Director Michael Chaves follows up his last entry into The Conjuring universe, 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, with the erstwhile finale of the main Conjuring series, while introducing characters to move it forward beyond Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The Conjuring series has been one of Warner/New Line’s most successful franchises, finding a way to spawn multiple successful spin-off franchises, like Annabelle and The Nun, while exploring and dramatizing some of the paranormal adventures based on real-life ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. The main Conjuring series started in 2013, and now, 12 years later, we’re at the fourth and presumably final installment, The Conjuring: Last Rites, helmed by Michael Chaves who also directed 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. This is a direct sequel to that film, following up on the evnts of that film with Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren still recovering from the heart problems from that film and he and Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren in semi-retirement on the lecture circuit in the wake of the release of the film Ghostbusters, which is not at all what they do. While Ed would like to get out and do more cases, his condition makes that unlikely.
The film is mainly there to set up Ed and Lorraine’s daughter Judy, played by Mia Tomlinson, as the successor to the mantle of Lorraine as a psychic medium for the series shoukd it continue. The film starts with a flashback to Judy’s birth and how it is tied to a mirror artifsct behind the Warren’s first case. It’s suggested that this mirror somehow is responsible for Judy’s psychic abilities which she suffers from as an adult, being haunted by ghosts in her day to day life, especially the spectre of Annabelle. Judy is also dating Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), a former police officer with a mysterious past looking to gain Ed and Lorraine’s blessing to propose to Judy. As Judy and Tony prepare for a wedding and win Ed’s trust after the ffects of the world’s most intense ping pong game, Judy is being toirmented by images of a demonic woman, who sometimes assumes her form.
Queue the Smurls, a large working class Catholic family in Pittston, PA, who through a series of random events end up with the very mirror that seemigly cursed Judy on her birth. And this mirror houses the spirits that are haunting Judy and draws her to the Smurls to help. But is this draw her new calling, or perhaps a more sinister suggestion that could lead to why this is the Warrens’ final case.
Chaves’ film does a great job of drawing you in as a viewer even if you haven’t rewatched all the entries in the Conjuring franchise. The fact that the story stands on its own is awesome, since I’m not a regular viewer of these films and I feel anyone could watch this film having not seen the Conjuring films and be engaged with the story. it’s very much Exorcist with shades of Oculus, but the family dynamic is very engaging and the relationships feel real and lived in as Wilson and Farmiga have inhabited these roles for well-over a decade. Tomlinson does a great job at making Judy the potential successor to this franchise and how Tony grows from being a background character to someone literally handed the keys to the mantle feels earned due to Hardy’s performance. There’s lots of Easter eggs for fans of the franchise with Annabelle fans in for lots of treats here.
Overall, The Conjuring: Last Rites is a fitting wrap-up for Farmiga and Wilson’s character arcs with plenty of room left should the franchise decide to continue forward and a good send-off should it end here. It opens in theaters September 5th.
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THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025)
★★★ & 1/2 ★ of ★★★★★ stars