FILM REVIEW: The Conjuring Last Rites (2025)
- Gary
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
The Conjuring: Last Rites - New Release Review
Director: Michael Chaves
Starring: Vera Farminga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Rebecca Calder, Ben Hardy
Written by: Ian Goldberg. Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Produced by: Peter Safran, James Wan
Cinematography by: Eli Born
Original Score by: Benjamin Walfisch
Synopsis:
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront.
Thoughts:
'The Conjuring: Last Rites' delivers a satisfying conclusion and worthy sendoff for the Warrens, with a blood soaked love letter to fans of the series. Beautifully shot and carrying the weight of a 1980s horror classic.
Probably the scariest of any 'Conjuring' film to date, though without a doubt, the most personal. The visual horror plays second to the family drama and trauma that plagues the Warren family. An unnerving, emotional experience where we learn that even demons have demons. So if you’re into demonic possessions set amidst a family drama about intergenerational trauma then cast ye evil demons and pull up a rocking chair.
2025 has been a huge year for horror continuing here with the latest instalment of 'The Conjuring' and the final act to feature much beloved characters Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The pair have become big box office and staple fixtures in mainstream horror cinema since 2010.
The week running up to the release, I had been seeing posters and trailers everywhere. New Line Cinema and Warner Bros in collaboration on this monster sized production invested heavily in the marketing. We were invited to the Occult Museum Experience on Wednesday that had all the props from 'Last Rites', including the giant mirror. The escape room provided a couple of good scares and was a great touch for fans of the series getting to visit a mockup of the Warren’s room which housed all the cursed relics to interact with.
A gruelling cold open circa 1964 truly sets the tone on what is a tense open third of the film, taking us back to the beginning for the Warren’s and the horrific experiences they had during the birth of their daughter. As if childbirth wasn’t a daunting enough experience without a demon staring you down in the dark with its glowing eyes.
Fast-forward, it’s 1986 and their lives are certainly on a downturn. As the Warren’s career is winding down, they are not looking to pick up any cases, giving that up several years before. Ed cannot afford another heart attack. So they appear at random schools across the country, giving talks on the occult to uninterested teenagers who taunt them over their ghoulish tales. We know all the history and understand the weight on their bodies from all the trauma they carry. Everywhere they turn, torment awaits. All the parental worries are normal, then add on the fact that your kid can also see demons.
This story is focused on family and wellbeing. It’s a slow burn with many notable events to touch on like when they attend a lovely Italian restaurant in Connecticut as a family and mull over their dietary requirements. We even go to the doctors. And there’s a barbecue. It’s mundane and normal. The biggest adversity Ed has to overcome is a potential heart defect. There’s a lot of caring and support among the family, each one ready to lend a hand, pulling you out of whatever demonic ideation you’re experiencing or just the general reckoning with one's self. I feel like this was a fitting metaphor for life’s woes in general and the determination to overcome.
It’s rich in guilt and the Catholic-American experience, which feels warm and familiar. It’s Scorsese inspired mostly I found, with the family montage à la 'Mean Streets', the tracking shot through the Italian restaurant and with the signature Van Morrison track on the credits. We pick up with the Smurl family and pan across their lives during a Confirmation party at their multi-generational home in Pittsburgh. It’s just like any normal home where the extended family, 8 of them, live together and eat together every night.
Visuals clearly inspired by the iconic tracking shot from 'Goodfellas' but delivered through the 'Home Alone' lens, when the camera interacts with each character in the beginning. It’s no strange coincidence that DOP Eli Born noted in an interview with Fangoria that they picked lenses that were also used in 'Poltergeist' and 'Alien', to really help capture the look and atmosphere of the late 70s and early 1980s. I really enjoyed the world building and what became a bit like a battle between Connecticut and Pennsylvania for the title of dreariest state in America. The grey sky-line in Pittsburgh that sits beyond the Smurl’s home looms ominously, the bleak setting greyer and greyer with each shot is striking. Born has been on quite a run lately working on 'Companion', 'The Boogeyman' and the new 'Hellraiser'.
The strange occurrences that follow the confirmation earlier that day are even captured on home video, fuelling the fears of the children as they replay the ghost sighting over and over again. Nothing to calm their nerves but faith, the number of family members visited grows nightly, each becoming increasingly harmful and aggressive potentially stemming from or being amplified by a cursed mirror that was picked up at a swap-meet. An apparent hotbed for cursed items and totems according to the Warrens.
Dawn was given it as a gift from her grandmother. Everything scary and imaginable is happening to the Smurls within their own home. They can’t do anything about it or afford to move someplace else. The girls attempt to rid their home of the cursed mirror which only leads to gut wrenching consequences involving projectile vomiting blood and coughing up pieces of the mirror. Stressful, but an interesting metaphor for adolescence and teenagers becoming body image conscious perhaps. Only exhilarated by having a mean older sibling to rattle your self-esteem. Feeding off their fears before contact with the Warrens is attempted through a former colleague, Father Graham. Who I wrongly clocked looking like James Woods from 'Scary Movie 2' and not Father Merrin from 'The Exorcist'.
There’s something here, something in the attic that is calling out to them. A demon from their past that they ran away from. As Ed always says, they are less harm locked away with them than being left out in the world. There’s burning bibles and crosses on the wall, you cannot shut it out. They wrestle with demons disguised as demons and others disguised as themselves. Then there's a gigantic mechanical looking 'Annabelle'.
The series is enriched by the history of the Warrens, we see where they stand mentally, still as works in progress, still with a demon on their shoulders. Perhaps no more than their daughter Judy, who steps up as a second generation paranormal investigator after having premonitions since day 1 to carry on the tradition with her would-be deadman, future husband. Maybe her own twisted way of one-upping her parents.
The scene where Dawn is shopping for a wedding dress and finds herself alone in a room of mirrors stood out only for its attempts to reference Rita Hayworth and the scene with mirrors from 'The Lady from Shanghai'. What followed in my mind was Orson Welles on loop talking about there being nothing worse than “the homage.” Attempting to reference something that was so impressive only calls attention to your own underwhelming rendition. I am being less harsh but admittedly, more susceptible to the tricks of nostalgia. Which might be a good time to mention how much I enjoyed all the recreations of local affiliated newsreel footage and the mixed media collaging in the editing.
We have the axe welding maniac, the spooky basement and the public hysteria. There’s countless jump-scares as the tension ramps up but the pacing slows us down.
Not the most concise in its delivery trying to tie up all the moving parts. The conclusion is probably the weakest aspect of the film and perhaps it does lean into being over sentimental at times. A fitting end to the series and if you were left wanting more, there’s probably an origin story about the mirror coming soon.
Whilst sincere, the psychology is so focussed on reflection that we kind of miss achieving that cathartic ending. We feel the emotional toil which I think is best seen when Judy experiences her tormenting ideations and intrusive thoughts, probably the most human and relatable aspect of the film. So much so that we kind of forget that in real life the Warrens are remembered more akin to TV Evangelists Jim Baker and Tammy Faye and less like Mulder and Scully, in desperate search of the truth.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
-Gary McIlhagga
'The Conjuring: Last Rites' is in Irish/UK cinemas from Friday 5th September