1964 – A young Ed Warren, Patrick Wilson and Lorraine Warren, Vera Farmiga, spend a day in an old antique shop where a distressed woman believes a malevolent presence in the shop has pushed her father toward suicide. Lorraine, who is very pregnant, steps to the back and confronts a mirror carved with three faces, the so‑called source of the evil. When she touches the glass, it cracks and her own reflection smiles back at her with a sinister twist. The encounter triggers visions that accompany painful labor, and Ed rushes Lorraine to the hospital. Inside the delivery room, the Mirror Entity seems to circle the room, threatening Lorraine as doctors fight to bring the baby into the world. At first, the newborn appears stillborn, but the couple prays with all their might. Then a cry breaks the tension, and the baby comes to life, named Judy Mia Tomlinson in a moment of relief and wonder. The scene lingers on the bond between mother and child, hinting at a lifelong connection to the unseen.
A quick montage thereafter follows Ed and Lorraine as they raise Judy, who as a child is already uneasy around the shadows that haunt their house. Judy confides in Lorraine about whispers from spirits, and Lorraine teaches her a protective chant—the “Lucy Locket” rhyme—as a practical charm to ward off supernatural attention. The film then leaps forward to 1986, in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, where the Smurl family lives under the shadow of a troubling history linked to the same antique mirror. The Smurls—father Jack [Elliot Cowan], mother Janet [Rebecca Calder], Jack’s parents John [Peter Wight] and Mary [Kate Fahy], and daughters Heather [Kíla Lord Cassidy], Dawn [Beau Gadsdon], Shannon [Shannon Kook], and Carin [Molly Cartwright]—gather for Heather’s confirmation and celebrate her birthday. When a string of odd occurrences begins, the family is pulled into a nightmare: a ceiling light collapses during cake time, leaving Heather with a head wound, and a sense that their home is no longer their own. The mirror, which matches the one in the Warrens’ possession, reenters the story as a link between two generations of hauntings.
Ed and Lorraine, now resting on a hiatus from active investigations and giving university lectures, are drawn back into the case when Judy [Mia Tomlinson]—now grown and in a relationship with her fiancé Tony Spera [Ben Hardy]—reaches out with concern for her former home’s suffering. Judy’s aging memories of hauntings intensify as she notes that visions of Annabelle and the hag from previous encounters follow her mother’s lead. The Smurls begin to experience the same unsettling signs: Janet is startled by a phone cord that seems to move on its own, Shannon witnesses a doll levitate, and Heather and Dawn notice unsettling carvings on the attic mirror that seem to watch them. Dawn’s illness intensifies, and she begins vomiting blood and glass fragments, signaling that the darkness is not merely a prank but a real, blighting force.
As the hauntings escalate, Father Gordon [Steve Coulter] visits the Smurls to offer help, warning that their experiences are not mere mischief. He witnesses the house’s chilling atmosphere and attempts to cleanse the space with holy water, only to face a deadly tragedy: the supernatural presence stalks him, and he dies by suicide after being driven to wrap a cord from a vacuum cleaner around his neck. The community mourns, and the Warrens learn of his death at the funeral, where Judy touches his casket and receives a vision that hints at Pennsylvania as the origin of the echoes she carries. Judy vanishes for a time, prompting Ed, Lorraine, and Tony [Ben Hardy] to search for her and discover she has gone to the Smurl home. The trio’s reunion is a turning point, as Judy insists that the Smurls need their help, and she bravely leads the way back into the escalating danger.
The Warrens begin a deeper collaboration with the Smurls, and Lorraine uncovers the fingerprints of a larger entity manipulating the spirits occupying the house. She pieces together the backstory of a woman and her mother who were murdered by the husband in that very property, the kinds of clues that suggest a resonance beyond the obvious disturbances. The evidences mount: Judy is drawn to the attic, where she confronts the fully restored mirror and witnesses a monstrous expansion of Annabelle’s influence, seeming to chase her through the stairwell before she flees to her parents. Ed explains the mirror’s origins and Judy’s connection to the night she was born, and the family realizes that they must confront the artifact directly to sever its hold.
What follows is a harrowing sequence of possession, exorcism, and physical peril. Ed and Tony attempt to move the mirror from the attic, but it proves to be a sentient, malevolent presence that fights back. The spirits lash out, knocking Lorraine into the basement and forcing Judy to the attic in a bid by the entity to push her toward self‑harm. The adults manage to free Judy from possession, but the effort sends them crashing through a patch of the ceiling into the living space below. With Judy unconscious but alive, Ed begins a desperate Bible-based exorcism; the demon scorches the holy text and the mirror advances menacingly. In a final, shared act of courage, Lorraine and Judy place their hands on the mirror while Ed intones the prayers. Judy speaks to the Entity, declaring, “You’re not there,” and the demonic force shrieks as it is released, shattering the Mirror Entity and ending the haunting for good.
The morning after, the Warrens depart with the Smurls, leaving the broken mirror in Ed and Lorraine’s care for a new home in their little museum of haunted artifacts, placed right beside Annabelle. Judy and Tony marry, with guests including notable figures from other cases helped by the Warrens, such as Carolyn and Cindy Perron, Peggy and Janet Hodgson, and David Glatzel—an homage to the couple’s broader legacy. During the reception, Ed and Lorraine share a quiet moment in which Lorraine describes a vision of their future together as grandparents who continue their work, and Ed agrees that such a life would be “perfect.”
The final text of the film notes that the Smurl family continued to live in their house for three more years, their bond strengthened by the ordeal. Ed and Lorraine Warren remained married for fifty years, with Lorraine caring for Ed through his declining health until his death in 2006; she would not remarry and passed away in 2019. While their paranormal research faced skepticism in the scientific community, the Warrens are remembered as pioneers who helped countless people and left a lasting imprint on the field.
