The Conjuring – Last Rites (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

The Conjuring - Last Rites

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025)

Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, Molly Cartwright, John Brotherton, Shannon Kook, Madison Lawlor, Peter Wight, Steve Coulter, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Kate Fahy, Tony Spera, Orion Smith, Tilly Walker, Jemma Churchill, Leigh Jones, Tomas Bennett and Guy Oliver-Watts.

Screenplay by Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.

Directed by Michael Chaves.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. 135 minutes. Rated R.

Strangely, this is one of two movies opening in a week which promise to be the concluding chapter of a long-running series of films, although they are very, very different in all other ways. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is supposedly the end of the story for the long-running British arthouse TV series turned movie series. And The Conjuring: Last Rites, seems to be the last film in the Conjuring horror series. (I am not sure that it is going to be the last film in the Conjuring universe, which is made up of a bunch of fright series which vaguely trace back to The Conjuring films, like the Annabelle movies, The Nun series, etc.)

From the evidence of The Conjuring: Last Rites, maybe it really is time to give this series its last rites. Which is actually kind of a shame, because the original film The Conjuring was one of the best ghost story films in recent memory. It’s just that the series has become more and more watered down and predictable – and at the same time unbelievable – over the course of the three sequels. (And that is assuming you do not consider the Annabelle films loose sequels, or The Nuns.)

The Conjuring films – and much of the Conjuring universe – are very loosely based upon the adventures of early demonologists and ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren who were active from the 1960s-1980s investigating hauntings. Some of their most famous cases include the Perron family haunting (which became The Conjuring), the evil Annabelle doll, The Amityville Horror (which became a bestselling book by Jay Anson which was turned into a few movies over the years which are not connected to the Conjuring universe), the possession of Arne Johnson (which became The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) and the Snedeker House (which became the film A Haunting in Connecticut).

Last Rites mostly revolves around the case of The Smurls, a family from Pennsylvania who were terrified of their own home, due to a series of homicidal ghosts and a demonic mirror. (Although Last Rites works overtime trying to sandwich the Warrens’ daughter Judy into the haunting as well.)

The ghost story – at least as told here – not just figuratively but literally makes no sense. For example, at one point Lorraine states that the three ghosts she is sensing are from before there was a house, when the area was just farmland. A farmer took an axe and hunted and killed his wife and mother-in-law. Less than a minute after Lorraine said there was no house there at the time of the killing, she states that the killing took place in the basement. Huh??? How was there a basement there when there was no house?

This is just one of many, many plot holes which show up in The Conjuring: Last Rites, which actually does start off with some decent jump scares before the complete ridiculousness of the story takes hold.

And by the way, strictly from a reality standpoint, the town where this film is taking place is West Pittston, PA, which is right near Wilkes Barre. So why are the filmmakers using stock footage of the steel mills of Pittsburgh for background shots, which are over six hours drive away, across the state? Open a map, why don’t you?

Sadly, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who have been playing the Warrens through all of the Conjuring films, as well as appearing in a few of the spin offs, seem to have finally lost interest in the characters. They are both good actors and will never be completely uninteresting to watch, but they do seem to be just going through the motions to an extent.

Which is not so surprising, because the film itself often seems to be just pushing ghost-story buttons. I don’t know much about the real Smurl family haunting, but I find it hard to believe that it happened at all like it is shown here.

If this really is the end of the line for the Conjuring movies – and I won’t truly believe that they won’t decide to go back to the well sometime down the line until history proves that out – then let’s all just move on and try to remember the terrific first film rather than the Last Rites last gasp.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: September 4, 2025.