The Conjuring: Last Rites is being sold as the “final chapter” of the series, but how many times have we heard that promise before? When a studio finds a franchise that makes money, “final chapter” usually just means “until we figure out how to squeeze another one out.”
So I didn’t go in watching this one expecting closure, but there’s a part of me that wanted to see them try.
The setting this time is 1986, with Ed and Lorraine Warren in semi-retirement. Ed’s heart issues are back in the mix, which could have been a solid way to humanize the story, and I actually liked the idea of framing their last adventure around mortality, fragility, the idea that not even these ghostbusters are invincible.
But the movie never commits to that.
The strange thing is, Ed and Lorraine barely factor into most of the plot anyway, and for two hours or so the story is focused on the Smurl family in a Pennsylvania industrial town, trapped in a house that’s haunted by a mirror.
I know mirrors can be creepy, but here it just feels a bit tired. The demons attached to it pull out every cliché in the playbook, where you pretty much know what is going to happen before it does, but with that said, The Conjuring series has always been pretty generic, yet still worked most of the time, but here it falls flat.
The Warrens, as mentioned, don’t really join the action until the final third in Last Rites, and for a series that’s been built around their presence, this felt like a bait and switch. I didn’t even mind them stepping aside in theory, as I’m all for expanding the world, but only if the new characters can carry it themselves.
Unfortunately, The Smurls don't, and the film’s decision to pad things out with Judy Warren and her boyfriend Tony makes it worse, and their subplot feels like someone stuck a teen drama into a horror script.
Judy’s paranormal sensitivity is portrayed with little more than gasps and wide eyes, and Tony is the kind of character you forget exists as soon as he walks off screen, while the scare attempts themselves are a bit of a mess.
There are no clear rules here, and sometimes the spirits are aggressive, throwing people around and smashing glass, while other times they’re reduced to flickering shadows or whispers in the corner. Without boundaries, you can’t build suspense, as you’re left with a collection of “boo!” moments strung together, most of them lifted from better movies.
The third act of the film though at least pretends to wake up though, where the pacing shifts, the effects crank up, and everyone is screaming, and while I wanted to enjoy this burst of chaos, it’s hard to when literally nothing adds up, as the film tosses all logic out the window. Characters suddenly change motivations, supernatural rules vanish completely, and the big payoff is basically advice you’d give a child who’s scared of the dark.
The one part I can’t knock is the cinematography, and the movie has this grainy, earthy quality that feels rooted in the period, and for a few stretches, it felt like I was watching a different, better movie, but sometimes the digital effects clashed badly with the film’s grounded look.
What made me wince most, though, was the way the film handles Ed and Lorraine. I’ve always known this series softens and idealizes them, but here it crosses into outright hagiography, and I know some people who won't watch this series because of how it portrays the Warrens, and in Last Rites, it borders on insulting at times.
Patrick Wilson though remains effortlessly likable, and Vera Farmiga can still deliver intensity when she needs to, but the script piles so much reverence on them that it stops feeling human. They’re no longer characters, they’re just saints in waiting.
If this really is the end of The Conjuring saga, it doesn’t feel like a finale, it feels like a franchise collapsing under its own weight. There’s no sense of closure, no bold last statement, not even a willingness to poke at the darker, messier aspects of the Warrens as real people.
Instead, we get a sentimental a pat on the back, and the faint promise that the universe might somehow continue. I wasn’t expecting fireworks, but I was expecting something more than this exhausted shuffle.
So no, I didn’t leave feeling like I’d seen the epic conclusion of a beloved saga. I left wondering who’s going to break this cycle and actually do something different with this franchise, if they ever decide to, which I am sure they will when money is ready to be made.