Film Review - The Conjuring: Last Rites
Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
I still remember the thrill I experienced when watching James Wan’s first two Conjuring films. To me and many other fourteen year old’s, each movie’s unparalleled terror came from the litany of “awesome” jump scares. But what I didn’t appreciate then was that to ground these cheap thrills, Wan littered the films with meaningful, creeping frights, as well as a dynamic between protagonists unseen in most other horror flicks: a heart filled married couple’s (the titular Warrens) fight against satanic forces. Now, if that same fourteen year old version of me were to create a Conjuring film based on what he thought was cool, The Conjuring: Last Rites is the film you’d be likely to get; one void of intelligent scares or the Warrens really doing anything of note.
Despite this, Last Rites doesn’t begin on shaky footing; its opening scene in my opinion being the best of the franchise. This isn’t because it was terrifying though, it's because it leaned into the franchise's heart at a time where they almost failed to prevent evil’s success: the birth of their daughter Judy. We learn that in the wake of this event, Judy is cursed. This is info we didn’t have from previous films and director Micheal Chaves’ implementation of it here is tasteful, setting up stakes for what seems like an otherwise exciting Last film. To my disappointment though, the film feels like it starts a second time once we jump into the future to meet this film's haunted family, the Smurls, and this is where the cracks in Last Rites veneer started to show.
The very real, emotionally based tension of the opening is juxtaposed here by something which doesn’t feel congruent. We get a birthday scene in which the Smurls all get marginal amounts of characterisation before one of the films first (of many) jump scares, and once we’re past that, each of them remain stagnant for the rest of the story. This stagnation perhaps would’ve been fine if the film used its runtime to give the Warrens their own interesting arcs, and it does… but not the ones you’d think.
The Warren’s Last Rites is most concerned with is Judy, as well as her fiancee, Tony. The film's first half mostly sees Ed and Lorraine dealing with the impending marriage of their daughter, and while amusing, feels like a waste of time in what is being called the “last” Conjuring film. I sat there wishing they were the ones in the Smurls haunted house, because as is, Last Rites first two acts flipped from comedically tinged wedding shenanigans of the Warrens, to the charismatically void scares of the Smurls. We don’t get to see them doing any ghost-busting until the last act, which makes it feel like the film you’re paying to see doesn’t start until 1 hour and 45 minutes in (30 minutes from the finish line).
By that point, it almost feels too late. The good will I’d amassed from the opening had all but dissipated, and even though it was fun to see Patrick Wilson (Ed Warren) open up his mini bible for the last time and exorcise a demon filled mirror, all I could think about was how much better this felt two films ago. Even though Last Rites' final moments were somewhat heart-warming as a fan of the first two, its catharsis is wasted on something which could’ve been so much better.
Follow James on Letterboxd.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is screening in cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.