Long before The Conjuring and its extended, basically gargantuan cinematic universe framed the modern horror scene, Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famed yet controversial ghostbusters, influenced plenty of horror movies. Most famously, of course, is Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Haunting. While Ed and Lorraine may not appear on-screen (nor did they deserve to alongside royalty like Margot Kidder), the case is their most notorious, and it was on account of their paranormal sleuthing that Amityville became the phenomenon it was.
And several years before The Conjuring, Peter Cornwell helmed The Haunting in Connecticut. Similarly, the Warrens themselves don’t appear, though their investigation into the allegedly true events was the basis for Ray Garton’s book on the Snedeker hauntings, In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. The book is much better, though undoubtedly embellished. There hasn’t been a great deal of overlap, at least not until Michael Chaves’ The Conjuring: Last Rites, ostensibly the last of the films to feature Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in the lead. That same story was previously adapted into a pretty terrifying (and arguably better) haunted house story. Now, that unsung made-for-television gem is streaming free.
Per IMDB: When the Smurl family moves into a duplex, they find out its haunted. When the Catholic Church is no help, they reach out to famous demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Robert Mandel’s The Haunted doesn’t have the glitz and glamor of The Conjuring, though that’s a pretty sufficient boon for Mandel’s take on the Smurl’s encounter with forces beyond our own. The fuzzy made-for-television aesthetic might be distinctly 1991, though in retrospect, it’s an uncannily analog look at one of the famous hauntings in history. The scares are slow and patient, and for audiences who fondly remember The Conjuring’s more classic scares, The Haunted will feel like home.
You can catch the film streaming free in full at the link above. As a certified made-for-television horror expert, trust me when I say The Haunted is one of the better ones. While it’s constrained by some of the late 1990s melodrama that crept into so many television movies, the scares are undeniably effective. They’re the kind that will have you afraid of being alone in the dark, questioning whether that noise you heard really is just the wind or something more terrifying.
With The Conjuring: Last Rites adapting the same haunting, now’s the perfect time to check out the original. How do they compare? Do you prefer the scale of The Conjuring or the grainy haunts of cable television? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins!
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