(This article contains discussions on sexual assault.)
In the years between 1974-1989, the Smurl family was allegedly being tormented by a demonic entity that decided to break them apart for no apparent reason other than it could. It’s the type of story that made The Exorcist so frightening to audiences. In the absence of intention, anyone could be a target for paranormal torture or possession. The haunting made headlines, most notably because the family went to the press in an attempt to get a church-sanctioned exorcism of their West Pittston, Pennsylvania house. Famed demonologists Ed & Lorraine Warren investigated the Smurls’ spiritual afflictions, but they were unsuccessful in driving the demon out.
The Smurl family haunting might not be as widely remembered as the Amityville haunting or the Enfield poltergeist case in the UK, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t try to rub shoulders with them. Like the Amityville case, the case had extensive media coverage, and it all eventually led to the publication of a “non-fiction” book called The Haunted (1988), written by Robert Curran in collaboration with the Warrens and the Smurls. The book was a tell-all account that promised to reveal the truths behind the family’s fight with demonic intimidation. The fourth main entry in the powerhouse horror franchise The Conjuring, subtitled “Last Rites,” will bring this case to the mainstream spotlight once more. But before that, the Smurls got their chance at fame (or infamy) with a 1991 made-for-television movie titled after their book, The Haunted.
Starring Sally Kirkland as Janet Smurl and Jeffrey DeMunn as Jack Smurl, and directed by Robert Mandel (who directed the pilot episode of The X-Files), the movie chronicles the family’s haunting in detail with an emphasis on their struggles on finding the spiritual help they needed to drive the malicious entity out. It goes the classic route haunted house movies take, going from disbelief to undeniability to spiritual conflict in the span of its runtime. One scene sets it apart from other haunted house yarns: the sexual assault of Jack Smurl by the hands of a succubus. The demon is shown sexually assaulting both him and Janet, but it’s the husband who gets the more brutal attack in the movie.
It’s interesting that they went with Jack for this part of the haunting. Whenever an entity uses sex to oppress the family in other movies, it usually goes for a female victim. The Exorcist (1973) is perhaps the most classic example of this, but Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982) and Sidney J. Furie’s The Entity (1982) are also well within this realm. In fact, The Entity (based on a real account) centers entirely on a single mom from California that is constantly being sexually assaulted by a ghost. It’s shot in a very graphic manner and it’s one of the most unique haunted house stories out there because of it.
What everyone will want to know if they come across this movie after the release of The Conjuring: Last Rites trailer is how the Warrens figure into the story. Ed and Lorraine show up almost at the halfway point, and they’re presented as the first and only people who readily believe and help the Smurls with their ghost problem.
Much like James Wan’s The Conjuring movies do, The Haunted affords the Warrens a lot of good faith public relations work. Played by Stephen Markle and Diane Baker respectively, they quickly established as scholar-like personalities that treat the paranormal with the seriousness it deserves. They’re soft spoken and approachable, demonologists of the people. They might not be the heroes of the story, but they do point the Smurls in the right direction towards getting the church to approve an exorcism. In a sense, without the Warrens’ intervention, the family would be playing with an incomplete playbook against the Devil.
The Haunted is not a Ed & Lorraine Warren movie, though. It’s first and foremost a haunted family movie. It excels at capturing the constant state of oppression a haunting causes. The paranormal attacks grow in intensity, the family starts feeling less safe the more time they spend at their house, and the horror crescendos until desperate measures became inescapable. The demon that’s authoring the Smurls’ misfortune becomes angrier too as the struggle unfolds. It turns everything into a fight for the souls of everyone in the household, and a lot of great scares manifest at just the right moments for a tense time throughout.
This is perhaps where The Haunted squanders its chance to stand out from the other haunted house movies that came before it. Director Robert Mandel borrows too freely from Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror (1979), and The Entity for his movie to have a distinct feel all its own. There’s a splash of The Exorcist there as well, but as homage more than storytelling device (to be fair).
For instance, The Haunted takes the ghostly sexual assaults from The Entity (down to the invisible hands pressing down on the skin of the woman) for its succubus scene; it takes the house’s exorcism from Poltergeist, complete with the involvement of a Lorraine Warren stand-in character called Tangina Barrons (played by Zelda Rubinstein); and from Amityville it takes the deteriorating family dynamics component almost wholesale. That said, The Haunted is a far superior film than The Amityville Horror. It’s smarter with its scares and proves more effective in building an atmosphere possessed by paranormal anxiety.
These are all great movies to take from, but it does leave the movie gasping for originality a bit. The story also indulges in the satanic panic spreading across the country at the time. At one point, Janet Smurl uncovers the supposed dark history of the land where their house was built. There’s talk of pagan symbols and ritualistic objects organized in the shape of pentagrams found in the area before it was all cleared for housing development. It’s not a massive plot point, but it’s clear enough to make the connection. This is also similar to Poltergeist, where it’s revealed the house in that story was built on top of old burial grounds.
The performances do save the movie, and make it a compelling watch. Kirkland and DeMunn succeed in showing the strain of the haunting on their bodies. They look tired and worn down, making it easy to empathize with them. Kirkland in particular manages to step up as the strongest member of the family when needed, only to tag out and let DeMunn take the lead when it fits the story. It’s a glowing dynamic that gives the movie that sense of identity it so desperately needs.
So, is The Haunted basically The Conjuring 4? The answer is, not quite. Given the official story mentions that the Warrens were unsuccessful in exorcising the Smurls’ house, it’ll be interesting to see how the movie will address this glaring loss in the careers of its charismatic demonologists (if you buy into their story). But that isn’t to do with The Haunted. The Smurls are the focus, not their saviors. If anything, the movie argues salvation lies in the family itself, in its togetherness. Outside help is just that. Ultimately, it’s the family who has to take on the bigger responsibility of safeguarding their souls. In developing this idea, The Haunted is among the best to do it, and it makes for a great watch before the Smurls get the Conjuring treatment later this year.
