Now that the writer’s and actor’s strike is over, Hollywood can return to doing what it does best; making horror movies. One of the best is The Conjuring franchise which is overdue for another sequel. Rest assured, another one has been confirmed titled The Conjuring: Last Rites, but details of the plot are, as IMDb says, “under wraps.”
The Conjuring series of movies are based on demonologist Ed and Lorraine Warren’s most famous real-life cases of hauntings and demonic possessions. Spin-offs like Annabelle and The Nun are not directly from their casefiles; they are stand-alone “fictionalized” properties.
Last we left Ed and Lorraine in the cinematic universe “The Devil Made Me Do It”; they were finishing up a court case wherein one of their clients was on trial for murder. He claimed that a demon had overtaken his body and forced him to commit the crime. This scenario was not in the storytelling realm that the Warrens usually investigate. The couple usually help families living in haunted houses.
Therefore, it is up in the air as to what the fourth installment will be about. Apparently, there was a since-removed post-credits scene at the end of the last movie that set up the situation for the next one, but director Michael Chaves and the other filmmakers involved decided to cut it perhaps not wanting to make promises they couldn’t keep for Conjuring 4.
So we did some investigating of our own and found some Warren cases that might make for great stories should filmmakers need any ideas. Or, since part four’s plot is being kept secret, what potential cases the movie could be about.
The Snekeder House
It’s 1986 and Al Snedeker has just rented a house in Southington, Connecticut for his family. After they moved in, they made a grim discovery in the basement which led them to the realization that the house was once a funeral home. The family suffered lots of phenomena such as the ever-present smell of decomposing flesh and they even sexual assault. Their eldest son got most of the attention as he claimed to see the ghosts that never moved on. The Snedekers contacted the Warrens for help and they confirmed that the dead clients of the former business were mad because the funeral director had desecrated their bodies. This was the inspiration for “A Haunting in Connecticut” but might make a great remake under The Conjuring banner.
The Smurl Haunting
While everyone was engrossed in the Amityville haunting in the 70s, other families were suffering at the hands of unknown forces. For instance, Jack and Janet Smurl moved into a duplex on Chase Street West Pittston in Pennsylvania in 1975. Janet was the first to experience the activity. She would hear noises, see shadow figures run across the room, and even get touched inappropriately by invisible hands. The entity would allegedly torment the family dog, and push people down the stairs. The Warrens confirmed that a demon was present and claim it even started focusing on them.
The Amityville Haunting
Probably the most overdone story about a haunted house, but still remains the most famous. This, like “The Haunting in Connecticut,” might make a great Warren interpretation under the production of James Wan. If you need a recap, the Lutzes moved into their Long Island dream home in 1975. The Dutch Colonial-style home was a steal and the family even came to terms with the fact that only a year before it was the scene of a mass family shooting by the previous owner’s son Ron DeFeo Jr. It wasn’t long after the Lutz’s moved in before they encountered possessions, loud banging noises, swarms of flies and “bleeding walls.” The Lutz’s famously only stayed in the house for 28 days, and the Warrens were called in to do a cleansing.
The Donovan family
The Donovan family haunting played out much like the Amityville one, but this one was allegedly started by their daughter Patty who used a spirit board for an entire year, communicating with what she said was a young boy. The spirit would compliment Patty and foretell her future. But things began to get out of hand as the family’s cars would inexplicably be toyed with, wallpaper would unstick itself, running water would turn into blood, and beastly snarls would emanate from the walls. One year, it rained rocks on the house. Eventually, the Warrens were called in to investigate and they discovered that Patty had not been communicating with a young boy through the Ouija board at all, but a malevolent demon. A priest was eventually called in to cleanse the house, which apparently worked.
The Case of Maurice Theriault
This one is an odd story about Maurice Theriault who is said to have been possessed by a demon. Theriault was a farmer whose nickname was Frenchy. Although there is a reference to Frenchy in The Nun, his real story has yet to be told. In real life people said Frenchy had two sides; a caring and loving side toward adults but very abusive toward children. He developed near super-human strength and had knowledge of people and places that he didn’t know. The people in the New England town in which he lived began to notice Frenchie would sometimes appear bloody. They also say that he would appear in two places at once.
The Warrens themselves claimed that they saw Frenchy bleeding from his eyes and words appearing on his back. The Catholic Church got involved and performed an exorcism on Frenchy which they say was successful.