If you’ve spent any time hiding behind your blanket during The Conjuring movies, you might want to take a seat for this one. Chris McKinnell, the grandson of Ed and Lorraine Warren, doesn’t hold back when discussing the Warner Bros. franchise. Talking to Reel Appreciation hosts Maria Elizabeth Darnell and David Clair-Bennett, he said flat out called The Conjuring movies “absolute fantasies”, pointing out that there’s “nothing at all real about them.” And that includes the upcoming The Conjuring: Last Rites.
McKinnell runs The Warren Legacy Foundation for Paranormal Research and has spent years around his grandparents, so when he says the films are off, he means it. He adds that the first movie was “fairly accurate,” though even then, his grandfather never actually performed an exorcism. Everything after that is basically Hollywood getting creative. McKinnell calls the second film ridiculous and said the supposed Amityville and Enfield hauntings had minimal actual involvement from his grandparents. The third movie, he claims, leaned on Ouija boards rather than actual witchcraft cases. As for the one hitting theaters this month, McKinnell says The Conjuring: Last Rites is pure fantasy. “I’m not even going to see it,” he admitted.
“They’re trying to build up a new TV series spin-off and it has no relation to reality. My mom has never had anything to do with the paranormal. Her husband has never had anything to do with it other than lecturing. Um, but they want to, you know, it’s Hollywood. They want to keep making money,” McKinnell continues, describing the franchise as fantasy.
Despite the dramatization, the real Smurl case, which The Conjuring: Last Rites draws from, was strange enough on its own. In 1973, Jack and Janet Smurl moved into a house in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, after Hurricane Agnes displaced them. They shared the home with Jack’s parents, and soon after moving in, small things started happening, like doors opening, toilets flushing on their own. By 1986, the disturbances escalated. Jack claimed demons assaulted him, objects flew, his children were thrown down stairs, and even their dog got caught in the chaos. The Smurls called in a Connecticut priest for exorcisms, but the attempts failed. Skeptics like Paul Kurtz, chairman for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, dismissed the case as “a hoax, a charade, a ghost story,” and suggested psychological evaluations. The Warrens, though, got involved in January 1986.
For the film adaptation, Patrick Wilson returns as Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga returns as Lorraine Warren for what has been called their final Conjuring movie. James Wan, the producer, emphasized wrapping the series emotionally while still delivering scares. “I always say people come to the Conjuring films for the scares, but they really stick around for Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson,” Wan told CinemaBlend.
The real-life Smurls, exaggerated or not, set the stage for this finale. The Conjuring: Last Rites opens on 5 September 2025. You can decide whether you’re here for the terror, the performances, or the fantasy of the film.
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