The Conjuring: Last Rites is more of a warm farewell to Ed and Lorraine Warren than a standout horror film.
As a send-off, it’s mostly tidy and sincere; as a chiller, it musters a few mild jolts but leans hard on franchise muscle memory. You can see the intention: a summation of what this series has meant emotionally, nested within a case that lets the past echo through the present. The trouble is that the horror mechanics rarely feel new. Director Michael Chaves (who helmed previous franchise entries The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Nun II) steers with steady hands and a clear eye for unnerving compositions, but the film seldom shakes off the sense of déjà vu. Earlier in the universe’s run, this might have landed with more force.
Much of the runtime and most of the scare business centre on the Smurl family. The sequences are competently engineered with sound ramps, clean blocking and sharp edits, but they still tread well-worn paths. The film takes its time revealing how this strand connects to the Warrens, and the delay doesn’t build dread so much as keep you waiting for an outcome that feels inevitable: of course they’ll be pulled out of “retirement” for one more confrontation. At just over two hours, you can feel the air in the structure; a leaner cut of 15–20 minutes would have served this narrative well.
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Shift the spotlight to the Warrens and the film perks up. Framed as a goodbye, this chapter has a low-key warmth, and the emphasis on family—particularly the dynamic with their daughter—adds texture. There are a few light comic beats as Ed negotiates parts of fatherhood that have nothing to do with holy water. Vera Farmiga slips back into Lorraine with ease, balancing her desire to leave the darkness behind with the dread that her daughter may walk a similar path, and she still proves a scream queen when it’s time to stare down evil. Patrick Wilson gets a little more to do than in recent entries, and together they remain the heartbeat of this branch of the franchise. Their relationship, rooted in love, faith and fatigue, gives the farewell a tender centre.
The parenting thread is handled well: they want to protect Judy, but protection may not mean hiding her from the darkness—if they can at all. Mia Tomlinson is strong as Judy Warren, bringing vulnerability and steel as a young woman starting to confront the same shadows her parents have long faced.
On the horror side, there are pockets of chill: the mirror motif yields a couple of good stings, and the craft is never sloppy, but signature imagery is in short supply and the escalation is predictable. You can feel the film reaching for a “full circle” resonance, and on the character front it mostly finds it; the scare engine, however, runs on recycled parts.
In the end, The Conjuring: Last Rites is more of a respectful—at times even sweet—farewell to Ed and Lorraine than a top-tier chiller, occasionally heartfelt but routine where it should surprise. As for whether this is truly goodbye, we’ll see; when the receipts add up, the sequels do too.
