The latest film in The Conjuring franchise, Last Rites, features a number of shining moments overshadowed by a bloated script and boggling narrative choices for a “finale.”
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Directed By: Michael Chaves
Written By: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy
Release Date: September 5, 2025
The Conjuring: Last Rites presents itself as an ending, of sorts, as it recounts Ed and Lorraine Warren’s final investigation. With a tagline telling audiences, “The case that ended it all,” it definitely positions itself as an endcap on what has turned out to be a sprawling universe all on its own. Of course, we’ll undoubtedly see more spin-offs or even some prequels (the uncanny resemblance of the actors they got to play young versions of the characters attests to that), but Last Rites is set to mark an end of this particular era.
Perhaps if it hadn’t been setup in such a way, including an ominous piece information text that kicks off the movie, the film itself wouldn’t have felt so…weird.
The basic setup of the story puts the focus on the Smurl family in 1986 as they come across an accursed mirror that begins a series of ever increasing terrors within their cramped household. With eight family members to care for, they simply don’t have the money to move out and must endure the torment as they implore the Catholic church (and the media) for help.
Meanwhile, the Warrens (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson) are enjoying a sort of semi-retirement as Ed’s continued heart issues (a major part of the previous film) has kept them from taking on new cases. Meanwhile, their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is grown and doing her own thing. As she prepares for a life with her boyfriend/fiance Tony (Ben Hardy), however, the psychic abilities she’d inherited from her mother begins to affect her more and more.
Between the death of a family friend (and some other factors), the Warrens find themselves on the Smurl’s doorstep. What they discover is a haunting connected to one of their earliest cases they were too afraid to wrap up. As the demon looks to finish what it started, it uses the lingering spirits of those on the land to do its bidding, forcing the entire Warren family to fight together.
Since it’s been a few weeks from release, I’m not going to worry about spoilers like I normally do. So if you’re still avoiding plot details at this point, you may want to turn around now.
Generally speaking, Last Rites has some interesting ideas that helps connect everything together. The focus on family (not just the Warrens but the Smurls) gives it some emotional weight and helps make some of the latter sequences all the more terrifying. When the haunting action goes down throughout the film, it’s incredibly thrilling. The tension is through the roof, the scares land fairly well even if they’re telegraphed a mile away, and there’s an ever pervasive sense of dread that’s hard to shake.
Not too bad a fourth numbered film in a horror franchise that’s spawned multiple spin-offs to boot, right? The problem, however, is just about everything else. It’s a slog to get through big parts of the first two acts, which is slowed down by sequences that take up a significant chunk of its runtime.
Don’t get me wrong, one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about The Conjuring films is how it continually dedicated time to showing the Warrens as a “regular” family and how important their love for each other was central to how they helped others. In Last Rites, though, these sequences feel so completely disconnected from story being told to the point they actively detracted from the core events of the plot.
Yes, Ed’s big birthday party was neat and filled with some touching moments…but ultimately dragged on well beyond the point it was trying to make. It went from establishing a new key character (Judy’s boyfriend) and once again endearing us to Ed and Lorraine’s loving relationship, to feeling like it was starting to tell a completely different story. Ultimately the only main connection to the overall Smurl plot was an offhanded mention by Father Gordon (Steve Coulter) as he was leaving the party. Something that could have easily been kept while cutting down a huge chunk of the party scene.
Speaking of Father Gordon, his purpose in the film could have been handled almost entirely off screen. Instead we get an extended sequence of him visiting the Smurls and the local Diocese where the demon inexplicably manages to engineer a tragic end for him. It’s not all that scary, and its sole purpose is to give the Warrens a reason to travel to the Smurl’s home. Something the following funeral sequence manages to handle succinctly on its own.
It felt obvious the only reason his ending was given so much screen time was due to him being a returning figure from previous films. Moments like this are littered throughout the film, adding little to the story itself aside from bloating the runtime and making me wonder when we were finally getting back to the actual investigation. There are plenty of times in the film where those touching character moments are pitch perfect (e.g. Ed and Tony cooking pancakes for the Smurls) without bogging everything down, which makes those extended sequences feel all the more baffling and unnecessary.
The final act manages to bring things back into line with the previous films, keeping the action moving quickly before reaching a white-knuckling climax. There are some odd choices here and there (Tony and Judy would not survive in a normal slasher flick with their decision making skills), but it’s engaging enough you don’t think about it too much at the time.
The only issue here, is it felt like any of the other films and not the grand finale it was set up to be. Aside from the previously established heart issues for Ed, there’s nothing distinctive about this being the “case that ended it all.” Not to mention the piece of informational text at the beginning that said something to the effect of “a case that would devastate their family” is completely at odds with the decidedly happy ending Ed and Lorraine are given.
It makes it tough to reconcile the expectations the film itself establishes with the end result. It’s not necessarily bad—in many ways it’s a touching send off for the couple and in line with how their relationship has always been presented—but miles away from what they made you think it was going to be.
Combine that with a script that really needed to trim the fat with, I hate to say, a weak performance from Judy’s actress, and Last Rites lacks the oomph I was hoping to see out of a finale.
