In 1986, paranormal investigators and married couple Ed and Lorraine Warren came to the aid of the Smurl family who reported their house was haunted. The parents, Jack and Janet Smurl, resided in Pennsylvania with four daughters and Jack’s parents.
Thirty-nine years later on September 5th 2025, was the day I watched the new Conjuring movie. I smuggled in a bag of candy, chocolate, and a water bottle in my disheveled purse to avoid being scammed at the concession stand. I tried to inconspicuously pass off my purse as just another purse that totally didn’t have a weird bulge coming out the side of it. But ultimately, the theatre employees aren’t paid enough to care.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is the fourth and final installment in the film series and focuses on the Smurl family as well as the Warrens’ daughter. The Warrens retire their investigative duties due to Ed suffering a heart attack in the last film and cannot risk another one. Their daughter becomes engaged and instead of this momentous occasion leading to happily ever after, Judy is pulled to the Smurl family because she feels an attachment to their possessed mirror. This chain of events temporarily forces the Warrens’ out of retirement to aid in the exorcism of the three spirits.
I was looking forward to this movie since I found out in the summer that there was going to be a final one. As fall encroached and as the wind began to carry a slight chill, there were people online who were warning others to not view the movie because there was a demonic entity attached to it that would latch onto you.
As someone who survived the film, I can assure you (at least for now) that there was no demonic entity that followed me home.
All throughout my life, I’ve heard of countless malevolent spirits such as Bloody Mary, rituals like the Scarecrow Ritual, and cautions against using ouija boards. While I’ve been the girl I’ve always been, there were times where I embodied the old saying, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.” I was prone to having my beliefs swayed as a kid, but even then I never saw anything with my own two eyes.
Many people can believe in something even if that something does not have a tangible form. The mere concept of it is enough to convince them it’s real. Maybe I’m a little cynical, but ever since I stopped believing in Santa Claus, the world has significantly become less magical.
In my last year of high school, I had a psychology unit in my Challenge and Change class where my teacher told us there was a sub-section of psychology called para-psychology that studies the paranormal. She then proceeded to ask the class about our own paranormal experiences and even shared one of her own.
I’m more of a skeptic when it comes to anything that is beyond the scope of scientific explanation. Everyone around me has had some sort of paranormal experience and claims that ghosts exist. I’ve never had an experience despite my efforts to try and make it happen.
A friend of mine owns a ouija board and we’ve gone down to her basement to talk to whatever entity would entertain our insufferable bombardment of stupid questions. The planchette did move, but there are psychological factors that can debunk this so-called paranormal phenomenon. The BBC talked about the ideomotor effect: small movements people make without realizing it. There is no magic or spirit behind it.
Even though I don’t believe in anything paranormal or supernatural, I still hold fascination in the idea of believing there is something more than human and animal existence. According to another article from the BBC (even the news outlet can’t contain their fascination with ghosts), some people’s minds will fill in the blanks where it sees fit. An example they used was a man standing under certain lighting where he couldn’t make out the contours of his face, so his mind projected an image of him looking much older and haggard than he actually was. The brain does the same thing after a death, natural disaster, or some other tragedy in order to shield the person from the harsh realities that come with life.
I find that humans often hold the habit of needing to point the finger at someone or something when inexplicable and horrendous events happen. It’s hard to accept that life likes to throw rock hard lemons at you just for laughs. When there isn’t anyone to pin the blame on, some may try to rationalize it by making something up in their head.
Sometimes I think about going the extra mile and sleeping in a haunted house to further prove my skepticism. Maybe I’d even touch the dybbuk box: a box that will bring great misfortune and holds the title of being the most “haunted object.” Even rapper Post Malone spoke about his bad experiences after his encounter with this item. Could it be a coincidence, or could it actually be cursed? I’d say that coincidences are more likely than curses.
Now in somewhat seriousness, I can say for sure that I would be the first to die in a horror movie. So, good thing ghosts aren’t real. And as much as I love the on-screen Warren couple portrayed by Vera Fermiga and Patrick Wilson, the actual Warren’s were most likely frauds.
Skeptics provided possible explanations for the Smurl family haunting such as Jack Smurl undergoing surgery to remove water from his brain, which could result in hallucinations. There was even a priest that spent two nights at the Smurl house and found no sign of demonic activity.
In an interview with NPR, horror author Grady Hendrix debunks these paranormal experiences. Sadly, some of the people that the Warrens were supposedly helping had histories of substance abuse, mental health crises, and trauma which can sometimes be chalked up to demonic possession that apparently require an exorcism. There’s a lot to say about real life exorcisms that I will address in a different article because this one is already quite long.
All in all, there is always some science to support that spiritual entities are not real and that they most likely are a figment of imagination.