What’s The Smurl Family Case?

The Conjuring: Last Rites sees paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, take on their final haunting, one inspired by a true story at the center of The Conjuring universe.

According to USA Today, co-writer and producer James Wan, who directed The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, said that the final chapter shows the Warrens focusing on the Pennsylvania haunting of the Smurl family. Wan learned of the Smurls as a kid after watching a TV movie called The Haunted, based on their story.

“It just felt right,” Wan told USA Today. “The movie that we are saying goodbye with is the same case that I started out with them on.”

Last Rites takes inspiration from the Smurl family and other areas of the real-life Warrens’ work. In the film, the fictional Smurls go on a harrowing roller-coaster ride after teenage Heather, played by Kila Lord Cassidy, receives a conjuring mirror.

Like the previous Conjuring movies, the Warrens intervene, but this time their daughter Judy, played by Mia Tomlinson, and her fiancé Tony, played by Ben Hardy, get swept up into their work.

Last Rites sees both families put through the wringer, but what about the real-life Smurls and Warrens? Wan consulted with four Smurl sisters, representing the family, who never felt The Haunted accurately depicted their story, to help bring Last Rites to life. But the film isn’t completely biographical.

Read on to find out what happened in real life and what was fiction in Last Rites.

Were the real Smurls haunted via a demonic mirror?

The movie begins with the Warrens in the 1960s as a young couple with a baby on the way. When they’re looking into potentially paranormal activity in an antique store, a pregnant Lorraine touches a mirror that sends her into early labor. That mirror is the same one that gets into Heather’s hands.

The actual conjuring mirror had a long tenure in the real Warrens’ Occult Museum with the infamous Annabelle doll, and the mirror was actually acquired by a man in New Jersey.

The mirror in the movie has different details than the actual mirror. The fictional one includes three carved faces of two cherubic babies and a maternal looking figure.

“It was almost like this evil mother was there at Judy’s birth and has now come back to her,” Last Rites director Michael Chaves told USA Today.

Were the real Smurls haunted by three spirits?

The amount of spirits haunting the Smurl home was changed in the film as well. The real Warrens said four spirits were present, including a demon. In Last Rites, the fictional Smurls are haunted by three, including a man with an axe.

The real Smurls were also haunted for a much longer time than their Last Rites counterparts. Last Rites director Michael Chaves said the sisters “all believe that this entity has followed them into their own separate lives, into their own separate families.”

Did one of the real Smurl sisters vomit glass?

One of the more gruesome things to happen to the fictional Smurls in the movie happens when oldest sister Dawn Smurl, played by Beau Gadsdon, vomits up pieces of glass. While this didn’t happen to the real Smurls, it was inspired by a real incident where one of the younger sisters would vomit “whenever the Warrens would arrive,” Chaves said.

Chaves said adding the glass “honestly felt like an opportunity to go bigger, and we could do that with the older sister a little bit more effectively and it might not be too traumatic.”

Did the real Judy have a connection to the supernatural, like Lorraine?

In Last Rites, when Lorraine gives birth to her and Ed’s daughter Judy, the newborn baby doesn’t make a sound, suggesting she may be dead, until she cries. Later on in the movie, Judy starts to show signs of having a similar connection to the supernatural like Lorraine, eventually becoming possessed by the spirit haunting the Smurls.

Chaves explained that they learned there were “some complications” with Judy’s birth, so Judy’s lack of crying at birth and her clairvoyant connection is “our own interpretation of that.” However, the real Judy was described possessing her own psychic abilities but, according to Chaves, “from what I understand, she was never possessed by a demon. So thank God.”

Did the real Tony botch his proposal to Judy?

Last Rites offers viewers a break from the supernatural when Tony and Ed play a game of table tennis and Tony beats him. Soon thereafter, Tony botches asking the Warrens for their blessing to propose to Judy. Lorraine appears to support him getting on bended knee, but Ed isn’t convinced. That’s when Judy comes in and hears what they’re talking about, prompting Tony to propose earlier than expected. She says yes.

Chaves told USA Today that the table tennis part of the story did not happen in real life. It was added to the film to show “some kind of competition with them” as Judy and Tony’s relationship wasn’t always smooth sailing. The real-life Tony and Ed “had a really great relationship,” Chaves added.

The rest of Judy and Tony’s proposal story, however, is closer to what really happened.

“It was both a botched proposal and a very tenuous blessing,” Chaves said.

The post ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Real-Life Story, Explained: What’s The Smurl Family Case? appeared first on Blavity.