The final story in the massive horror franchise has some good scares, some heartfelt moments, and a sense of relief that this series is coming to a close. 

Released in 2025, this film follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively, on their final mission. One last demon to fight. This time it is the real life case of the Smurf family in Pennsylvania who claim they are being haunted by demonic forces.

This series began in 2013 with the original Conjuring film, one of my favorite scary movies. In the twelve years since, we have had three conjuring sequels, three Annabelle movies based on the haunted doll from the first film, and two nun films based on the demon from the second conjuring film. That’s a lot of ghostly and demonic activity in a dozen years. Someday I’ll have to do a full series recap. For now I’ll just say that I have enjoyed this series. There are ups and downs, but it has been a fun series to return to every year. However, I am glad that it is coming to a conclusion. It feels like it’s time to close out this story. 

Last Rites begins with the same formula as the other films in the series. We meet up with the Warrens on an investigation that will prove to be relevant later. We then meet the family that will be the subjects of the demon terror. We get some scares with the family specifically the kids, then the family becomes desperate enough to reach out to the Warrens. They show up to the house and help the family feel more like a family. Then the real demons start to come out and we build upon to grand finale. 

This movie breaks from the formula by not focusing on the family. They don’t get the development and the attention that we need as an audience to truly care about them as people. Instead we focus on the Warrens. 

Ed is getting older. He can’t keep ghost hunting due to his heart condition. Lorraine is struggling with all the visions of evil she must see everyday. And their daughter Judy, played this time by Mia Tomlinson, has a new boyfriend she’s getting serious about. She’s also struggling with visions of the afterlife and of the demons that surround them. 

The relationship between these three and the fiancé Tony, played by Ben Hardy, become the focus of this movie. Which made me ask about half way through the movie, why are bothering with the haunted family? If we aren’t going to give them the time or development, why include them at all? Just make it the whole thing a family affair. It would’ve given us more time with the characters the movie really cares about, new jump scares could’ve been concocted, and we could’ve saved about twenty minutes of run time. 

But what about those scares? Does the movie work as an exercise in haunted house fear? Yeah, for the most part. There are some well constructed sequences of fear. There is a nice subtle moment when someone is on the phone and cord keeps moving of its own accord in the dark closet. There’s a great moment when a girl is watching a tv in a dark room late at night and the shadows moving in the screen that we see, but she doesn’t notice gives a wonderful creepy jolt. There’s a great sequence in a room full of mirrors that is claustrophobic, disorienting, and scary all at once. 

Sadly none of these moments reach the heights of the earlier installments. I think the movie isn’t as effective because we aren’t given enough time with the characters, because we don’t let the moments breath and play out as long as they need, and because the film is not shot with the masterful control that James Wan and other directors have displayed in this franchise. 

I’ve complained about the other elements already, so we’ll move on the to way it’s shot. The cinematography here is too dark. Whole scenes play out in complete shadow. I couldn’t pick the dad out of a lineup, because he’s constantly shot with his face obscured in shadows. It lacks the elegant lighting needed to pull off this story.

All this said, it is a satisfying movie. It has some good scares. It features characters I’ve grown to care for over the series. And it features a very touching finale that feels like the perfect send off to these characters and this series. 

It’s a lovely conclusion. It closes the book on a franchise that helped shape horror movies and changed the genre forever. It bids farewell to these characters and this world at the right time. It calls its quits while they’re ahead instead of dragging it out until the series feels like an exhausted formulaic mess. I’ve enjoyed this franchise very much, but I’m excited to see wha the next stage of the horror movie evolution is going to look like. 

It is my cup of tea B+