The Haunted
Tags: paranormal, horror, haunting

Plot synopsis:
This creepy and scary story centers around The Smurl family of Pittston, Pennsylvania. After they move to a duplex, they begin experiencing strange things. Dark shadows move about the house. Mrs Smurl hears her mother in law calling her name only to find out later that she was not calling her. A black stain on the wall keeps reappearing after being cleaned and painted over and a foul smell lingers. Weird noises awaken them in the night and invisible hands caress Mrs Smurl while she's sleeping. But things begin to get worse. They begin to experience physical attacks by the invisible entity. When they try to get away from the house, they notice the black shadow had followed them. They realized that no matter where they go this thing will follow. When the attacks begin to get out of control, they contact The Warren family but will the renowned psychics be able to get rid of the evil presence that intends on destroying them?

Review: I'm a horror movie buff (if you've read my other comments you'll know) and since i watch a lot of these i find it increasing harder to get scared which is why i welcomed this little beauty because it seriously sh*t me up!
Another scary factor is that even after the family have the ghosts exorcised and move house the shadow STILL follows them where-ever they go and considering this was based on a true story it's frightening to think this could happen to you!!!
This will interest people who love the supernatural but sceptics will obviously say it's crap.But i think it's a great film and everyone should see it, but not on your own in the dark on Halloween like i did ha!
The Smurl family movies into a duplex on chase street, and strange things start happening (a hammer disappears, dripping water, whispering etc.), and the family disregards it as nothing.
The main focus of the haunting activity is Janet (played by Sally Kirkland), who is looked at funny after she voices her theory that there may be ghosts in the house.
I first saw this movie when it came out in 1991, and it scared the hell out of me (I was only 10 at the time), but for years I was waiting for it to come back on tv.
Unless you're into garbage like Urban Legend, you should find The Haunted an excellent movie, with good acting, and great scares..
I really liked The Haunted (tv-movie) & every time it is on I watch it.
I have seen this movie many times and its a good one!It has good acting,great chills,thrills and it is hard to believe that happened.I recommend all ghost and horror fans to rent this!I enjoyed it and I think you will to!.
Overall, this movie was far from a great ghost story flick, but it was spooky, and I may only feel that way, because I was in that area when these things were allegedly happening.
You need to see the end of the movie and read the follow up notes to understand what happens where the film leaves off.
This film has no gore or slashing etc , but what makes it so unbearably creepy and extremely chilling, is that it is based on a true story.
The film seems a lot older than it is, i think it is because it dispenses with all the glitz and glamour of stereo-typically directed Hollywood films and doesn't spend millions of dollars of special effects so watch it with an open mind knowing this is probably as real as it gets, this is more simple and unbelievably realistic.
If you eventually get to find this movie, you are going to love it, and I'm sure you will want to know more about the Smurl family after watching it, so I suggest you buy the book.The book has a lot of insight on all the things that really happened, and the movie is based very cleverly on the book.So please don't miss it.
I really liked this movie, which was based on a book by the same name...the true story of a family terrorized by demons in their Pennsylvania home.
(Perhaps as co-writers of the book they had some sort of hand in the casting...?) All in all, it's not an Amityville Horror, but a pretty good made for TV movie that's worth watching..
While ghost movies featuring haunted houses are a dime a dozen, this TV movie actually captures the tension and suspense that steadily built up to terrifying thrills as the movie progresses - from the female lead being the only one hearing noises to the entire family experiencing Poltergeist-like events.
I have seen this film its very creepy great haunting story and its suppose also to be a true story very unsettling that the church did not help them when they were practicing Christians they let them down they had to rely on the community for help don't know how much was Dramatised but I'm sure it is documented somewhere in the Parasycology community I was glued to it and thought the acting good she was very good at playing Janet Smurl and why is it that you can see it on you tube but not get on DVD you can get most things now come on someone in the Know get it on DVD people will buy it in droves there are lots of TV movies you can buy why not this one.
A big movie and TV buff, I've seen just about every TV-movie worth watching since the mid 1980's and will say this, hand on my heart: THE HAUNTED freaked me out like there was no tomorrow!A personal favorite since I recorded it on tv some ten years ago, and as I've shown it to a handfull of friends and family members over the years I can tell you - and this is the God honest truth - ALL of them got scared stiff!
Could any family really be crazy enough to cook up a sick story like this, turning their property into a three-ring-circus for journalists and TV-reporters!?" As opposed to big screen classics like THE EXORCIST and POLTERGEIST this made-for-TV-movie felt *real* up to the point that it (as written earlier) freaked me out.Back to some of the negative user comments in here, I can not think of another reason for them to trash it then for the fact that THE HAUNTED - all though bristling with chills - still feels like a based-on-a-true-story movie-of-the-week.
THE HAUNTED is a television masterpiece in all it's beautiful simplicity, with some effective performances from the likes of Sally Kirkland, Jeffrey DeMunn, Louise Latham and Joyce Van Patten.If you won't believe me, or the 6,1 average rating (which, considering all the negative user comments is positive), then believe Leonard Maltin.
The best known movie critic in the world (next to Roger Ebert) has definitely seen his share of movies and even he rates THE HAUNTED as "Above Average" and calls it a "surprisingly effective thriller".That's right folks, it truly IS, to quote another user comment "the scariest TV-movie EVER!".
After a thorough investigation the Wallace's tell the startled Smurl family members that their home is haunted by demonic forces and that only a sanctioned exorcism by the Church can force these evil spirits out.Trying to get the church to sanction an exorcism is better said then done since the Catholic Church hasn't been in the business of exorcisms for almost one hundred years.Based on a true story that states at the end of the movie that after a church sanctioned exorcism in 1989 of the Smurl home.
That statement is a little hard to take since the movie "The Haunted" was filmed in 1990 and released a year later in 1991!
You would have thought, like the Smurl's did, that he was going to put an end to the evil sprites who've been terrorizing them all throughout the movie.
I have to say that the special effects in the "The Haunted" were pretty good for a made for TV movie.
Today at work the fact that it's 6/6/06 came up and we were discussing scary movies, and she mentioned that there was a book and movie about a haunted house in her family.
She mentioned the name and I looked it up online and brought up the story here: http://www.warrens.net/smurl.htm We sat there and read it and she kept adding things to what that website said, about how she had also experienced weird things in the house as a child when she'd go to visit.
This movie was based on the story of the Smurl's experiences living in their West Pittston,Pennsylvania home, but like "The Amityville Horror," the film is a mishmash of ingrediants and phenomenon except that it is lacking the psychological build-up and climax of that movie.
Janet Smurf comes across as a chain smoking mental case.And whats with all the praying when if anything it appeared more like the work of a poltergeist?.They even mention it getting it's power from the girls some of whom are entering puberty.I'm not sure whether it was the film or the actual family who were getting confused from all the hysteria and deceit.
After moving into a new house, a family becomes convinced they are being haunted by malevolent spirits and turn to professional demon-hunters who must find a way of dealing with them once proved true.On the whole this is quite a lame and overall low-end haunted house effort.
While I did my work at work and had time watch this movie on youtube, The movies start with saying it was bad on true story and few things have change in the movie.
A family moving into home and it dose not take long for mother/wife he first to feel or see stranger things in the house but of course no one believes.
mean very stranger things, that may make you laugh, I sure laughed some of the spooky going on's Like the ghost talking form Pillow, Yes, pillow whispering and this movies as one the stranger man-rape scenes very, it was really well flashy scene in a odd way.
The acting is good for a TV movie and for the time has passable effects.
Based on the true story of the Smurl family, The Haunted is a better-than- average made for TV ghost movie, perhaps one of the best I've yet seen.
Thanks to the person who mentioned you can order it from Suncoast Video, I'm going to check that out, although I know I worked for that company a few years ago (Sam Goody) and they didn't have it then.The reason for this post is to let people know that "The Haunted" will be airing on the Sci-Fi channel on Saturday December 17th (tomorrow) at 3pm.
This shows its made-for-TV origins in every scene and compares unfavorably to many other stories told on any number of cable stations dealing with real tales of haunted homes.Not recommended--nor does it have a satisfying ending--merely a message on the screen that a few years later a better exorcism was sanctioned by the Catholic Church and this time it was successful..
It is about a family who is haunted by three ghost i believe and one demon, been a while since I've seen it.
I guess this movie works only if you believe tabloid stories, or you really believe in the supernatural (kind of same thing).
This film is about The Smurl family moving into a haunted house whitch have 3 poltergiest and 1 demon and you people do you think its really possable that a demon can rape a person or is that just been put in the film?
Supposedly a true story and I do personally believe in ghosts, about the story of a family who move into a house that is haunted.
It definitely is worth seeing if you like these types of films because it doesn't have the gloss of Hollywood and gives a more true to life portrayal of a family in crisis..
Robert Mandel directed this TV movie adaptation of the reputedly true account of Jack & Janet Smurl(played by Jeffrey De Munn & Sally Kirkland) who moved into a newly renovated home with his parents and their children, only to discover that it is haunted by ghosts and a demonic spirit that increasingly terrorize them, causing them to seek help from their church, then paranormal investigators Ed & Lorraine Warren(played by Stephen Markle & Diane Baker) Things take a desperate turn after they contact the press...
this film really scared me the horrors that come out today are to Hollywood this was real and gritty i liked the way the film was made it made it feel more real the parts that scared me the most were the voices that janet heard the rape scene and of course the scene when the smurl family had gone on there camping trip and the neighbours saw the all the activity in the house the banging the screaming the strange lights its like nothing I've ever seen before.
I stayed in that apartment for approx., another five years and just got use to it.This is why I believe what happened to the Smurl family to be true.People who have never experienced things like this can't believe and people who have a strong faith can.
Best haunted house horror film in years!.
Even a few of friends who were not a fan of horror movies were to enthralled by its premise.One of the scariest scene in this film was when the demon materialized into that dark phantom mass.
Boy, now that was spooky as hell.Now I think that this is how a movie about a haunted house is supposed to be made.
I saw "The Haunted" on TV and thought it was one of the 10 most frightening movies I've ever watched.
I've first seen this film about 6 years ago and since then saw it again 2 times, but i still think this movie is pretty frightening.
The movie is based on a true event, which makes it even better.I also saw the REAL victims of these ghostly experiences on the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries".
It is good to see a movie made, based on true events, other then made up stuff.In the end, this is a great ghost movie.
Typical horror fare is so lost in intense action and effects that you never identify with anyone; you start out as spectator and never move from there, just waiting for the often all-too-predictable sequence of skewered and dismembered mannequins to run its course.I think you'll find that this is a good film if you would rather be moved by what you see through a character's eyes than by what you happen to see only with your own..
The movie has an effective contrast between the life of a normal family and their rather unfriendly encounter with demons.Recommended for people who like horror-movies about haunted houses..
The Haunted starts with a load of scrolling text that claims the film is based on true events blah, blah, blah you know the sort of thing.
The Smurl's seek help from the Church but they refuse to perform an exorcism, then they turn to psychic detectives & finally the press in a desperate attempt to rid their house of the ghosts & stop the family from being driven apart.Directed by Robert Mandel I thought The Haunted was a dull supernatural horror film.
The script by Darrah Cloud is based on a book co-written by Janet & Jack Smurl (probably the real ones!) & offers nothing new or exciting to the haunted house horror sub-genre, one of my least favourite type's of horror films.
I've always found these type's of films really dull & predictable, I mean people hearing sinister voices, things opening & closing on their own, lights exploding & lots of boring melodramatics involving the break down of a family unit, it's all here, it hardly gets the pulse racing & The Haunted does nothing to distinguish itself from loads of other boring haunted house tales.
The Haunted does what it sets out to do I suppose, it's far from the best or most exciting film ever but I've seen worse & I can't really criticize any specific part of it other than personally didn't really like it.
This made-for-TV horror/ghost story is suspenseful, somber, sometimes slow and at times far from believability.
Not really believing in spirits, Janet Smurl(Sally Kirkland)is forced to realize and has a hard time convincing her husband Jack(Jeffrey DeMunn), until minions of Satan go to work slamming doors, smashing household items and bedeviling with imitation of family voices.
I have watched this movie many times but I haven't read the book this is based upon.
The plot is described elsewhere and not much else deserves comment.If you, as an average moviegoer, can think of a cliché from horror/haunting/supernatural movies -- it's in here.
I don't know how factual this story was but i personally believe in ghosts and stuff like that so i really enjoyed this flik.Only real complaint i have is that the people in it are just too damn perfect.
This is supposed to be based on a true story and all that boy scout crap made it seem phony.Nice ending in which the family moves to a new home but Satan follows them.
Starts Out Well, But Falls Apart Toward The End. The Haunted is a dramatization of the true story of Jack and Janet Smurl, a Pennsylvania couple who were plagued by supernatural forces for over 10 years while living in a haunted house.Nearly all of the dates mentioned in the film do not correspond to the dates in other documents about the case.
Whether you believe their ordeal or not, (It is well-documented that at no time did the family ever call the police in all of the years that they lived there, and the paranormal investigators, The Warrens who bring themselves into the story, will find something paranormal about everything they investigate, even when cases that others have investigated have been proved to be hoaxes.)In any event, the movie starts out well with some good chilling scare scenes and strong dramatic effects.
I am such a huge fan of horror movies but there is nothing I enjoy more than a good ghost story.
I fully believe in ghosts and this movie terrified me the first time I had seen it.
Warning Contains SpoilersThis film is based on a true story about the Smurl family who move to a new neighbourhood with their 2 children, and their parents who would be occupying the house next to theirs.
This films has some of the usual ghost activity such as moving objects and weird noises if it is based on a true story you would believe it with that happening.