The final installment of “The Conjuring” film series hit theatres on Friday, Sept. 5, following main characters Ed and Lorraine Warren in one final paranormal case. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” wraps up the over a decade-long franchise, with fans forced to say goodbye to the characters many grew up with. 

Since the finale’s announcement in the fall of 2022, followers of the film have anxiously awaited to see how the Warrens’ story ends, but the producers might have bitten off more than they could chew. With multiple plot lines, the first two acts of “Last Rites” are painstakingly pieced together, and despite coming together in the film’s final act, the result of such fragmented storytelling stalls the film into an emotionally undercutting plateau.

“Last Rites” follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in their final case – the haunting of the Smurl family’s house. However, this case is more personal than any they had encountered before, as there are deep ties between this haunting and their daughter Judy. An aging Warren couple must strike a balance between letting their daughter go as she comes of age and finds her place in the Warren family, while also protecting her and the Smurl family from a powerful demon.

There has been much online discourse surrounding people’s attachment to Ed and Lorraine Warren, stating that this couple defined their childhood. A statement that I questioned at first, but reflecting on how much true crime and analog horror has boomed in the internet age, “The Conjuring” being the most accessible cultural monolith representing these developments is not unthinkable. 

“Last Rites” embraces it’s cultural prominence by loading the film from front to back with contrived references and reliance on previous films in what can only be compared to a studio horror equivalent of an oversaturated “Avengers” event finale.  

While both Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson feel incredibly lived in and offer more than passable final efforts as Ed and Lorraine, it is Mia Tomlinson who steals the film as their daughter Judy. In a film so centered around family, new life in the face of death, and confronting the burdens passed down from generation to generation, much of the emotional weight and thesis of the film rests on Tomlinson’s performance. 

Particularly for a film as thematically shallow as this, her feature debut work provides much needed depth to help propel the film through regular falters. 

Clocking in at an overstuffed 135 minutes, returning Conjuring series director Michael Chaves has enough time to oscillate between obvious horror drivel and some genuinely charming threads about motherhood and family. As studio horror event finales go (not a particularly saturated market), this will likely be an effective one for fans of the franchise, no matter how contrived its high points are – they are undeniably effective. 

While the jump scares are broadly ineffective, I think most directors attempting a modern horror blockbuster are placed in a rather unfortunate situation. Horror as a genre relies on tempo and rhythm more than most. A good “scare” almost entirely necessitates perfect timing. 

Yet, we live in the most saturated media market of all time. Films are marketed to audiences who have internalized not only the rhythms of horror, but also the subversion of, and the subversion of the subversion of said rhythms. To consistently and effectively scare in 2025 is a near-impossible task. 

The film’s third act is standard fun Conjuring fare, fighting demons against the backdrop of domestic life with the power of God and reading the Bible (in essence), albeit with a more overt emotional weight than prior installments. Yet the road to get to what is a generally conventional final act is sloppy and a bit grating. 

The film is working with a variety of plot threads on multiple planes of action -the Smurl house, Ed and Lorraine and Judy with her boyfriend Tony -that are painstakingly pieced together across the first two acts. Despite coming together on paper by the third act, the result of such fragmented storytelling attempting to draw so many moving pieces together with nothing but stale dialogue stalls the film into an emotionally undercutting plateau.

“Last Rites” is a strange paradox of a film, whose largest strength is also its most prominent weakness. A surprisingly charming and sincere film about family that concludes the Warren’s story with satisfaction and overt fan service -one so visually and tonally assured on the foundation of its predecessors. Yet, it is this safeness and lack of novelty in conjunction with a fractured narrative that favors a clean, no loose ends finale for Ed and Lorraine. Passable, and enjoyable enough, but deeply flawed. 5/10.