THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025)

In theaters now from New Line Cinema!
Directed by Michael Chaves.
Written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.
Check out the trailer here!!

Dawn Smurl (Beau Gadsdon) receives a large mirror as a gift and soon finds that it houses an evil spirit intent on, well, I guess, intent on conjuring up some scares for the entire family. Not sure what the demon’s intent really is. Meanwhile, the Warren family is not without its own problems. Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) has been experiencing heart problems. And his daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is developing a psychic connection with the dark side, much like her mother Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), who attempts to help her cope with these blossoming powers. Judy’s boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy) tries to understand the bizarre Warren family as he plans to propose to Judy. But getting in the way of all of their happiness is that pesky demon-possessed mirror.

While a mirror is not the most terrifying of antagonists, I am surprised how many movies have mirrors as central horrors. MIRROR MIRROR, the original BOOGEYMAN series, and of course OCCULUS all have scared horror fans in varying degrees through the years, but still, it doesn’t make me shiver at all.

Scary furniture aside, the entire CONJURING series is always controversial. Any time I review a CONJURING movie, there are always those who come out of the woodwork to claim the Warrens were nothing but charlatans, benefitting off of others misery with parlor tricks and haughty words. Then there are those who feel the Warrens are the first family in legitimizing paranormal investigation. I imagine the truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle and honestly, don’t really care about the real life accuracy of the fourth installment of a multi-million dollar, mainstream horror movie. They might have had some kind of paranormal acuity. Then again they might have kicked a cat or two in their time. I don’t know and really don’t care.

All I know if that this CONJURING series reminds me of the PRISCILLA movie released last year in response to the ELVIS movie, which made sure to put Priscilla Presley in a positive and wholesome light and cast her as an integral piece of Elvis’ life. As much as this CONJURING series is about jump scares and creepy possessed objects, it is also all about the schmaltz, highlighting the deep love the Warrens shared for one another. And THE CONJURING: LAST RITES sure does heap on the schmaltz, making it one of the more wholesome horror series you’re going to find. While I can deal with some schmaltz from time to time in this horrifying world we life in today, I will say that LAST RITES may have heaped it on a bit too much for my tastes as much of the screentime involves family drama one might see in a spicy ONE TREE HILL episode. The love between Lorraine and Ed, the proposal musings of Tony and Judy. I was honestly about to go into a sugar coma if I had to see another loving and knowing look shot from Vera Farmiga to one of her family.

That said, LAST RITES got me over and over again with the jump scares. I’m a sucker for it. Maybe I am just a little too relaxed in the theater or just sensitive to large blasts of music or just hopped up on caffeine. But every time the Don-Music headbang on the keyboard occurred paired with a creepy demon face, I jumped accordingly. And it happened quite a bit, which, I guess, that means LAST RITES is a successful scary movie.

Lasting scares that might creep into my subconscious and my dreams after viewing? Not so much. By the time of the climax when the entire Warren family is battling a mirror with all kinds of explosions, rain, and thunder going on, I kind of checked out of the movie. What I said earlier was accurate. I really don’t know what the end game of this evil mirror is. Basically, the Warrens met the mirror ages ago when Lorraine was pregnant with Judy. The meeting was less than successful and I guess, the mirror developed a grudge against the Warrens since then, according to the movie. If mirrors can have a grudge. Of course, since every cursed object has to have a movie of its own, the origins of this mirror is never revealed. But for some reason, the haunted mirror followed the Warrens through time and manipulated thing to have them meet again. Not sure why. It is never really delved into that deeply. The mirror is just an object that has history with the Warrens. There is a moment in the story where someone asks Ed what happened to the people who had the mirror, as the Warrens rushed out to have a baby before the mirror could be conjured away by their combined powers. Ed says he doesn’t know. Again, this might be setup for the next CONJURING spinoff, but it is a gaping hole in this narrative that, if filled, might have helped clear up the motivation of this mirror. I mean, had the original family with the mirror been destroyed, save one vengeful family member been injected into the story, maybe how this mirror ends up back into the Warren’s life might have been understandable. Instead, the guiding forces are the urges that Judy and Lorraine feel, which is less interesting as it is something we as the audience really can’t see.

By now, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson and his forehead have played these characters for so long that they could do it in their sleep. There’s a bit of more development in Ed as we see the physical toll all of these conjurings have taken from him and I guess, Vera shows some extra sensitivity as she has some nice mother/daughter moments with Judy. But these two are simply doing what they’ve perfected in the last three CONJURING movies. The film very much tries to highlight the younger generation of Warrens with the focus on Judy’s developing powers and the shadowy history Tony has as an ex-cop. Much like when THE X-FILES tried to push Doggett and Reyes on us when Scully and Mulder were no longer on the series.—

Controversial Sidebar: I actually liked the Doggett and Reyes season of X-FILES. Sorry for being so…controversial.

Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy are both decent, but they’re no Farmiga and Forehead. I don’t think they will be taking over for those two in future CONJURING’s.

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES ends with a very RAISING ARIZONA-like ending where Lorraine has a vision of Ed and her growing old together, having grandchildren, and eventually going to THE CONJURING premiere together, which I guess might make it seem like this series is coming to an end. It really has kind of run out of steam, despite a noble effort by everyone in front of and behind the camera. I think it’s time to let this series die, but of course, with a $400 million opening weekend, there’s no doubt there’ll be another one. Also there’s the HBO MAX series in the works too, I hear. If they do make another movie, I hope they cover the Warrens’ involvement in the Amityville case with Wan back at the helm.

I feel THE CONJURING: LAST RITES fits right between the second one and the tepid last one, THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT. It hits all the same old beats. Basically, what I’m saying here is that this is another CONJURING movie. Lots of jump scares. Iffy haunted item which will be developed later…or not. Heaps of schmaltz and lots of forehead. If you’re a fan of this series, here’s another one!

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Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)