Warner Bros.The Conjuring: Last Rites revolves around the supposedly true story of the Smurl haunting, so here’s how that went down in real life.
Last Rites is the fourth and final movie in the Conjuring horror franchise, which has focused on the terrifying true story of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The Warrens were a real-life couple who worked on cases like the Amityville horror and Enfield poltergeist, as well as the so-called Smurl haunting.
The movie is out tomorrow (September 5, 2025), and you can read our three-star Conjuring: Last Rites review now. And if you want to know what really happened to the Smurls, scroll down…
The Smurl haunting explained
Warner Bros.Jack and Janet Smirl lived on Chase Street in West Piston, Pennsylvania, with their four daughters, and Jack’s parents.
From 1974 onwards, the family claims to have experienced paranormal activity, hearing screams in the night and the grunting of pigs, as well as smelling a terrible stench.
But there was violence too, with their German Shepherd slammed into a wall, and one of their daughter’s thrown down the stairs.
Jack said the entity shook his bed, bit his ear, dragged him around, beat him up, and even sexually assaulted him. While he also claimed that 30 friends, neighbors, and members of the family experienced some kind of haunting in the house. All of which culminated in the Smurls calling the Warrens…
Ed and Lorraine investigate
Warner Bros.In 1986, Ed and Lorraine Warren entered the house with a team of investigators, and claimed that a powerful demon was terrorising the family and growing ever stronger.
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Speaking to The Times Leader in August of that year, Ed claimed that on his first night in the house, “I did not have to wait moments when the very thing I felt was a drop in temperature of at least 30-some degrees. Then a dark mass formed about three feet in front of me. There was a sound in back of me, I could hear rattling around.”
He then witnessed items falling off a bureau in Jack and Janet’s bedroom, and their mattress jumping up and down. “We’re dealing with an intelligence here,” claimed Warren. “It’s powerful, intangible, and very dangerous.”
The church also got involved, with The Diocese of Scranton stating that the family was telling the truth in August of 1988. Reverend Gerald Mullally said “we are taking their claims very seriously,” but also admitted “we don’t know what’s causing the disturbances.”
A Catholic priest from Connecticut was also sent to perform three exorcisms on the home, but they were all deemed “unsuccessful.”
The Smurl naysayers
The Times Leader spoke to those who believed, but also interviewed individuals who doubted the veracity of the Smurl and Warren claims.
Stephen Kaplan – Director of the Parapsychology Institute of America – called it a hoax. While philosophy professor Paul Kurtz saids the Warrens weren’t “objective, independent, or impartial.”
Kurtz added: “The question has been raised as to whether or not Mr. Smurl is delusional or suffering from hallucinations or brain impairment.”
The newspaper claimed that “Jack Smurl told a reporter he did have surgery to remove water from his brain in 1983. Before the surgery, Jack said he had been experiencing short-term memory loss and that problem probably stemmed from meningitis he suffered when he was in his late 20s.”
How the haunting stopped
Warner Bros.In October of 1986, Reverend Joseph Adonizio of the nearby Immaculate Conception Parish claimed that “Prayers have chased the foul smells and violent demons from the West Pittston home. [The Smurls] felt that after their intense prayers in the church and through the prayers of the congregation, things are back to normal.”
The family themselves said: “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.”
In October 1987, Janet Smurl revealed that the family was still seeing shadows and hearing knocking, but that it was “nothing they couldn’t handle.”
They moved away in 1988, and are thought to have ended up in the Wilkes-Barre area. While the woman who bought their house – Debra Owen – said she “never encountered anything supernatural while living at the home.”
For more scary stuff, check out our picks for the best horror movies of all-time, the horror movies that are cursed in real life, and the saddest horror movie ever made.