00:00By the spring of 1987, the Smurl family was no longer just afraid.
00:05They were shattered.
00:06The children were sleep-deprived and terrified.
00:10Jack had lost weight, suffered near-daily migraines, and was plagued by terrifying sleep paralysis.
00:18Janet, once a strong and optimistic mother, had become quiet, jumpy, and hollow-eyed.
00:25Even their devout prayers no longer brought comfort.
00:28The entity was no longer hiding.
00:30It made its presence known daily, scratches on walls, growls in the hallway, and the heavy, choking feeling of being watched constantly.
00:40One of the daughters woke up screaming, claiming the black man with burning eyes had stood over her bed all night.
00:47The family was deteriorating, and the church was still slow to act.
00:51That's when Ed and Lorraine Warren decided to take matters into their own hands.
00:56They assembled a small team of spiritual experts, a psychic medium, a former priest, and a demonologist, to conduct an unsanctioned cleansing ritual.
01:08It was risky.
01:10Without church approval, they couldn't perform a formal exorcism, but they could attempt a binding.
01:16The team gathered in the smurl living room, sealing windows, lighting holy candles, and preparing relics.
01:34As the medium began calling out the names of the spirits believed to be in the home, the air shifted.
01:41The room grew icy cold.
01:44The lights dimmed, not flickered, dimmed as if the power itself was being drained.
01:49Suddenly the walls shook violently, books flew off shelves, and a mirror shattered across the floor without being touched.
01:55Something, something invisible, screamed, not with sound, but in the minds of everyone present.
02:04A high-pitched mental pressure that made them all double over in pain.
02:08The former priest, clutching a crucifix, began the Latin prayer to bind the demonic presence.
02:15That's when it struck.
02:16The table flipped, pinning the psychic to the floor.
02:20Lorraine cried out as something grabbed her arm and left deep claw marks down her skin.
02:25Jack was hurled backward into the wall, his nose bleeding.
02:30Janet, praying in a whisper, suddenly began speaking in a guttural male voice, eyes rolled back, body convulsing.
02:37It was trying to possess her.
02:40The team surrounded her, continuing the prayer as Ed Warren forced a relic, a silver medallion, into Janet's hand.
02:48She screamed, her voice inhuman vibrating through the walls, then silence.
02:53Everything stopped.
02:54Janet, Janet, collapsed.
02:56The room went still.
02:58For a moment they believed it was over, but Lorraine looked toward the hallway and whispered,
03:03It's not gone, it's hiding, and it's furious.
03:07That night the house was dead quiet.
03:10No noises, no smells, no shadows.
03:13But no one slept.
03:15Because deep down they knew.
03:18The calm was not peace.
03:20It was preparation.
03:21To be continued in Part 4, The Final Confrontation.
Comments