Movie Review: THE CONJURING: LAST RITES

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 5th, 2025 / 05:18 PM

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES movie poster | ©2025 Warner Bros.

Rating: R
Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Elliot Cowan, Rebecca Calder, Steve Coulter, Madison Lawlor, Orion Smith, Beau Gadsdon, Kila Lord Cassidy, Molly Cartwright, Tilly Walker
Writers: Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan, based on characters created by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes
Director: Michael Chaves
Distributor: Warner Bros./New Line
Release Date: September 5, 2025

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES is probably (never say never when there’s still money to be made) the final movie in THE CONJURING franchise. This is no small thing, since besides the box office hit namesakes, beginning with the 2013 original, the CONJURING-verse includes the ANNABELLE, THE NUN and THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA spinoffs.

Meanwhile, as viewers know, the CONJURING films chronicle the exorcism exploits of Catholic paranormal experts Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson).

The late Warrens were real people and easy to research. In the movies, their devout religious faith and their love for one another have so far prevailed over anything dark forces can throw at them and the people they help.

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES bills itself as “the case that ended it all.” It’s more like the last case, as when we get to the Warrens in 1986, they’ve already stopped doing direct action. Instead, they’re giving lectures and trying to take it easy to avoid putting Ed at risk of a second heart attack.

This comes after a 1964 prologue, where we find Ed (played as a younger man by Orion Smith) and a heavily pregnant Lorraine (played as a younger woman by Madison Lawlor) on an early case where they tangle with a possessed mirror. The object’s power is such that it pushes Lorraine into premature labor.

In 1986, daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is now a young woman with some psychic gifts of her own. She also has a boyfriend, young ex-police officer Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), who is extremely serious about their relationship. This doesn’t sit well with Papa Ed, even though he and Lorraine got married early in their own courtship.

Meanwhile, the malevolent mirror that gave the Warrens such misery decades earlier surfaces at the home of the Catholic Spurl family in working-class West Pittston, Pennsylvania. There’s dad Jack (Elliot Cowan), mom Janet (Rebecca Calder), four young daughters and Jack’s parents, all under one roof.

We have a good idea of what’s going to happen, but the screenplay by Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, from a story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan (who directed the first two CONJURING movies), based on characters created by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes, takes its time getting there.

At one point, Lorraine worriedly observes, “It’s different this time.” As far as the supernatural entities and their tricks, it really isn’t. There are some new set pieces, but they are essentially similar to what we are accustomed to from other CONJURING entries.

Something genuinely different is that, for a good while, we go back and forth between the increasingly alarming events at the Spurl residence and the relatively tranquil Warren household. For this type of horror movie, we spend longer than we might expect on the almost Hallmark-like romantic complications of Judy and Tony’s efforts to get Ed to accept their engagement.

This section is so tonally surprising that we have time to wonder what it’s doing there. It seems as though the filmmakers, including director Michael Chaves, who also helmed the third CONJURING, plus THE NUN II and THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA, felt that if we’re emotionally invested about saying goodbye to these characters, we ought to be able to experience them for a while in non-emergency circumstances. It’s a strategy that honors the characters and their fans, if not those viewers who are here strictly for the scares.

On this front, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES doesn’t deliver as much punch as it should. There is plenty of moody atmosphere and monstrous imagery, but somehow, the timing on the jumps doesn’t quite hit.

Anecdotal evidence: A large audience, with a healthy number of contest winners, made all the right apprehensive sounds when it was evident something wicked was this way coming. However, when the menace appeared, there were oddly few screams.

Like its predecessors, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES benefits greatly from the skills of Farmiga and Wilson who, in addition to producing proper levels of dread, conviction and love, are expert at understatedly making Lorraine and Ed very much people of their era. The actors give their characters all the right little pauses and expressions that will be familiar to viewers who were around in those days.

Tomlinson is expressive as Judy, Hardy is suitably earnest as Spera, and Cowan and Calder are persuasively stressed out as the main Spurls.

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES wraps its business up effectively enough. It provides most of what audiences want and anticipate from it. Viewers just may not be as startled as they might hope.

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