Write a commentClosure is one of life's most difficult things to accomplish. If you're around the right people, it's even difficult to say "goodbye" to them only once before you leave.
When you're enjoying the ride, you don't ever want it to end. When it does ultimately end, there's a little bit of a drop in your mood. You may even stretch into being slightly depressed that it's over instead of being happy it happened.
The above paragraph was to give you the feel of "The Conjuring: Last Rites". It rambles a bit, throws some nostalgia your way for good measure and tries being an honest to goodness horror movie. Does it really succeed at all it sets out to accomplish? Meh, maybe?
This time, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) go toe-to-toe with a haunted mirror. Yes, you read correctly. While much younger, the two of them encounter this mirror, giving Lorraine a vision and practically inducing her into labor. Years later, their child is fully grown and on her way to be married. But, a new case draws Ed and Lorraine back to confront the past, as well as the mirror.
Sounds incredibly silly? Because it is. Typically, I've given a lot of the films from "The Conjuring Universe" kind of a wide berth. If you look back on the other films in the franchise that I've reviewed, I even gave credit to "Annabelle Comes Home" for being the right kind of ridiculous. The issue here is that "Annabelle Comes Home", while under the larger umbrella of the universe, was a direct sequel to a sillier tributary of the franchise. The other three "Conjuring" films have all been pretty serious, especially the first two.
And, maybe that's the rub here. As with "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It", "The Conjuring: Last Rites" is directed by Michael Chaves. He's kind of an anomaly. The first film of his that I saw was "The Curse of La Llorona". Wasn't very good. He improved, albeit slightly, with "The Devil Made Me Do It" and then significantly improved with "The Nun II". "Last Rites" seems like a step back.
It's not entirely his fault, though. The script throws in so much because this is supposed to double as a send-off for Ed and Lorraine. We need that closure so the film shoehorns a lot of unnecessary scenes that only pad the length. Which seems strange, for sure, considering "The Conjuring 2" was only a minute shorter than this but it was expertly paced whereas a lot of what happens in "Last Rites" sort of doesn't have any structure. It's like watching two turtles in a race, but there's no real goal in sight nor a track.
I'm well aware how hard I am being on this movie. If I'm being totally honest, and why wouldn't I be, the film is adequately entertaining. It's an improvement on "The Devil Made Me Do It", but still well behind the first two. Farmiga and Wilson settle into their characters like a blue collar worker into a warm bath at the end of a shift. The two of them are such good performers that they don't really seem like they're acting. They're just being these people to the point now that I associate them more with Ed and Lorraine Warren more than I do their true life counterparts. I just wish they had a better script to work with.
As with the other films in this franchise, we have to talk about the scares. A horror film lives or dies on the backs of their scares. Back in 2005, they remade John Carpenter's "The Fog" and, man oh man, do you miss Carpenter behind the camera. There's a reason very few people talk about this film. It's not scary. "Last Rites" ebbs and flows. While the first two "Conjuring" films had sustained tension throughout their respective runtimes, "Last Rites" continually stops to check in with the Warrens and their family. I'm not saying a horror film shouldn't have character moments. Most of the best ones do, but they incorporate these moments into the plot more efficiently. They make things interesting. Most of the drama is boilerplate at best so it makes it very difficult to identify with the new characters in this film as they're not given much to do besides be in danger.
All in all, I wish "Last Rites" was better. I had hopes that it would be an improvement on the last one, and it was, but not enough for me to give it a full-fledged recommendation. It's truly too bad because I feel the first two are bonafide classics and for the franchise to end with such a whimper, it almost retroactively diminishes the impact of the first two. Years from now, I'll go back to the first two and just pretend the other two don't exist.
Note: If you want some truly spooky mirror horror, check out "The Twilight Zone" episode "Mirror Image" starring Vera Miles or Mike Flanagan's "Oculus".
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
Directed by Michael Chaves
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Steve Coulter
Runtime: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for bloody/violent content and terror
"The Conjuring: Last Rites" is in theaters now and will be available to rent or purchase October 7th on all major platforms.Rating (out of ****): **1/2
