The Conjuring: Last Rites Review: Saying Goodbye Is Never Easy

There have been many different horror franchises developed in the last decade-and-a-half, but I would categorize The Conjuring Universe as a special title within that timeframe. It doesn’t have a perfect track record, but scope and quality don’t always easily go hand in hand, and the good far outweighs the bad in what has developed as a multi-branched canon. The Annabelle and Nun series each developed their own spooky chaos – the former movies executing some effective timeline leaping in exploring the doll’s history, the latter developing a capable hero in Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene – and along with plenty of frights, anchoring everything from the beginning has been the performances by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring films.

After 12 years of demons, possessions, hauntings and more, The Conjuring: Last Rites is the movie that has been designed to bring closure to the full breadth of the franchise. In that effort, the filmmakers take a well-intentioned route that yields some mixed results. Principally, there is a clear and correct understanding that audiences want to see Wilson and Farmiga’s characters tested by the forces of evil and battle against it with fortitude forged by their mutual love. The finale delivers that while also fitting in a familiar drama with the Warrens’ now-adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) introducing her parents to Tony (Ben Hardy), the man she hopes to someday marry and has to learn about the family’s unique baggage.

What’s unfortunate is that this focus is paired with a case from the Warren files that very much feels like an afterthought in the grand scheme. After the murder-centric events of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the sequel returns to the haunted house narrative akin to the first two Conjuring movies, but it invites unfriendly comparisons in doing so. While the James Wan-directed entries of the franchise effectively balance the lives of the Warrens with the supernatural terror experienced by the Perron and Hodgson families, Last Rites isn’t quite able to pull off that particular trick, and it detracts from the overall experience.

Set in 1986, about five years after the previous dark adventure, the film finds demonologists Ed and Lorraine ready to retire. Ed has high blood pressure and a history of heart attacks that makes the stress of the job fighting evil perilous to his health, and the work has long taken a cumulative psychic toll on Lorraine. They have intentions to start living more peaceful lives and dealing with more normal, everyday problems – like determining whether or not Tony is good enough for their daughter.

But, of course, just because Ed and Lorraine are ready to be done confronting demonic entities doesn’t mean that the demonic entities are done with them. In the small town of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, the eight-person Smurl household begins to experience unexplainable and violent occurrences that leave them feeling terrified and helpless. These events start when the Smurls take possession of a mirror to which an evil has attached itself – and it just so happens not only that the Warrens previously encountered this sinister looking glass, but that the encounter happened the night that Judy was born.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren take a wonderful final bow in The Conjuring: Last Rites

Strong character development is the foundation of great horror, as the more you care about the protagonists, the more you empathize with their peril. With Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, that has been true from the start of the Conjuring movies, and that’s where Last Rites sticks the landing. A dozen years ago, I would have been very confused if you told me that one of my favorite sequences in the finale of the franchise would be a Warren backyard barbecue where Ed silently judges whether or not Judy’s boyfriend is good enough to become his future son-in-law, but it speaks to the charms of the perfectly cast leads that it feels totally right for the canon.

It’s worth noting that the film also benefits from increased stakes just by the nature of being a series conclusion. The “based on actual events” aspect of these movies has long been a mere starting place, and there is a concern felt throughout The Conjuring: Last Rites that it could take a big swing and put a definitive period at the end of the characters’ story, as no chapter of Ed and Lorraine’s journeys have seen them so vulnerable. I won’t spoil the choices that are ultimately made in this spoiler-free review, but I will say that fans will be satisfied.

A return to a haunted house case yields mixed results.

With extended focus put not only on Ed and Lorraine but also Judy (who has both inherited some of her mother’s psychic gifts and has a supernatural connection to the mirror at the center of the plot) the Smurl family ends up getting backburner-ed to an unfortunate degree and is mostly used as a means of injecting scares into the mix. Michael Chaves and the filmmakers craft a nice collection of smart and freaky experiences – examples including a long phone cord being mysteriously tugged into a dark pantry, and a towering ghost that emerges from the shadows with a smile and a swinging axe blade – but the effectiveness is diminished because of lacking personalities in the home.

The plotting finds better footing when Judy eventually convinces her parents to help the Smurls as their last case, which develops into a big, scary and bold climax that has visions of pouring blood, a perilous effort to get rid of the mirror, and a final confrontation between Judy and Annabelle (who is back and literally bigger than ever). It’s freaky stuff, but it’s also missing a creative spark that would allow it to serve as a better and special capstone story.

The vast majority of horror franchises in Hollywood history don’t really get a proper opportunity to offer closure, as the more common path is for them to peter out when ticket sales slow down, but The Conjuring Universe is ending on its own terms, and the ending can be deemed successful enough. It can’t be said that things go out on a high note, as this canon really peaked in 2016/2017 with James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 and David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation, but it is a loving goodbye to a pair of characters who solidify their place as genre icons.