How does one craft a proper ending to The Conjuring franchise? It’s a complicated question, and it was taken tremendously seriously in the making of the upcoming The Conjuring: Last Rites. Crafting scares was obviously important (it is a horror franchise, after all), and it was understood that the feature finale would have to stay true to the “based on a true story” roots – but according to producer James Wan, the number one priority in the making of the new 2025 movie was delivering a proper conclusion to the canon’s two most important character: Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine Warren.
I had the chance to speak with James Wan earlier this month during the virtual press day for The Conjuring: Last Rites – the filmmaker having first launched the franchise over a decade ago directing 2013’s The Conjuring – and I made a point of asking him about the goals that the upcoming horror movie had in order to provide a satisfying conclusion to the Conjuring Universe. He acknowledged the need to freak audiences out and pull a proper case from the Warren files, but there was no question that the film had to offer closure for the cinematic journey of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Said Wan,
We felt the most important thing was to be able to say farewell to the cinematic Ed and Lorraine in a way that felt emotional, and that justified the franchise and what fans have come to love about this particular series. I always say people come to the Conjuring films for the scares, but they really stick around for Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, right? Their version of Ed and Lorraine. And that was basically mission one: was to be able to wrap up this series in a way that was emotional, but one that also felt uplifting as well at the same time.
As a fan from the very beginning of the Conjuring Universe, this is a perspective that I wholly agree with. There are plenty of great scares in the series (not to mention the various Annabelle and The Nun spinoffs), but there are plenty of horror movies out there that feature well-crafted terror. What really sets these films apart is the incredible heart and emotion that has gone into the creation of Ed and Lorraine as big screen characters – obviously with a heap of credit belonging to Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, both for their terrific performances individually and their outstanding chemistry together.
This principal mission was firmly understood in the making of The Conjuring: Last Rites, and that fact is interestingly reflected in the development of the screenplay (credited to David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, whose credits include the last two films in the Conjuring series). Every film undergoes narrative changes – big and or small – as they make their way through pre-production and production, but goal to deliver a proper end for Ed and Lorraine was so clear that the end of the script basically went untouched. Director Michael Chaves explained as much when I spoke with him during the virtual press day, saying,
It was a big debate as we were developing it. David Leslie Johnson wrote really a great script and it really had this great emotional through line with the Warren family and a really great conclusion. The ending... when you're developing a movie and going into it, you kind of end up changing, tweaking so much of the script. The end of it, I don't think we touched a word of it. And I think that that really speaks to just his writing.
With The Conjuring: Last Rites now exactly one week away from arriving in theaters, I’m obviously not going to divulge any details about the conclusion here… but stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming days, as we’ll have plenty more coverage of the film that is properly kicking off Spooky Season 2025 when it flies into cinemas everywhere on September 4.
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