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The Conjuring franchise has been popular among horror fans for years. It’s been so popular, it’s been called the “Conjuring Universe”. Nine films have been made so far. These films are based on real-life paranormal investigations conducted by Ed and Lorraine Warren. Such cases talked about are: The Amityville Horror Case, The Haunting of the Perron Family, The Annabelle Doll, The Enfield Haunting (Conjuring 2), The Trial of Arne Johnson (Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), and The Haunting in Connecticut (The Snedeker family).

Now the ninth installment will focus on yet another case of the Warrens: The Smurl Haunting.

A couple from West Pittston, Pennsylvania, claimed that they were experiencing a haunting in their home from 1974 to 1989. They experienced loud noises, bad odors, and even physical attacks, such as their dog being thrown against the wall, throwing their daughter down the stairs, and even sexual assault of family members. There has been a book published by the Smurls called “The Haunted” published in 1986. A made-for-TV movie about the Smurl case was made, called “The Haunted” in 1991. And on September 5, 2025, another film was released.

As of September 7, 2025, according to IMDb, it rates 6.5/10 and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, those are just the critic reviews. For the audience, it ranks 79%.

We horror fans know what’s actually good. Personally, I don’t usually listen to focus on the critics’ reviews, just the audience scores.

This movie is definitely in my top favorites in the franchise, because it was a great send-off for the Warrens about their last case. In the beginning, there is a bit of emotion in there as it shows Lorraine pregnant and her going into labor. Honestly, I wouldn’t be conducting a paranormal investigation while pregnant, but to each their own.

The rest of the movie does a lot of build-up. It can get confusing as it shifts from the Warrens to the Smurls.

For the Warrens, it’s mostly positive, aside from Ed’s health from a heart attack he suffered in the previous film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), which focused on thecase of Arne Johnson, which happened in 1981. Despite the Nun II being in between that film and this one, this film is a sequel to The Devil Made Me Do It, as the Arne Johnson case and Smurl case are only five years apart.

This film shows more of the Warrens’ personal life than any other movie, in my opinion. We see Ed’s birthday party celebration, Judy Warren and her would-be fiancé, Tony Spera, and scenes that show the family behind the paranormal investigators. A few comedic scenes with Tony and the Warrens are shown to just ease the tension. However, they deal with some strange occurrences as well. Judy Warren has inherited Lorraine’s gift of clairvoyance, but for some reason, Lorraine has taught her to block it out with a little rhyme. That part I didn’t like, as it really caused a lot of anxiety and distress to Judy.

When it comes to the Smurls, the scenes were tense, scary, and tragic. We see the hauntings and disturbances, and some are pretty disturbing.

I read up on the Smurl case before seeing the movie, so I kind of knew what was expected. Thankfully, the sexual assault wasn’t displayed or even talked about. Just said “he was assaulted”. Also, fair warning to animal lovers, the family dog is supernaturally thrown against the wall. Don’t worry, the dog lived.

This really keeps you on your toes throughout the scenes with the Smurls, fully immersing yourself in the movie. The jump scares were great. I normally don’t like jump scares, because in a lot of movies, it’s needless and sometimes constant, but these didn’t have as many, but when the jump scare came, it was intense, authentic, and not forced.

The ending gave us, the audience, closure. It ended on a happy note, and it left us satisfied with the ending of the Conjuring Universe and the end to the Warrens’ story. My husband and I are fans of the Conjuring series, and even though it’s ended, we’re not too sad about it.

As the saying goes: All good things must come to an end.  

This was written by our contributing writer, Gigi Grindley.