The Conjuring: Last Rites

The Conjuring: Last Rites puts the nail in the coffin of the Conjuring Universe, or at least in the few movies featuring Ed and Lorraine Warren—the real-life paranormal investigators whose case files inspired this series. The fourth movie to feature Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in those roles, Last Rites marks a diverting but uneven finale (“The Case That Ended It All” declares the poster) in a franchise that started strong, earned loads of cash for Warner Bros., but has a lousy track record in terms of quality. After multiple entries in this cinematic universe, including two spin-off series (two features about The Nun and three with Annabelle), I can only give full-throated recommendations to The Conjuring (2013) and its 2016 sequel, The Conjuring 2. The latest movie has elements that work splendidly and others that don’t, resulting in a mostly enjoyable but mixed outcome. But it’s better than the other six features in the series, so that’s something.

The first two Conjuring movies benefited from director-writer-producer James Wan, a skilled filmmaker who seldom works from strong scripts. After launching the endless Saw franchise and the Insidious series, Wan has been more prolific lately as a producer for his production company, Atomic Monster, while also dabbling in non-horror material, such as two Aquaman movies. All of this discussion of franchises, sequels, and spin-offs becomes tedious, given that Wan rarely applies his talent to original material that showcases his technical proficiencies. And when he does (see 2022’s Malignant), it’s often disappointing. Still, Wan’s touch enriched two of the initial Conjuring‘s features by reinvigorating their horror-movie clichés. The same cannot be said of other directors in the series, including Michael Chaves, who made his debut on The Curse of La Llorona (2019), a Conjuring-adjacent dud, followed by the underwhelming The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) and the abysmal The Nun II (2023).

Chaves returns for the allegedly final chapter in the Warrens’ saga, directing a scenario credited to four writers (Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and Wan). It’s supposedly based on the Warrens’ final case, and this time, it’s personal. Like a detective novel, it begins with two seemingly unrelated supernatural incidents that ultimately merge. The first involves the Warrens’ daughter, Judy, who had a peripheral role in the earlier movies. During the couple’s first case in 1964, a demon hiding in a mirror fixates on the unborn Judy and almost kills the child. By 1986, Judy (Mia Tomlinson, quite good) has the same extrasensory gift as her mother and has tried to shut out the increasingly loud voices of unquiet spirits and taunting demons. She soon becomes engaged to her sweet boyfriend, Tony (Ben Hardy), who’s still catching up on what her now-retired parents actually did for a living.  

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the Smurl family endures a series of supernatural attacks emanating from the same possessed mirror—a swap meet acquisition—whose demon went after Judy. Janet (Rebecca Calder) and Jack (Elliot Cowan) Smurl remain helpless to protect their (underdeveloped) four children and Janet’s parents, who make for a crowded house. The authenticity of the Smurl case—along with many of the Warrens’ cases—has been debated, but this is a horror movie, not a documentary, so just go with it. Although the Smurls lack dimension and exist mainly to serve the plot, the movie spends a lot of time building their torment, which pads the 135-minute runtime. The heart of the movie remains Ed and Lorraine, who grapple with stepping away from their investigations. Ed has heart problems, and Lorraine has grown weary of Judy’s visions. Both are committed to protecting Judy and, eventually, Tony. It’s not until their friend and colleague, Father Gordon (Steve Coulter), experiences the deadly threat inside the Smurl house that the Warrens, along with Judy and Tony, arrive to save the day. 

Chaves directs several effective scares in today’s typical supernatural horror movie mode. One sequence involving a presence that pulls at a telephone cord gave me the willies. I also squirmed when Judy tries on a wedding gown in a mirrored room, and something begins to move under her dress. Elsewhere, Chaves resorts to tired tropes. The Smurl home was made to be haunted: It comes complete with creaky wooden floors, a creepy attic, and an even creepier basement. The Smurl children play with creepy dolls that creepily crawl on the floor. The house, riddled with water damage and mold, is perpetually underlit by cinematographer Eli Born, allowing for vague impressions of looming figures to appear in the shadows. And when specters arrive, they’re of the deadened smiley-face variety, taking the form of a killer hillbilly with an axe and two fiendish women. These forces prove powerful enough to set crucifixes on fire and sizzle holy water, which establishes the gravity of the Warrens’ final case. 

Chaves handles all of these overused banalities competently enough, but the more outlandish scares prompt unintentional laughs. In one scene, the possessed doll Annabelle appears to Judy in the Smurl house. It grows to a monstrous size and chases Judy down a hallway, looking ridiculous in its cartoonish CGI state. Other silly details: a possessed character does a spider walk, the haunted mirror spins like a top, and a bombastic camera movement gets a bird’s-eye view of the house. More involving than the scary stuff is the tender family dynamic among the Warrens and Tony. I was content watching Wilson and Farmiga inhabit their roles in domestic scenes. At this point, they’re like old friends. Seeing them simply live their lives is a pleasure. So when the warmhearted finale arrived, it worked for me. 

With a horror movie franchise, there’s always a need to make the next one bigger, scarier, more dramatically significant than the last. Last Rites accomplishes some of this with a tender story about Ed and Lorraine, as well as Judy and Tony. But much like this year’s Mission: Impossible capper, the filmmakers seem desperate to make the Warrens’ last case echo their first, if not also the sum of everything that came before. The clunky retconning and unnecessary inclusion of Annabelle bog down the story, leaving this sequel uneven and slightly overlong. But compared to the rest of the Conjuring series, Last Rites is about the third-best entry. With expectations in check, fans of the franchise can do and have done worse.