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Film: The Conjuring: Last Rites
Year: 2025
Director: Michael Chaves
Writer: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Mia Tomlinson
Review:
This is a film that I wasn’t shocked to hear about being made. The Conjuring universe has its fans even when the films can be all over the place with reception. Hearing that this was going to be the last of the Conjuring films that featured the Warrens was more shocking. There are ways around that so there is that. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the film previous to this one, The Devil Made Me Do It. I wasn’t sure what the ‘true case’ would be the basis of so I went in blind.
Synopsis: paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
We started this back in the 1960s. What we’ll learn is that this is the first case Ed (Orion Smith) and Lorraine (Madison Lawlor) are taking on. It has a young woman who runs an antique store after her father passed away. There is a mirror and Lorraine touches it. This sends her into labor. Ed tries to get her to the hospital as fast as she can. It is storming. There are complications with the birth. In the end, Lorraine prays for their baby to survive and she does.
It then jumps into the present of this film, 1986. We have the Smurl family preparing for Heather’s (Kíla Lord Cassidy) confirmation. She also has three sisters, the oldest being Dawn (Beau Gadsdon). These two butt heads as she bullies her. The others are younger twins of Carin (Tilly Walker) and Shannon (Molly Cartwright). There are then the parents, Janet (Rebecca Calder) and Jack (Elliot Cowan). They live with his parents, played by Peter Wight and Kate Fahy. As a gift, Heather gets the mirror from the cold open. Strange things then start to happen.
We also learn that Ed and Lorraine are no longer taking cases. Events from the previous film are part of it as Ed cannot have another heart attack. Their daughter, Judy (Mia Tomlinson) meets them out for dinner. It is here that Lorraine notices that something is following her. She taught Judy at a young age how to get rid of them, but it isn’t working as well. Ed has a birthday coming up, they’re having a party and Judy’s boyfriend, Tony Spera (Ben Hardy) is invited.
The Smurl family then has issues. The oldest girls try to get rid of the mirror. Things get much worse from there. No one is safe. The Warren family also has problems of their own. Everything seems to be pulling these two families together. This could be the one that completely breaks the Warrens as they do everything, they can save this family.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Now here I’ll just do my quick disclaimer. These Conjuring films try to paint the Warrens as this duo that saved all these families. There are the doubters that think they’re charlatans. This is a fictionalized take on what happened and I don’t fully believe the stories that they’re using as the basis. I’m just trying this as a popcorn horror film.
The film effectively pulls at the heartstrings, particularly with its impactful cold open. It also provides a good send-off for the Warrens, highlighting the physical toll their cases have taken. While Ed is reluctant to quit, Lorraine is ready, which serves as a convenient reason for them to initially refuse to help the Smurls, prioritizing their health and Judy's. The way they become involved ultimately works for the story. Wilson and Farmiga deliver strong performances.
Then we have the family they’re trying to help. The limited pictures I’ve seen doing a search online as well as what was used in the movie looked close. What is interesting here is that Janet and Jack have four daughters, plus his parents living with them. Janet is a stay at home mother while Jack works. They’re getting by but he can’t afford to move. That is a tense scene where Heather and Dawn demand to leave, but Jack tells them they can’t. They blame him for not believing. As a parent, I feel this more when financially you’re stuck. This helps build tension.
Let me then shift over to discussing filmmaking. This is a well-made film with good cinematography and framing, using a haunted mirror effectively for artistic shots and crafted scares. It does rely heavily on CGI, which I’m not the biggest fan of. It looks fine outside of a few things. While it employs frequent jump scares typical of the series, which can feel gimmicky, it still delivers shocking deaths aided by strong sound design. The music is adequate, but the film's excessive 136-minute runtime is its main drawback; it should be under two hours.
All that is left then would be the acting performances. Farmiga and Wilson excel, as does Tomlinson as Judy, who portrays fear convincingly while dealing with the haunting. Hardy delivers a strong performance as Judy's boyfriend, with a compelling backstory. Calder and Cowan are effective as the Smurl parents and Steve Coulter is solid again as Father Gordon. Cassidy, Gadsdon, Walker, and Cartwright are good as their daughters. The rest of the cast, including Wight, Fahy, Smith, Lawlor, and the cameos, also contribute solidly.
In conclusion, this offers a fitting, albeit lengthy, end to the main Conjuring series. While it relies heavily on established tropes like CGI and jump scares, it's bolstered by strong performances from its core cast and a compelling emotional core. The film effectively balances the paranormal scares with the human drama of the Warren and Smurl families, making it a decent popcorn horror experience despite its flaws.
My Rating: 6 out of 10