in the night, the grunts of a pig, and a lingering, foul stench.
The Haunted also includes mention of a "hoofed half-man charging down the hall."
Was the Smurl haunting real?
Giles Keyte/Warner Bros
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren in 'The Conjuring: Last Rites'
It's impossible to definitively say what's real or not, but the Warrens certainly believed that the Smurls' home was infested by demons. The pair investigated the house in January 1986, and Ed later described the spirit to the Times Leader as "powerful, intangible and very dangerous."
In an August 1986 interview with the Lakeland Ledger, Ed described a "foul stench" of "rotting flesh" in the home and claimed that "gossamer threads — a mucous-like, smoky-type substance — whirled and materialized on the mirror, spelling out filthy obscenities, telling me in no uncertain terms to get out of the house."
According to the Warrens' New England Society for Psychic Research, Ed determined there to be four spirits haunting the Smurl home: "a harmless elderly woman, a young and possibly violent girl, a man who suffered and died in the home, and a demon that used the other three spirits to destroy the Smurl family."
Several prominent skeptics disagreed. Among them, as noted by the Times Leader, was Paul Kurtz, a professor and chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
Kurtz decried the case as "a hoax, a charade, a ghost story," comparing it to another famous case investigated by the Warrens: the Amityville horror of 1975.
"There is no explanation for the Smurl house, but I wouldn't simply assume it is a haunting," he said. "It seems to us that a great-to-do has been made about it, and we wonder if it is like the Amityville horror hoax, which was based on imagination rather than on actual haunting."
There was one possible explanation for the Smurl family's hauntings. In 1983, Jack had surgery to remove water from his brain. This, according to some skeptics, could result in hallucinations.
In The Haunted, the Warrens and Curran claim that the events unpacked in the book are supported by "dozens of eyewitnesses," and, per the Times Leader, Jack himself said that "at least 30 people" also experienced the strange occurrences.
When a priest from the Diocese of Scranton spent two nights at the Smurl home, however, he saw no indications of demonic activity.
What happened to the Smurl family?
Bettmann Archive/Getty
Jack and Janet Smurl with their twin daughters, Carin and Shannon, at their home in West Pittston, Pa
The Smurls claimed in October of 1986 that the incidents had stopped, but they didn't credit the Warrens.
"We believe the elimination of our problem can only be credited to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus who have answered our prayers, and the prayers of the thousands of others through the rosary," the Smurls said, per the Times Leader.
After several "unsuccessful" exorcisms, a pastor at the local Immaculate Conception Parish said that "prayers have chased the foul smells and violent demons from the West Pittston home."
The following year, Smurl told the outlet that the family "still heard knocking and saw shadows," but said it was manageable. By 1988, they had moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Was the Smurl haunting really the Warren's last case?
Bettmann
Ed and Lorraine Warren in March 1981
The Conjuring: Last Rites presents the Smurl case as if it were the Warrens' final investigation. While it was among their final cases, the real-life couple weren't through just yet.
In the years following the case, they investigated Bill Ramsey, a supposed "werewolf," and the creepy Union Cemetery in Easton, Conn. A pair of books accompanied the cases: 1991's Werewolf: A True Story of Demonic Possession and 1992's Graveyard: True Hauntings from an Old New England Cemetery.
The Conjuring: Last Rites also includes a storyline about the Smurls being haunted by the same spirit that terrorized Ed and Lorraine on their first-ever case, but that appears to be a fabrication for the film.
Where can I watch The Conjuring: Last Rites?
Giles Keyte/Warner Bros.
Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren in 'The Conjuring: Last Rites'
The Conjuring: Last Rites is now playing in theaters.
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