Hollywood has always had a knack for twisting real-life hauntings into something fit for the big screen. ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites‘ is no exception. The movie gives us a terrifying dive into the version of the Smurl family haunting, complete with cursed mirrors, dramatic showdowns, and the Warrens stepping back into action.
But the true story behind the Smurls’ nightmare is more unsettling than you would expect. Their haunting story, in fact, stretched over decades, and included claims too dark for theaters, and ended in a way no ‘The Conjuring‘ fan would expect.
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Real Story Haunted For Years
In the film, the Smurls’ nightmare hits soon after the beginning. Within a few months, the family is under attack, and the cursed mirror becomes the center of it all. The timeline even ties into Judy Warren’s engagement. But you’ll be surprised to know that in real life, the haunting stretched across more than a decade.
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Jack and Janet Smurl moved into their home in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1973. By the following year, odd things started happening. The family noticed strange knocks, odd smells, and dark shadows. For years, these events came and went. It wasn’t the nonstop horror that the movie shows.
The film also changes how the Warrens got involved. On screen, Ed is shown as semi-retired after his heart problems. Father Gordon urges him to take the case, and Judy even rushes to the Smurl home before her parents do. The real story was not so dramatic. By 1986, after more than ten years of strange events, the Smurls themselves reached out to Ed and Lorraine.
By then, the couple were famous thanks to cases like Amityville. According to Lorraine, the house wasn’t haunted by just one spirit but by four different entities. That’s terrifying enough, but the film decided to add a cursed mirror instead.
The Warrens Didn’t Save The Day Like ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’
Surely, the movie delivers plenty of frights; be it beds shaking or shadows lashing out, and more than we can even count. But it leaves out some of the darkest claims. Janet said that she was molested by one of the entities while she slept. Jack claimed something even worse: he said he was sexually assaulted by a demonic figure that Lorraine later described as a succubus.
But the film skips all of that. Instead, Jack’s story becomes a scene of paralysis and levitation. His terror is shown, but the assault is only implied. Janet’s claim of being thrown across a room never appears at all.
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We get it, the makers tried to tone things down for the mainstream audience, but did we lose the real essence in it? It seems like every ‘Conjuring‘ film ends the same way. Ed and Lorraine step in, fight the evil, and bring peace. ‘Last Rites‘ follows that pattern. The Warrens take on the demon, and the family’s nightmare is over.
But the truth is, the Warrens did much more. They spent time in the house and believed the Smurls’ story. They even co-wrote a book with Jack and Janet about what happened. Yet, they never cleared the house. The Smurls went through three exorcisms, and none of them worked. Some reports even suggested the Catholic Church never officially approved those rituals at all. It wasn’t until a local priest, Reverend Joseph Adonizio, stepped in that things changed. In 1986, he turned to intense prayer, and the family finally found relief.
Even then, the haunting didn’t fully end. The Smurls later said that minor disturbances continued. They still heard knocks. They still saw shadows. It was never a clean victory for them.
