Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga on filming ‘Conjuring: Last Rites’
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reflect on the emotional and physical intensity of filming “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”
Light spoilers ahead for “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (in theaters now), so beware if you want to go in completely cold.
For the closing chapter of “The Conjuring,” James Wan went back to his childhood.
As a kid growing up in Australia, the head of the “Conjuring” franchise was introduced to the real-life exploits of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren through a TV movie called “The Haunted” starring Sally Kirkland. Based on the Pennsylvania haunting of the Smurl family, the film sent him down a research rabbit hole to find out all about the Warrens – a fascination that eventually turned into a hugely successful horror-movie universe.
So when it came time to craft Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s swan song as the Warrens in “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” Wan was inspired to base the installment on the Smurls. “It just felt right,” says the cowriter/producer. “The movie that we are saying goodbye with is the same case that I started out with them on.”
Set in 1986, “Last Rites” pulls from different aspects of the Warrens’ work, weaving an infamous conjuring mirror into the scary stuff that unfolds for the Smurls. And it’s not just Ed and Lorraine who have to deal with the supernatural threat: Their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) and her fiancé Tony (Ben Hardy) also become involved in the demonic affair. (Not to mention, Ed’s a little iffy on Tony at first.)
Like all of the “Conjuring” movies, “Last Rites” puts a Hollywood spin on the Warrens’ paranormal legend, and director Michael Chaves breaks down what’s real and what’s fictional:
Did the Smurl family haunting involve multiple spirits, as in ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’?
“Last Rites” puts the Smurl family through the wringer when teenage Heather (Kila Lord Cassidy) receives an ornate wooden mirror as a confirmation present from her grandparents. It becomes the worst gift ever, unleashing holy hell on the family until Ed and Lorraine are called to help.
The Smurl case was one of the most high-profile in the real Warrens’ long career, and the movie even includes a Larry King clip from the ‘80s. Chaves references specific happenings, like a family member falling down the stairs and a dog being thrown into the wall. Jack Smurl claimed a demon sexually assaulted him, which Lorraine Warren identified as a succubus, and in the movie, when the dad is levitated above his bed, it becomes “the breaking point in the family,” Chaves says.
The director consulted with the four Smurl sisters for “Last Rites” – the family felt “The Haunted” never did their story justice – but there were liberties taken. For one, there was no demonic mirror involved. The Warrens said there were four spirits in the house (including a demon); the film features three (including an axe-wielding man) with a tragic backstory. Plus, the Smurls were haunted for a much longer time frame: Chaves says the sisters “all believe that this entity has followed them into their own separate lives, into their own separate families.”
Is there really a conjuring mirror with freaky baby heads?
“Last Rites” opens in the 1960s, with a young Ed (Orion Smith) and Lorraine (Madison Lawlor) on one of their first cases. They investigate strange goings-on at an antique store, and pregnant Lorraine touches a mirror that sends her into early labor. This is the cursed object that shows up at the Smurls, though the actual conjuring mirror – long a mainstay in the Warrens’ Occult Museum, alongside the infamous Annabelle – was obtained from a man in New Jersey.
The movie gives the haunted mirror a freaky renovation, adding three carved faces of two cherubic babies and a maternal figure. “It was almost like this evil mother was there at Judy’s birth and has now come back to her,” Chaves says.
Did a Smurl sister really vomit bloody glass shards?
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ stars return for a demonic finale
Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) tussle with personal matters – as well as a demon – in horror film “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”
The first crazy thing that happens to the movie Smurls is when a kitchen chandelier almost falls on them, though the most visceral is when oldest sister Dawn Smurl (Beau Gadsdon) suddenly vomits up pieces of glass, leaving the sink and her face a bloody mess.
The shards are a more extreme version of what the sisters told Chaves about, where one of the younger sisters would have episodes of throwing up “whenever the Warrens would arrive,” the director says. And using the glass “honestly felt like an opportunity to go bigger, and we could do that with the older sister a little bit more effectively and it might not be too traumatic.”
Was Judy Warren ever possessed by an evil spirit?
The Warrens’ daughter is at the center of two harrowing situations in “Last Rites.” In the opening, Lorraine is rushed to the hospital in labor and gives birth, but newborn Judy doesn’t make a sound, making it seem like she might be dead until she cries. The other is later on in the movie as Judy, who shows signs of clairvoyance and a connection to the supernatural like her mom, becomes possessed by the entity haunting the Smurls.
Chaves heard there were “some complications” with Judy’s birth, so the movie version is “our own interpretation of that,” he says. The real Judy has talked about her psychic abilities, but “from what I understand, she was never possessed by a demon. So thank God.” The director does reveal that eagle-eyed viewers will be able to spot cameos in the movie from the real Judy and Tony. (Hint: Look for folks that Farmiga’s Lorraine says hi to.)
Did the real Tony botch his proposal to Judy Warren?
The new “Conjuring” doesn’t have a ton of lighter moments, but one is when Tony plays Ed, wins handily, and then afterward messes up asking Ed and Lorraine for their blessing to get engaged. Lorraine seems cool with it, Ed not so much, and then Judy comes in and hears what’s going on, leading Tony to prematurely pop the question. (She of course says yes.)
Chaves confirms that the table tennis part of the story is fictionalized. He wanted “some kind of competition with them” since there was friction from the beginning of Judy and Tony’s relationship, so the director pitched a moment like the “Top Gun” volleyball sequence “to see the rivalry” and let the two guys “express themselves.”
In real life, Tony and Ed “had a really great relationship,” Chaves adds, though the other aspect of the scene was more autobiographical: “It was both a botched proposal and a very tenuous blessing.”
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