It feels fitting that The Conjuring became the biggest horror franchise of the superhero era. While these films offer their fair share of scares, their main appeal involves watching the good guys save the day, fictionalizing the real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren as selfless warriors in an eternal battle against evil.
Masterminded by James Wan, the Conjuring formula borrows the general gist of The Exorcist, reducing the psychological tension and leaning into a kind of procedural format. Ed and Lorraine’s loving, lovable marriage provides the emotional hook, and with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga expected to leave the franchise after this movie, The Conjuring: Last Rites doubles down on the sentimentality of its predecessors.
Set in 1986, Last Rites adapts another of the Warrens’ high-profile cases: The haunting of the Smurl family, whose Pennsylvania home was reportedly tormented by supernatural events. Portrayed as an average working-class household, their lives are full of warm family dinners and noisy adolescent bickering. Then the grandparents inadvertently bring home a cursed mirror, inviting a plague of levitating dolls, ghostly apparitions, and bloody threats to the Smurl children’s lives.
As per the typical Conjuring formula, we know that the Warrens will eventually show up to exorcise this demonic presence. Lorraine will get sucked into a clairvoyant vision of a ghost’s gruesome backstory, and Ed will provide a commanding yet sensitive presence by her side, most likely while brandishing a Bible or crucifix, and looking flatteringly muscular compared to the real Ed Warren.
But this time round, it takes a while to reach the meat of the story. Now in late middle-age, Ed and Lorraine have retired from active ghost-hunting, concerned that exorcising evil spirits will endanger Ed’s health following a recent heart attack. While some horror films wrap up their entire narrative in 90 minutes, Last Rites takes around that long for the Warrens to even show up on the Smurls’ doorstep, emphasizing their reluctance to get back in the game.
In the meantime, we meander back and forth between the domestic lives of these two families, juxtaposing the Warrens’ cozy relationship with the increasingly alarming events at the Smurl house. We’re also reintroduced to the Warrens’ adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson), a potential heir to Lorraine’s clairvoyant legacy. Like Lorraine, Judy suffers from disturbing supernatural visions. And like Lorraine, she’s supported by a devoted partner, casting her boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy) as a young and puppyish successor to Ed. Is Warner Bros. teasing another spinoff franchise? Well, they’re certainly testing the waters.
Directed by Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It; The Nun II), Last Rites is more invested in giving the Warrens an affectionate sendoff than it is in telling an interesting horror story. Which is fair enough, because Farmiga and Wilson’s chemistry remains a big part of why audiences are here in the first place.
Although the Smurl haunting delivers a few well-conceived scares (I enjoyed an eerie moment involving a long 1980s telephone cord disappearing into a darkened cupboard), it’s far from original, with some parts coming across as a lazy rehash of the English haunted house of The Conjuring 2. Between the shadowy basements and the malevolent dolls and the jump-scare monsters with Joker grins, we’re basically ticking off a laundry list of overused horror tropes. Not to mention the out-of-context Annabelle cameos, which are a blatant case of a storyteller replaying past hits.
Last Rites is bookended by self-serious reminders that this is all based on a true story; an assertion that feels pretty silly by this point in the franchise. Whether or not you’re a true believer in the supernatural, these films clearly aren’t aiming for realism. Alongside their romanticized view of the Warrens’ relationship and career, their tone is unashamedly blockbustery, from their action-packed finales to their extended universe of recurring villains and props. The goal here is to give the audience a few good frights, but not in a way that lingers in the mind after you leave the theater. And in this particular case, we’re invited into a haunted house story that minimizes the most disturbing and compelling themes of the subgenre.
Overlapping with home invasion thrillers and tales of demonic possession, haunted houses are all about the violation of a character’s personal space. We can relate to the Smurl family because it’s easy to imagine weird, unexplained stuff happening in our own banal homes. We all know what it’s like to glimpse a shadow out of the corner of our eye, and wonder for a moment if it’s something more. But as Last Rites reaches its apex, its supernatural antagonists reveal themselves to be a little too derivative and goofy, with a threadbare origin story to match. The sense of threat just isn't there.
Compared to recent horror hits like Sinners, 28 Years Later and Weapons — thoughtful projects that managed to be both creative and crowd-pleasing at the same time — The Conjuring: Last Rights feels undeniably basic. But that’s the Conjuring brand. This franchise never pretended to push any boundaries, and if you’re primarily invested in Ed and Lorraine’s journey (such as it is), then director Michael Chaves is already on your wavelength. Lingering on the Warrens’ personal lives, he gives Farmiga and Wilson their due — even if the film doesn’t entirely earn its luxuriant 135-minute runtime.
