The end of The Conjuring 3 sees a possessed Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) take part in a scene bearing a striking resemblance to The Shining, but did it really happen? Horror is a movie genre with a very rich history and has been a hit with audiences dating back to the earliest days of feature films, through classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera, and Nosferatu. Horror also has one of the most passionate fanbases of any movie genre, with fans flocking to see the latest horror release, irrespective of who's in it or what it's about.
With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense that horror movies often include references and homages to past hits as nods to the films that paved the way. Horror fans tend to get a kick out of these, especially the more subtle ones that only diehards will notice. The Conjuring franchise has been no different, with Conjuring 2 referencing The Amityville Horror, Conjuring 3 duplicating an iconic shot from The Exorcist, and, as the series has progressed, references being made to prior entries in the franchise that serve to tie the universe together.
Near the end of The Conjuring 3, subtitled The Devil Made Me Do It, new villain The Occultist (aka Isla Kastner) uses her dark powers to possess the mind of Ed Warren, who then pursues wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) with intent to kill. It's a harrowing scene, but also a deftly done callback to The Shining. As cool as The Conjuring 3's Shining reference is, though, there's no evidence to suggest it's based on any real event. Based on the information available, there's no reason to believe Ed was ever possessed during the investigation of Arne Johnson's murder case, much less that he pursued Lorraine in a violent rage.
Specifically, the scene references Stephen King's original book version of The Shining, a bit of a surprising move as the prior Conjuring movies have taken visual inspiration from the work of Stanley Kubrick, such as the long hallway shot looking at The Nun in Conjuring 2. While a possessed Jack Torrance chases his wife Wendy with a weapon in both The Shining book and movie, Kubrick had Jack use an ax, while King had Jack use a large croquet mallet. The sledgehammer wielded by Ed Warren is much more reminiscent of the mallet in both shape and use as a blunt object.
While The Conjuring movies are indeed based on the real-life cases investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, they've never hesitated to deviate from reality in the service of telling a better story, and The Conjuring 3 is no different. These aren't documentaries, after all. The heart attack Ed suffers during David Glatzel's exorcism is also not based on a real event, although Ed did suffer one at a different point in his life.
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