‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ review: Can the series deliver one last scare?

The Conjuring universe literally administered its Last ritesthe ninth and (apparently) final installment of the religious horror franchise. It’s been 12 years since James Wan scared Valak audiences with the first film, when Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga first took on controversial real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

With director Michael Chaves (The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II) at the helm, and a storyline based on the alleged demonic haunting of the Smurl family in the late 1980s, The Conjuring: Last Rites intentionally plays every trick in the Conjuring book. Fanservice in horror franchises comes with the territory, and Last ritesThe cut is full of stock cameos, familiar production design, and plenty of signature jump scares.

However, it’s the film’s respect for the real Ed and Lorraine Warren and the Conjuring universe as a whole that might be its undoing. While the majority of the film is devoted to referential winks and unbridled adulation for its lead duo, we wait long stretches for what we came for: one hell of a final scare.

What is The Conjuring: Last Rites about?

A young Lorraine and Ed Warren (Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith).
Credit: Giles Keyte

The Conjuring: Last Rites takes us back to familiar territory. As The Conjuring 2parallel hauntings brew: the alleged demonic disturbance of the Smurl family in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in the late ’80s, and the frightening visions experienced by clairvoyant Lorraine Warren (Farmiga) and her now-adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson), who attempts to silence her burgeoning psychic powers.

To open the film, we’re sent back to 1964, where young Lorraine and Ed (Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith) are investigating a creepy storeroom full of clocks (of course!), where a creepy mirror adorned with wooden angels screams “don’t touch.” Of course, regardless of this, Lorraine’s contact with said mirror propels one of the film’s most disturbing sequences, in which our paranormal communicator is sent into early labor in the company of a demonic presence. As if childbirth wasn’t intense enough, Last rites plunges Lorraine into an experience of terrifying vulnerability. But from there, Last rites spends a hell of a lot of time on the Warrens’ family life, in a saccharine montage of Judy’s childhood, carousels and racing through flower fields, to their demon-dodging retirement in Connecticut.

It is this obvious admiration for the Warrens that seems extremely widespread in Last ritesdespite the couple’s real-life controversies. From beginning to end of the film, Wilson and Farmiga’s Ed and Lorraine are portrayed as reluctant heroes of paranormal valor and fiercely pious and devoted family members. The film spends nearly half its running time following the Warrens in their joy of throwing a post-investigation barbecue and through a particularly tedious meet-the-parents sequence with Judy’s boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy). Whatever you think of the real Warrens, Wilson and Farmiga have long given the screen Warrens overwhelming credibility; Farmiga has always channeled Lorraine with understated credibility, and Wilson’s commitment to Ed’s character is the only thing that makes a scene where the characters have to move a mirror truly compelling.

Judy (Mia Tomlinson) has inherited her mother Lorraine’s (Vera Farmiga) cursed talents.
Credit: Giles Keyte

For those tapping their watches for the Warrens to resume their investigation, there is the other storyline, depicted in the series’ signature bright yellow Courier New font, declaring subsequent events as “based on a true story” and loosely adapted from the haunting cases reported by the Warrens – following the Perron family of Rhode Island in 1971 (The conspiracy), the Amityville murders and the “Enfield Poltergeist” affair in the late 1970s (The Conjuring 2), the murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It). This time, it’s a notorious case from 1986 in Pennsylvania, where we’re introduced to characters based on the real Janet and Jack Smurl (played by Rebecca Calder and Elliot Cowan), who claimed their family was plagued by a demonic presence.

And it’s this storyline that sees the film fall into the classic Conjuring style.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is a by-the-numbers Conjuring movie.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga definitely take a bow as Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Credit: Giles Keyte

Director Michael Chaves knows the Conjuring universe well, having directed the third Conjuring film as well as the sequel to The nun and the weakly connected The Curse of La Llorona. However, despite its solid scares, the film feels somewhat trapped in fanservice, ticking off the signature Conjuring boxes and delivering two passable but undeniably good-sounding plotlines at once (hell yes, The Cult).

Everything you expect from a Conjuring the movie is here. Actual footage of the Warrens combined with that of Wilson and Farmiga. Strange music boxes and cursed dolls from yesteryear. A happy family terrorized at night, often through their favorite games or in a scary basement. A family dog ​​that makes the public nervous for its safety. Menacing notes scrawled with the words “Miss me?”

There are many references to previous Conjuring films in Last ritesincluding The nun And Annabelle movies. Fans might be excited to hear Ed once again warn his guests not to touch anything in the basement of the Warrens’ Connecticut home, where cursed objects like the Annabelle doll live – the movie even has Wilson repeat his lines from the beginning. Conjuring film: “Nothing is a toy, not even toys.” And as for the cameos? Wait until you see for yourself (although seeing Agent Brad Hamilton rocking his bite mark since The conspiracy in a barbecue scene is a frankly hilarious heads-up).

But the true style of Conjuring comes through in the scares, of which there are many.

The Conjuring: Last Rites offers jump scares.

Uh, Judy? Are you doing well?
Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Have no fear, ConjuringStyle scares are present in both storylines, with the Smurls beset by more than just bumps in the night in Pennsylvania, and poor Lorraine unable to order linguini or do the dishes in Connecticut without being interrupted by a malevolent presence. Last ritesParallel stories follow the Warrens’ constantly cited “three stages of demonic activity” to the letter: “infestation, oppression, and possession,” from those first ghostly whispers to the dreaded takeover, with plenty of scares along the way.

The Conjuring universe, created by Wan’s brilliant 2013 original, has become synonymous with that classic horror weapon of the misdirected jump scare. Cameras go back and forth, creating fear with fakes. Characters are systematically forced to use torches with limited lighting. The audience frantically searches for faces in dark corners, digs their fingers into their ears and waits for the punchline. Although without as much unexpected innovation as the original (but with Wan in the producer role), Last rites is full of these scares, with Eli Born’s bold cinematography, Harry Cohen’s biting sound design, a particularly effective scene involving a telephone cord disappearing into a pantry, and the judicious use of VHS footage for some solid goosebumps.

Last rites feels like a Conjuring movie in every sense of the franchise, but it’s slightly disappointing that the film doesn’t go out of its way to say goodbye to Wilson and Farmiga’s now-iconic characters. Fan service, he has it in spades. But truly memorable scares and gripping storylines that push the Conjuring series as far as it could go? Less. However, if you want to take one more trip into the basement of the Warrens’ cursed curiosities, it’s worth the detour, for the sake of the terrifying past.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is streaming on HBO Max.

UPDATE: November 20, 2025, 4:43 p.m. This review was first published on September 5, 2025. It has been updated to reflect its streaming availability.