(WBRE/WYOU) — Do you believe in ghosts? Demonic possession? Those are some of the questions at the center of a newly released supernatural horror movie that focuses on a local family.
The movie is entitled The Conjuring: Last Rites. It's based on the experiences the Smurl family says they endured for years in their Luzerne County home.
28/22 News I-Team Reporter Andy Mehalshick reported extensively on the Smurl case in the 1980s.
This is not the first movie made about the Smurl family haunting.
There was a movie made back in 1991, but the current movies have people in Northeastern Pennsylvania talking.
The Conjuring: Last Rites tells the story of the Smurl family of West Pittston and the dark experiences they say they endured in their house, including seeing dark figures in the house, being physically attacked by demons, and levitations.
Their story captured national attention. In 1991, the Fox television network aired the movie, The Haunted.
Mehalshick watched it the night it aired with the new owners of the house.
"She said she was working in the kitchen, she noticed a black figure, possibly that of a man," Mehalshick said in 1991.
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Mehalshick spoke with Eric Mintel, a paranormal investigator who has experienced similar haunting in his work.
"There could be some spirits that could be mean that could be throwing things and making themselves known," Mintel told 28/22 News.
Mintel says he always enters these kinds of cases on a skeptical note: Can they be explained away?
"I think there are certain people connected to the spirit world," Mintel added.
"Was the movie scary?" Mehalshick asked.
"Yes!" Marisol Massasllo from West Pittston replied.
Massallo came to the former Smurl home on Monday to take photos.
"Well, I was intrigued. I seen the movie last night, so I said, 'Hey, I wanted to see how it looks, the house looks. I wanted to see. I just wanted to feel the vibes,'" Massallo continued.
28/22 News reached out to a Smurl family member for comment and did not hear back.
