After more than a decade of sequels and spin-offs, The Conjuring franchise finally comes to a close with The Conjuring: Last Rites. Directed by Michael Chaves, this last chapter finds Ed and Lorraine Warren retired from the business of battling evil, until, of course, one final case pulls them back in when it hits too close to home. The film gives longtime fans some much-needed emotional closure and a handful of solid scares, though it also gets bogged down by uneven pacing and a nagging sense of déjà vu.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga once again prove why they’ve been the backbone of this series. Their chemistry hasn’t faded a bit, and even when the frights don’t land, their performances keep you invested. This time, their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) steps more into the spotlight, adding a sense of legacy to the Warren story. She’s a likable presence, but the extra focus on her sometimes pulls away from the tension of the main haunting.
What the movie succeeds in is its sense of finality. Themes of family, faith, and sacrifice run strong, and the callbacks to earlier cases give the whole thing a reflective, almost bittersweet tone. While Last Rites never matches the intensity of the first film, it still works atmospherically. The haunted mirror imagery is creepy, and I liked how the visuals switch between grainy, home-video style shots and the gothic look the series is known for.
Where the film stumbles is in the pacing. At just over two hours, it spends too long building up the Warrens’ home life, Judy’s arc, and the Smurl family’s haunting. By the time the supernatural action really takes over, some of the suspense has already faded, and it struggles to get it back. I found my mind wandering quite a bit during the setup, which is never a good sign.
The scares, too, feel a little recycled. Cursed objects, possessions, and skeptics slowly convinced… these beats have been staples of the Conjuring brand, but here they feel overused. A few moments are genuinely chilling, but too many others are so predictable that it dulls the scares before they actually happen. The Smurl family, who should be the emotional center of the haunting, never gets fleshed out enough to make their ordeal hit as hard as it should. And I found the heavy use of CGI to be disappointing, especially compared to the practical effects that gave the first two films such a grounded, unsettling edge.
In the end, The Conjuring: Last Rites isn’t the franchise’s most successful entry, but it does what it sets out to, which is to give the Warrens a proper send-off. Wilson and Farmiga carry it effortlessly, and I’ll miss seeing them in these roles. But, despite its flaws, the film has just enough scares and heart to satisfy fans who’ve been along for the ride since the beginning.
