7 Facts to Know About the Real Life Smurl Family Haunting That ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Is Based on

Knowing that the stories in the Conjuring movies are based on real events is part of what makes the franchise so scary. Even Vera Farmiga (the actress who portrays Lorraine Warren) has said she’d only read the Warrens’ biography on planes because the real events freaked her out too much. The latest and final Conjuring movie, The Conjuring: Last Rites is now in theaters, and it’s based on one of the most intense hauntings Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated in their career.

What happened to the Smurl family?

In August 1973 the Smurl family moved into a duplex on Chase Street in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Jack and Janet lived in one duplex with their two daughters and their parents, John and Mary, lived in the other. The family claimed there was a demonic presence in the home that resulted in disturbing noises, odor and activities and culminated in physical injury to their dog and multiple family members. In 1986 Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated and confirmed that paranormal activity was occurring in the home.

Here are some of the creepiest details about the Smurl hauting, which is portrayed in The Conjuring: Last Rites:

1. The very first sign the Smurl family had that their home was haunted was that their television set burst into flames. They also found an odd stain on the carpet the same day. The pipes started to leak and continued even after a plumber resoldered them. The Smurls would also find long scratches on their painted walls, like those that might be done by a cat, which they did not have. As the haunting continued the family would experience the toilets flushing on their own, a “sour” smell that wouldn’t leave, ghostly footsteps, drawers opening, furniture moving and electronics unplugging themselves.

2. Janet and Mary Smurl both claimed to have seen a 5’9 shadow figure in their duplex’s kitchen. Jack Smurl said he was attacked by a “scale-covered entity with a young girl’s body and an old woman’s head.” Mary Smurl said she was attacked by a shadow figure/incubus in bed while experiencing sleep paralysis. One of the Smurl daughters was pushed down the stairs and the family dog was thrown into the wall.

3. Why didn’t the Smurl family just move? Many people assume the haunting is a hoax becuase the family lived there for so long despite the haunting. The family says this is because the entity could follow them anywhere, so moving wouldn’t help. The haunting followed the family on vacation to the Poconos and Jack Smurl experienced activity while at work.

4. The Catholic Church performed two exorcisms, which the Smurls say just pissed the entity off. After going on a local television show in an attempt to get help, Jack Smurl says he was attacked by the entity manifested as a “half-man, half-pig creature.” Janet Smurl says this was when “a human hand rose up through the mattress to grab her by the back of the neck.”

5. When called to investigate, Ed Warren said the home was haunted by “three minor spirits and a powerful, evil demon.” The Smurls worked with the Warrens to write and publish their version of events, The Haunting: One Family’s Nightmare. It became a made-for-television movie of the same name in 1991.

6. A philosophy professor investigated the Smurl family’s claims and said it was a hoax. Paul Kurtz was a philosophy professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and then-chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Inquiry who said the Smurl “haunting” was a charade and the family should submit to a psych eval. Further placing doubt on the haunting claims, Jack Smurl told a paper that he had “surgery to remove water from his brain in 1983 because he had been experiencing short-term memory loss due to a case of meningitis in his youth.”

7. After the Smurls moved out of the house in 1988, the next owner said she has never experienced any paranormal activity in the house.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is in now in theaters.

Further reading:

• The Real Story of the ‘Haunted’ Annabelle Doll
• Ed and Lorraine Warren Movies: Films Inspired by the Paranormal Investigators
• 76+ Scary Movies Based on True Stories