It was time. Good on Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, for realizing that The Conjuring had to end at some point. Last Rites is the low point for the franchise, but still a perfectly fine film to end it on, leaving an indelible mark on horror movie history, with one of the best horror movies of the century, multiple sequels, and two OTHER franchises spawned from the main one. God bless those Wilson sideburns!
Last Rites’s demonic object is a horrifying unwelcoming mirror with 3 creepy heads on the top of it. In 1986, dumb grandpa Smurl (Peter Wight) saw it at a swap meet and was like “perfect cheapo confirmation gift”! Poor teenager Heather (Kila Lord Cassidy) almost gets crushed by the kitchen light, starting a series of horrible events that make the low working-class Smurls feel trapped in their own house. Their desperate plea on the news reaches Ed (Patrick) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren, who decline initially, happy to remain retired. But their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) shares mom’s gifts, and is drawn to the Pittsburgh family, forcing our ghostbusters out of early retirement.
The final Conjuring continues the mistake of the last one, though it’s actually defensible this time. The Warrens are best utilized in this series as the avenging angels, supporting the poor family haunted by a demon. This allows us time to explore life with the family being haunted, setting up the characters/dynamics, which then get tested as the Warrens enter and try to exorcise the demon from the house. However, this movie is likely the final Warren tale, so they are front and center in this story. The poor Smurls are sidelined, and none of the family members really leave any lasting impact despite their being 28 of them. We go deep into Warren lore in this one, specifically their daughter Judy, and how she came to be married to her eventual husband Tony Spera (Ben Hardy). While Ed and Tony have fun providing a little girl dad/boyfriend comedic friction to the tale, the Judy/Lorraine bond is the emotional bedrock of Last Rites, as we see talents, scars, and lessons passed down generation to generation. Wilson and Farmiga carry this movie on their steady shoulders, happily ushering Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, the Smurls, and the audience in general to the finish line, a little weathered and worn, but still effective in the job.
As for the scares, Michael Chaves is not the horror savant James Wan is. What frights we witness here is more traditional in nature for a Conjuring film. We’re in bread & butter “period piece jump scare” land. Lots of old grainy footage used fantastically. A dress shopping room of horrors. Dark unfurnished attics and basements, creepy MOVING dolls this time. You get the idea. Chaves’s best scares are the fakeout “tension has subsided” moments cut to a creepy hand on a shoulder or something like that. The older trinkets work better than any of the CGI effects here, maintaining the oldies illusion all Conjuring movies use to great effects. It’s not groundbreaking, but it fits more as a weirdly nostalgic sendoff, easing the Warrens into retirement.
I will miss Ed and Lorraine. I started writing movie reviews right around the first Conjuring, delighted at how truly creepy that film was. I grew up as a critic and writer through the sequels, and remain sufficiently creeped out by Annabelle. I guess she lives on…not great for my psyche long term. How did kids back then actually consider playing with dolls like that? I guess they were that bored huh?