THE CONJURING: LAST RITES Review: Series and Franchise Send-Off Delivers Familiar Frights and Fears
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as demon fighters Ed and Lorraine Warren; Michael Chaves directed.
More than a decade after the James Wan-directed, throwback supernatural shocker, The Conjuring, turned a seemingly one-off hit into the most commercially successful horror franchise in box-office history, the series that followed (sequels, spinoffs, prequels to the spinoffs), it comes to a reportedly final, likely temporary, conclusion with the ninth entry, The Conjuring: Last Rites.
Spoiler alert: It fizzles out in a barrage of tired, cliched shocks, scares, and ultimately, shoulder shrugs.
Excluding the Annabelle and The Nun spinoffs and The Curse of La Llorona (non-canon), the third sequel and fourth direct entry in The Conjuring series reunites the highly fictionalized versions of Ed (Patrick Wilson), a self-described demonologist, occasional writer, and part-time presenter, and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), a clairvoyant and medium (“she sees dead people” among other supernatural apparitions and visions), for one last battle against the ghosts, demons, and cursed objects that have bedeviled their lives since we first met the Warrens during a more innocent time (2013).
When we meet the Warrens again, they’ve been de-aged old-school style: They’re played by two younger actors (Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor) vaguely resembling Wilson and Farmiga. Young Ed and young Lorraine are part of an extended prologue set in the mid-1960s. A risky, late-term pregnancy doesn't stop an already indomitable Lorraine from putting personal safety aside to battle the physical manifestation of Evil (Roman Catholic Edition). They find said manifestation of evil embodied in a cursed mirror unknown provenance and malign influence.
Framed by three cherubic faces carved into wood, the mirror apparently turned its now deceased owner suicidal, but before the Warrens can act, Lorraine goes into labor, giving birth to the Warrens’s daughter, Judy (played by Mia Tomlinson as a young adult), on an obligatorily dark and stormy night. In turn, Judy’s premature birth leaves the cursed mirror, its fate, and its connection to the Warrens unresolved for more than 20 years in film time.
The Conjuring: Last Rites flash forwards to 1986 and the Warrens, retired due to Ed’s ongoing heart condition and their diminished status as celebrity demon hunters as evidenced by a lightly attended lecture. Look closely and their fading popularity can be seen as an in-film commentary on the horror genre — or more specifically, the supernatural horror sub-genre — and its tendency to gain/lose paying and/or interested audiences as novelty and originality give way to repetition and unoriginality over time.
For the in-film Warrens, though, lightly attended lectures are, at most, a minor inconvenience. They’re enjoying the benefits of retirement from demon-hunting: Less stress, fewer late-night battles with inconsiderate ghosts, and most importantly, unstructured time with Judy and Judy’s new beau, Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), an unemployed ex-cop. Tony’s lack of employment seems like a red flag for Ed and Lorraine, but after coming up once or twice, it’s never mentioned again.
Good thing, though, as the slow-to-start, slow-to-end ninth entry in The Conjuring universe finally brings the Warrens, including Judy and Tony -- proving himself a worthy addition to the demon-fighting family -- to their latest, possibly last, definitely not greatest case, the cursed mirror we met hours earlier.
Now in the possession of a working-class Pennsylvania family, the eight-member Smurl clan led by Janet (Rebecca Calder) and Jack (Elliot Cowan), the cursed mirror creates all manner of havoc, starting with the usual bumps and knocks in the night (or barely lit interiors), and ending with at least one or two hospitalizations under suspicious circumstances. Worse? They can’t leave, they can’t afford to relocate to another, presumably non-haunted house, a point made to sidestep the usual question everyone asks where a haunted house happens to be involved.
Once the Warren and Smurl stories converge somewhere after the one-hour mark, the spooky pyrotechnics begin. They’re far too long in coming, pushing audience patience, not to mention the goodwill generated across 12 years and nine films, to its breaking point, before delivering a somewhat satisfying “Family is All/Family Against Everything” finale as reactionary- and conservative-themed as anything in the long-running series.
With frights in woefully short supply until the third act and an overlong, over-indulgent epilogue, it's left to Wilson and Farmiga, along with Tomlinson and Hardy, to make up for The Conjuring: Last Rites' shortcomings (e.g., flaccid pacing, underdeveloped characters, overfamiliar, tension- and suspense-free scares). That they almost succeed says more about their onscreen believability as a long-lived couple than the greatest hits screenplay credited to Ian Goldberg screenplay, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (James Wan receives a story credit) or Michael Chaves’ (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II, The Curse of La Llorona) competent, workman-like direction.
The Conjuring: Last Rites opens theatrically on Friday, September 5th, via Warner Bros. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Director(s)
- Michael Chaves
Writer(s)
- Ian Goldberg
- Richard Naing
- David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Cast
- Vera Farmiga
- Patrick Wilson
- Elliot Cowan
Do you feel this content is inappropriate or infringes upon your rights? Click here to report it, or see our DMCA policy.
More about The Conjuring
- DAYBREAKERS Brings Greedy Vampires Home with a New 4K UHD Steelbook
- Now Streaming: Michael Chaves' CONJURING Universe Horror
- ANNABELLE: The Doll From THE CONJURING Breaks Out In First Trailer
- Quentin Tarantino's Top Ten Films Of The Year: From GRAVITY To THE LONE RANGER
- Review: INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 Teeters On The Edge Of Horror Hokum
