The Conjuring: Last Rites

REVIEW:

I finally got round to see the newest and final instalment of the mainline Conjuring movies and the best description I can give is: interesting story, dreadful execution. As someone who has always been a big fan of this franchise, it’s painful to say that this supposed grand finale falls so flat. The first two films, under the masterful direction of James Wan, remain the shining standard of modern horror. I went into Last Rites hoping Michael Chaves would rise to the occasion and deliver a finale worthy of Ed and Lorraine Warren and their cinematic legacy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.

From the very start, it was obvious that the film had no intention of scaring me. Not once did I feel unsettled, and even the occasional jump scare trope was predictable to the point of boredom. Instead of leaning into the supernatural terror and the eerie atmosphere that made The Conjuring a household name, the film spends far too much time circling family drama and prolonged build up. It’s frustrating to watch a “haunting” movie where the haunting takes a backseat for the majority of the runtime.

The Warren family, Ed, Lorraine, and Judy, are placed at the centre of the story, which naturally should have been a good move for a finale. The haunting of the Smurl family acts as the backdrop, but the script treats them as a disposable narrative device rather than fleshed out victims. Unlike the first film, where we genuinely cared for the Perrons, Last Rites practically ignores the Smurls, rushing past their suffering just to funnel us into a face off with a demon the Warrens had once failed to banish. This narrative shortcut strips the movie of any emotional investment.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, as always, give everything they’ve got to these roles, and their chemistry continues to be the strongest part of the franchise. Yet, their performances can only do so much when weighed down by a story that completely fails them. There are no scares, no atmosphere, and no thrills. The movie is overstuffed with ideas, and rather than building a coherent arc, it simply collapses under the weight of too much plot.

That said, there were a couple of standout moments. The flashback scene depicting Judy’s birth, where she was stillborn and the Warrens desperately prayed for divine intervention, was genuinely gripping. The tension of a demon circling the delivery room, wanting to claim Judy as a vessel, was the closest the film came to recapturing the intensity of the earlier movies. Another moment that worked was when Dawn Smurl vomited shards of glass and blood, grotesque, shocking, and exactly the kind of nightmarish imagery the rest of the movie desperately needed. Sadly, everything else was a slog.

Then there are the baffling creative choices. Why, for instance, did the demon write “miss me?” on the ceiling for Judy as if it were Annabelle taunting her? It raised false expectations that the Annabelle demon might finally come back as a central villain, only to lead nowhere. Even stranger was the ending sequence where the Perrons, the Hodgsons, and David Glatzel all conveniently attend Judy’s wedding. While I appreciate the idea of showing the Warren family’s legacy in a heartwarming way, the execution felt silly and contrived. Surely there could have been a more meaningful way to tie these characters back in.

This was not the great send off I was hoping for. The potential was there, but it was squandered in favour of a convoluted plot and underwhelming scares. James Wan should have returned to direct, plain and simple. Has he really been too busy these last few years to take the reins back? If you’ve followed the entire franchise, including spin offs, then you’ll likely agree that Valak should have been the final big bad. Instead of conjuring up (pun intended) another random demon that we never even see properly, why not bring back the villain audiences already feared and loathed?

At the end of the day, The Conjuring: Last Rites fails as a finale. Lorraine’s and Judy’s clairvoyant connection could have been developed earlier and used to strengthen the story with the Smurls. The endless family drama needed to be cut in half. And above all, the film should have remembered what made this franchise great: the blend of supernatural horror with deeply personal stakes. I’m sure spin offs will continue, but right now, the franchise feels at its weakest point. A disappointing farewell for Ed and Lorraine.