As big of a horror nut as I am, the Conjuring franchise has always eluded me—I’m just not that in to ghost movies, what can I say? But upon hearing that the newest installment, The Conjuring: Last Rites, may be the last, I decided to catch up; and I can confidently say the franchise is a real mixed bag—and fittingly, Last Rites is a bit of a mixed bag itself.
To start, I’ve always struggled with the fact that the main characters, Ed & Lorraine Warren, are based on real people—people I do not respect. It’s hard to reconcile that these characters are so lovable and based on predatory charlatans; but once you understand they’re really only superficially similar, it’s much less jarring. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson don’t play accurate versions of the Warrens, but they have such great chemistry and charisma that you can’t help but want to see more of them—which is kind of an area where Last Rites falters.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re a joy to watch—but this series has always struggled with equalizing the Warrens’ screen-time with whatever family’s being haunted. Conjuring 2 strikes a decent balance, but 1 and 3 are severely disproportionate (3’s also just a mess overall). Last Rites sets up interesting relationships within the Smurl family, only for them to take a backseat to Ed and Lorraine’s daughter getting engaged.
Now, I don’t hate that plotline; Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy are charming enough as the soon-to-be married couple, I was just expecting more time devoted to—oh, I don’t know, the titular conjuring??
I understand that the Smurl family is large and it’s hard to work with that many characters—but that isn’t an excuse not to try; two of them leave the story midway through and the other six don’t do much of anything after that point either. The reason I’m so disappointed is that they set up very interesting dynamics between the family; there’s friction, there’s tension over how they’re supposed to deal with an unprecedented threat like this—Beau Gadsdon and Kíla Lord Cassidy as Dawn and Heather are standouts, but again, they do nothing in the second half.
Another reason the haunting plot doesn’t work for me is because the antagonist feels half-baked. All the previous movies have some kind of identifiable villain; Bathsheba, Valak, the boring witch lady from the third one. Not only is Last Rites’ demon never seen, it’s never named or personified in any way—which is a real problem when they try to give it some personal connection to the Warrens. It’s an entity infesting a creepy mirror, the mirror does some moderately freaky stuff, but we don’t get much more than that—which isn’t inherently an issue, but it is if they want anyone to care about this; there’s just nothing to latch on to.
I’ve ragged on Last Rites quite a bit, but I don’t think it’s the worst movie ever made—Hell, it isn’t even the worst Conjuring movie ever made. As I said, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are amazing as ever, and it’s sort of bittersweet to see them go. There are some very well-done scares, the phone cord and VHS tape ones were very effective, although nowhere near as good as the scares from the first two films (James Wan just has that special sauce). There’s some decent filmmaking on display from director Michael Chaves; there’s a shot in the final act that didn’t really serve any purpose, but it certainly looked cool (which counts for something).
In short, it’s an entertaining entry, but it’s far from the best this series has to offer. Your mileage may vary, but I’d give it a hesitant recommendation.
Despite how conclusively it ends, I’m mostly just curious if they’ll stick to this being the final Conjuring movie; it’s quite the cash cow, something Warner Brothers desperately needs—and of course, no horror franchise stays dead. Neither Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter nor Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday were actually the final Friday the 13th movies—I wouldn’t be surprised if Conjuring 5 gets announced next week.
3.5/5
