BACK TO CONJURING: THE LAST RITES
Catching up to the Warrens…
MICHAEL CHAVES: I love the ‘80s—I was born in the ‘80s, and The Conjuring: Last Rites is right smack dab mid-‘80s. It’s 1986. And we really dug into the period with the design, music, costumes and things like a Ghostbusters reference. It’s also really interesting to see the Warrens in this phase of their lives. We’ve been on a journey with these characters—we’ve seen them in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. But now, the world has changed. And in many ways, the world’s moved beyond them. I think that’s very powerful—the idea that they’ve retired and now, what they’re doing has become a joke. People have forgotten the impact that they’ve had. I think that’s a really interesting and kind of tense place to start from. And on top of that, they’re struggling with the idea of their daughter all grown up and starting to move on. So, also letting go of her.
The Smurl case…
MICHAEL CHAVES: The Smurl case was a real haunting in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, and it went on from the mid-‘80s into the ‘90s. The Warrens were involved. The Smurls lived in a duplex, with the family living next door to their parents, so three generations. They started experiencing supernatural activity on the day of their daughter’s confirmation—a light fell on them, which is seemingly innocuous. But it escalated over the years to levels that could not be disregarded.
And while the Smurls were going through their haunting, with their family beginning to fall apart—the Warrens are basically retired, they’re out of the game and in a safe spot. We know something is going on with Judy and there’s this dark inevitability that’s hanging over them. That’s a really striking place to start. Your heroes have hung it up. But there’s a sense of unease, because even though it seems like they’re happy, that they’ve dodged a bullet and are no longer taking cases, we know they’re going to get pulled back in. Moreover, we know that that one last job also has every possibility of destroying them.
Diving into the research…
MICHAEL CHAVES: In my movies, if there’s a real case, I’m going to do a deep dive into it, and meet and talk to as many people involved as I can. There’s also obviously research into the period—in The Nun II, I went through all kinds of great 1950s photography that we leaned into as we were making the film. So, we looked at the period, but I also did a lot of Zoom interviews with the four Smurl sisters. Talking to them about their experience was really powerful.
The interesting thing is, over the course of working on these movies—and I’ve heard Peter [Safran] echoing this—I’ve become a believer. And a big part of that is just hearing these experiences. I think it was really hard on the Smurls—it’s not something they wanted to do. They didn’t ask to be haunted, and their friends and neighbors turned against them. They didn’t believe them. They thought they were crackpots. And you come to realize the weight that that put on them. How easy it would have been to say, “We’re making it up.” But it really did weigh on them, and it weighs on them to this day. The other thing I took from speaking to them—something which I’ve always known—is what an impact the real Warrens had on them. It’s easy to fall in love with Patrick and Vera, their versions of Ed and Lorraine, but we have to remember these were real people who went around to these places and tried to help countless people who had nowhere else to turn to. What an impact they had.
The new generation…
MICHAEL CHAVES: Judy is the Warren’s daughter in all the Conjuring movies and in real life. She’s kind of been a secondary character, but in this movie, we wanted to reorient that and really show that their child is the most important thing in their life. We could also start going into a perspective that we hadn’t really thought of, which is, “What is it like to grow up as a Warren? What is it like to grow up in the shadow of your parents? And what is it like to grow up with the power that you’ve inherited from your mother?” This has always been an issue that Judy and Lorraine have struggled with, and we really ran with that. This power has given Judy the ability to see things, and sometimes those things are terrible. Not quite sure how to deal with it, Lorraine gave her the advice to just shut it out. It seemed like a good solution at the time, but it really was just wallpapering over the bigger issue—something that will have to be reckoned with, something that is going to come back and possibly get her. That gave us a resounding opportunity to really explore.
Finding Judy and Tony…
MICHAEL CHAVES: Mia Tomlinson was such a find, such an amazing actress. She came in and originally I had her read for young Lorraine—and she did an incredible job. I was really trying to sell her on it. But she was really polite and respectful, and she said, “I really want to go for Judy—it’s the part that really speaks to me.” She was honestly the first Judy that we had seen. She read for Judy, and she was incredible—even better than she had done with young Lorraine. Everyone was so impressed by her. To be honest, I was a little bit heartbroken that she wasn’t going to play young Lorraine, but I realized that without a doubt, there was no one else who could play Judy. She brought so much to the part, including this fragility. Judy hasn’t been able to be able to stand on her own because she’s been sheltered by her mom. And I think that she really got that. She also had such a great connection with Vera, and the two of them really built this layered, beautiful relationship together. There are these moments between mothers and daughters—the whispering, the coded language—that we dads find ourselves outside of. In the scene in the restaurant, they both play that so wonderfully. It’s instantly recognizable and transmits how palpably close this mother and daughter are. They nailed it.
And Ben Hardy just rocked the part of Tony. I’ve always been a fan of his. He brought so much more to the part—he was disarming and funny, and kind of a klutz when he needed to be. He also gives Tony this quiet depth. He has a scene with Patrick and tells this story of a key moment in his life when everything changed. And you realize that this is a guy who’s lived a life and has come away with this great shift in his perspective. Patrick and he just charged that scene. Up until then, in the beginning, he’s just this guy that Judy’s brought into their lives. They barely know this guy. And you can feel all of this comedic tension. And Ed is like, “Hey, why the rush with my daughter?” Then he tells this story, and how the experience has given him a new view on life. To take advantage of every moment in every day. And it’s a really “stop and listen” reveal. Ben handled it so beautifully. And in that moment, the door opens, and he is on his way to becoming a Warren.
An honest-to-goodness haunting…
MICHAEL CHAVES: When talking about making these movies, the question that always comes up is “Did anything spooky ever happen on set?” And my answer now is “Yes.” My experiences on The Conjuring: Last Rites have made me a believer. That is because of two things, the first having talked extensively with the Smurls and the conviction they had in telling their story. They’re totally honest, reasonable, smart people, and this was something that was really a wound that they dealt with. It was a jarring, traumatic event. It resonated with me incredibly.
And while shooting in England, I swear to God I was living in a haunted house. It was called The Old Vicarage—one of those places that doesn’t even have an address, just a name. It was in this lovely neighborhood. And though I usually would go for a small place, I had my family with me, so we wound up at The Old Vicarage. It was called that because vicars, when they came to town and were working at the church, would reside there. The place was probably a couple hundred years old.
Over the course of living there, my daughter thought she saw something, and she took a picture of it with her iPad—it’s pretty dark and fuzzy, as you would imagine. Being somewhat of a natural skeptic, I was like “There’s nothing there. Sweetie, I don’t see anything.” She was insistent. “Can’t you see it? There’s someone standing there and it looks like a priest. It looks like he has that collar around his neck.” I don’t know if she was spooked because I had just finished The Nun II, but she was convinced about it.
Now, word was going around in this neighborhood about a rash of burglaries. Everyone was on high alert. My family had gone into London one night, and I was home alone doing what I do late at night and playing video games. And I hear voices coming from around the house. I turn off the lights to try and see what’s outside. Then I realize the voices are not outside—they’re coming from upstairs. I don’t even know what their 911 number is, so I grab a fireplace tool and start upstairs. I can clearly hear two male voices, two guys talking to each other. Now, I’m scared, but I keep going. I search from one room to the next. It’s this really interesting three-story house, and everything is at sort of weird Harry Potter English angles. And I continue into every single room on both upper floors. And there is no one in that house—and the voices suddenly stop. And at first, I’m relieved, I think, “Well, at least I’m not getting robbed,” because I’d have no clue how to deal with that. Then I realized that, I swear to God, those voices were there, and I was convinced it was a haunting. I know that something was there. I’m a total believer, and I apologize for any other interview where I might have been dismissive or just tossed off an answer. It happened to me.
Honoring the Warrens and passing it on…
MICHAEL CHAVES: The real Warrens touched so many lives. There were so many people who were in need, dealing with hauntings or unexplained behavior. And the Warrens were there—they traveled across the country to listen to people whom no one believed. The real truth of that is so important. It was real. I also think about how many lives that this series has touched, the fans who have grown up watching it, along with everybody who’s had the pleasure of working on it. It’s been such an amazing ride and experience, and something I’m extremely lucky to have been a part of.
MICHAEL CHAVES (Director / Executive Producer) made his feature directorial debut in 2019 with THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA for New Line Cinema, which earned more than $123 million at the global box office. Chaves went on to direct THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT and THE NUN II, with Atomic Monster and The Safran Company producing. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT and THE NUN II are the eighth and ninth films in the CONJURING Universe, which has generated more than $2.3 billion worldwide and is the largest horror franchise in history. Chaves also directed the award-winning short THE MAIDEN. An accomplished commercial director, Chaves has directed spots for such clients as Microsoft, Samsung, Audi and Ford. He also directed Billie Eilish’s acclaimed “Bury a Friend” music video.
