Ghosts, haunted houses, and other generally spooky things that tend to go “bump” in the night. They have long been staples of horror cinema, and of horror literature for even longer. These things have also been synonymous with Halloween for as long as one can remember. As such, it’s really no surprise that they make their way into our Halloween Horrors series quite regularly. In fact*, if I were to go back through the long history of this series (and I didn’t), I would be able to find a film dealing with ghosts and/or haunted houses in each and every year of this (mostly) annual series. We have a few films being discussed during this year’s series to help carry on that legacy. Today’s entry is the first.

Melody Vena first joined us back in 2018, closing out that year’s Halloween Horrors series with her thoughts on a more modern-day Halloween staple, 2007’s Trick r’ Treat.  Mel has been with us each of the following years, taking a look at the “Conjuring Universe” with last year’s take on 2014’s Annabelle. She returns to that same universe with this year’s submission; a look at the latest entry in the Conjuring film series, 2025’s Last Rites. As always, it’s an honor to have Melody join us for another Halloween season.

With the theme of “Haunted House & Cursed Objects”, here’s Melody on…

 

The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

Some spirits don’t rest. Some stories don’t end.

The 2025 horror film The Conjuring: Last Rites unearths one of the most disturbing and controversial paranormal cases in American history: The Smurl Haunting.

Between 1974 and 1989, Jack and Janet Smurl claimed that a demonic presence tormented their family in their modest duplex home in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. What started as flickering lights and mysterious thumps escalated into a terrifying ordeal involving unseen forces, psychological torment, and disturbing physical attacks.

It wasn’t long before the case gained national attention—and divided public opinion.

Jack and Janet Smurl’s claims were met with a whirlwind of reactions: curiosity, horror, skepticism, and sympathy. They described a relentless evil that left claw marks, hurled their dog against a wall, mimicked voices of loved ones, and even attacked family members in their sleep.

Their account drew the attention of renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who investigated the home and declared it the site of a powerful, non-human entity. Ed Warren claimed to have witnessed chilling phenomena: plummeting temperatures, furniture shaking violently, and a dark mass that moved with intelligence and malevolence.

The case was chronicled in the 1986 book “The Haunted”, written by journalist Robert Curran with the Smurls and the Warrens. Five years later, it was adapted into a 1991 made-for-TV movie of the same name, The Haunted, produced by 20th Century Fox—a somber and unsettling dramatization that brought the Smurl family’s nightmare into living rooms across America.

 

But now, decades later, the story returns—in the hands of the “Conjuring Universe”.

In this spine-tingling new chapter, Last Rites reimagines the Smurl haunting with deeper psychological horror, unnerving atmosphere, and the signature dread that has defined The Conjuring films.

The story begins with the Smurls moving into their new home: a two-story duplex shared with Jack’s parents and their four daughters—Dawn, Heather, and twins Carin and Shannon. During a birthday celebration, a large antique mirror gifted by grandfather John finds its way into the house—an object that slowly becomes the eye of the storm.

The family’s happiness begins to unravel:

• A heavy kitchen light falls without warning

• Whispers call out from empty rooms

• Shadowy figures drift through hallways

• And something begins to stalk them… especially the children

When their oldest daughters attempt to rid the house of the mysterious mirror, the malevolence surges. Jack experiences a violent encounter that forces the family to confront an unbearable truth: something is inside their home, and it is not leaving.

Desperate and exhausted, the Smurls go public with their story—risking ridicule and disbelief in order to find help.

The Conjuring: Last Rites honors the eerie legacy of The Haunted (1991) while expanding its reach and emotional weight. More than just a ghost story, it is a meditation on faith, fear, and the invisible scars trauma can leave behind. The film lingers not just with jump scares, but with the creeping suggestion that some hauntings aren’t confined to the walls of a house—they live on in memory, in mirrors, and in the cracks of silence we try to ignore.

The film leaves viewers with a lingering unease. The kind that follows you into the hallway after the credits roll. The kind that makes you pause before looking in a mirror. Or listening too closely to a voice that sounds almost familiar.

Because in The Conjuring: Last Rites, the most terrifying thing isn’t what you see.

It’s what follows you home.