How’s it hangin’, boils and ghouls? The temps seem like they finally want to start dipping cooler at night, and Halloween has taken over the seasonal sections of all the local stores. In a final test of how close the Halloween season is, Spirit Halloween has transformed the dead Jo-Ann’s and Big Lots stores to bring us another year of scary animatronics, costumes, and everyday office/home decor.

It also means the steady diet of horror flicks is headed to the big screen in anticipation of the Halloween holiday season. Of course, studios release horror films all year round, but they take on a more significant meaning as the days grow shorter and the leaves fall from the trees. The first horror film on my list this Halloween season is The Conjuring: Last Rites.

What did I think? Let’s dive in!

I believe in the supernatural. I think we’re haunted by our pasts, our families, and our demons. However, I do not believe in Ed and Lorraine Warren. What they did to bring paranormal investigation to the masses was great, but I’m not sure if they did their work on the up-and-up. How truthful they were is open to debate, and I encourage readers to comment and try to change my mind. I separate the real life from the movies when I sit to enjoy a Conjuring Universe movie, which works for me. I find the movie universe fun and enjoy watching the movies in the series. For a long-running series (10 films), this has the strongest track record of quality output. Last Rites brings this series to a close, but does it do the necessary work?

Let’s discuss…

Last Rites begins after the events of The Devil Made Me Do It, and Ed and Lorraine Warren are lecturers on the paranormal field. They are dismayed to be openly mocked by lecture attendees who ask them if they are Ghostbusters after the success of the 1984 film. The couple has ‘retired’ from investigations due to Ed’s heart attack and post-attack health. The opening also goes deep into their daughter Judy’s birth and the encounter with a possessed mirror that led to her premature birth. This is the first issue I have with the film.

Last Rites is a two-hour and fifteen-minute film, which is long for a horror film. The script has to balance wrapping up the series and laying the groundwork for possibly passing the torch to Judy and her husband, Tony. The first hour gives lots of time to the Judy/Tony relationship and how the Warrens try to move on to a new chapter of their lives. On the other side of the coin, we are introduced to the Smurl family, who have come into possession of the mirror that the Warrens encountered in the movie’s opening. The Smurls get very little screen time to develop their haunting situation, and the film suffers from this.

The Smurl family is a second thought to the screenwriters. The script’s primary focus appears to be on how to move on past Ed and Lorraine to Judy and Tony. The Smurls are shown in short bits that never build the tension of the haunting very well. The family goes almost straight from a scary encounter or two to being hounded by the press and calling for an exorcism.

Judy has been having visions and disturbing feelings centered around Annabelle, in what seems like a cheaply thrown-in plot point to bring the most popular Conjuring spin-off and Warren artifact into the story. Knowing her parents have refused to help investigate the Smurl haunting, Judy takes off for Pennsylvania to make contact with the family. This, of course, brings her parents running to take her home and ignore the family’s pleas for assistance. However, when Lorraine sees the mirror, the Warrens decide to stay and help.

The second act of the movie is a typical Conjuring film. The Warrens see the bad things, fight the bad things, and defeat the bad stuff. They almost pay heavy prices for their battle, but you never believe they are in any real danger. The spirits they encounter in the mirror and house are neither fully explained nor fleshed out satisfactorily. In past Conjuring films, the demons and spirits are given ample space in the script to spread their wings and grow. In this film, they are relegated to window dressing to advance the plot of the Warrens hanging it up for good and passing the torch.

The ending wraps everything up neatly and nicely. Some cameos in the final scenes bring the series full circle, but it is doubtful these people from the Warren’s past investigations would have shown up in the manner they were depicted.

Ultimately, this film had two jobs: to tie up the series and pass the torch. The script forced things too quickly in some regards and plodded through other things too slowly. It never found a good balance between the two goals. Splitting it into two films may have helped even out the plot and pacing. I never had any emotional connection to the Smurls, and the lack of real development of the haunts outside of a minute of dialogue didn’t build any urgency or dread when the Warrens began their battle to free the Smurls from their predicament.

Overall, it was still an enjoyable film with scary moments and the usual moody atmosphere you’d expect from a Conjuring film. I’d place it behind 1 and 2, but ahead of 3 in the franchise hierarchy. I recommend seeing it in theaters with a group of people. Horror films are so much better that way. We also need to support horror in the cinemas to ensure studios keep giving us the goods on the silver screen.

I’d give The Conjuring: Last Rites 3.75 Tombstones out of 5.

Thanks for coming by, and I bid you farewell. What did you think of the franchise wrapping up with this movie? Do you think it should continue with Judy and Tony taking over for Ed and Lorraine? Let me know in the comments below!

Boo,

Brent