Aside from the obvious hype factor, movies are often marketed as being based on true stories because that makes it easier for filmmakers to place audiences in the right mindset for cinematic scares. After all, suspecting that a story could be true can sometimes be just as scary as knowing that it is. And if there’s one franchise that still uses this age-old technique to great effect, it’s The Conjuring. While the long-running series tends to embellish its source material and plays fast and loose with the facts, these movies inhabit a special place in the horror community’s collective heart because they still focus on real family dynamics, with our lovable leads always at the center.

And with the release of the first teaser trailer for the upcoming The Conjuring: Last Rites, it appears that this latest sequel (which is set to conclude the so-called “Phase One” of the franchise) is adapting an infamous case of demonic infestation that I think has even more dramatic potential than any of their previous stories. That’s why I’d like to invite you to tag along as we take a deeper look at the Smurl Family Haunting. Just be warned that this article features mentions of both child endangerment and sexual assault, so reader beware…

Our story begins in 1973 when the Smurl family moved to an aging duplex in West Pittson, Pensylvania. Having lost their original home to flooding during the previous year’s Hurricane Agnes, Jack and Janet Smurl were looking forward to a fresh start for themselves, their daughters, and Jack’s parents as they began renovating their new place on Chase Street. A neuropsychiatric technician that had previously served in the Navy, Jack poured all of his savings into the project, though the family barely had any time to settle into their new life before the house’s existing residents let them know that the living weren’t welcome there.

It began subtly enough, with tools disappearing here and odd electrical mishaps there, but the activity soon escalated to include unexplainable noises and sudden odors reminiscent of sulfur and rotting flesh – not to mention the occasional shadowy figure floating through the hallways. This increase in bizarre events coincided with a rough patch in the family’s history, but it wasn’t long before they were all convinced that they weren’t alone on Chase Street.

Lorraine Warren interviews the Smurls.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of a lengthy ordeal, as the paranormal activity became more frequent and even more aggressive as the years went by. What began as a spooky nuisance slowly progressed into horrific acts of violence spread out through the better part of a decade. From one of the Smurl’s daughters being pushed down a flight of stairs to the family dog being thrown against a wall, the attacks only got worse when Janet gave birth to twins. The supernatural abuse culminated in the sexual assault of both Jack and Janet Smurl by what was later explained to be a succubus.

Desperate for answers, the Smurls repeatedly contacted the Catholic church. However, while a series of priests visited the house and performed a deluge of blessings, nothing seemed to get rid of the evil forces haunting the family. Meanwhile, locals began to resent all of the negative attention, with the family soon getting harassed by neighbors who accused them of being money-hungry charlatans out to make a quick buck – all this despite the fact that the Smurls never profited off the haunting or any of its adaptations. Some of these confrontations even became violent, with strangers going so far as to throw bricks at the house in order to scare the family away. Isolated in a hostile community and besieged by unknowable forces inside their own home, it’s no surprise that the Smurls would eventually turn to the Warrens for help.

Having previously helped the mother of a local professor with her own supernatural issues, the Warrens were recommended to the Smurls as the only ones capable of putting a definitive stop to their daily horror. It’s here that we find most of the documented information on the Smurl haunting, as Ed and Lorraine Warren (with the help of their psychic nurse friend Rosemary Frueh) kept extensive records of the investigation that occurred throughout 1986.

The first thing that stood out to the ghost-busting couple was the fact that the Smurls hadn’t actually done anything to open a doorway for these otherworldly entities, with Ed Warren explaining that the family was simply one of “The Chosen” – people who are selected to take part in a cosmic game beyond their control. The Warrens then identified four distinct entities that shared the house with the family. Three of these were human spirits, and the last one was a purely demonic force that fed on its victims’ fear. Over the course of several months, Ed and Lorraine accumulated several hours worth of audio recordings containing noise that they claimed was caused by the demon, as well as a collection of notes and photographs.

The Warrens discuss the Succubus.

Of course, the spirits weren’t going to relinquish their hold on the Smurls so easily, so the Warrens allegedly experienced frequent poltergeist activity, temperature drops and even shadowy apparitions as they played Gregorian chants on loop and prayed for the family’s safety. At one point, Ed claims to have found a message scrawled onto a mirror, with the Demon ominously demanding that he and Lorraine get out. While the Warrens never reached a definitive conclusion with their investigation (which is why this is still known as the once case they never really solved), the Smurls claimed that another round of blessings and prayers eventually returned their lives to normal.

However, as is usually the case with this kind of paranormal phenomena, skeptics expressed doubt that the house on Cape Street was actually haunted. Critics ended up exposing medical records proving that Jack’s judgement was impaired by brain surgery conducted in 1983, and most paranormal investigators revealed that their visits saw zero evidence of a supernatural presence. Several psychologists (and at least one theologist) also insisted that there were less-than-demonic explanations for the family’s ordeal, with some skeptics citing the lack of independent observers to discredit the Warrens’ investigation. Even the Catholic church claimed that none of the priests who visited the property experienced anything unusual, though Janet Smurl was adamant that a Vatican-approved priest had performed a series of unsuccessful exorcisms – with the evil entity allegedly moving from one room to another in order to escape the ritual.

‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’

Regardless of its veracity, the Smurl case became such an infamous incident that it spawned a surprisingly effective TV movie back in 1991, with Robert Mandel’s The Haunted even going on to inspire James Wan’s first Conjuring film. However, if you’d like more information on the original story, I’d recommend checking out the book the movie is based on, The Haunted: One Family’s Nightmare, as well as Ed and Lorraine’s interviews about the event.

At the end of the day, whether or not you believe in the preternatural details of this incident is up for you to decide. However, despite my own reputation as a skeptic, I can still appreciate the eerie thrills of a good ghost story, and I think the Smurl Haunting has a lot of potential when it comes to frightening audiences in the latest entry of the Conjuring Universe. That’s why I can’t wait to see how Michael Chaves handles our farewell to this big-screen iteration of the Warrens.

The Conjuring: Last Rites will release in theaters September 5, 2025.