Hey guys and welcome to a brand new movie review! This time, I am going to be looking at the latest entry in what has become one of the most consistently financially reliable movie franchises in recent memory, The Conjuring Universe. Ever since that first film, concerning the real life cases of the paranormal investigator couple of The Warrens, came out in 2013, the series has gone on to spawn a total of 9 official movies (10 if you count the unofficial, The Curse of La Llorona) with this being the fourth and allegedly one of the mainline movies. This series has gone on to gross over $2.5 billion globally being the biggest horror franchise of all time as well as the second biggest R rated series ever behind the Deadpool films and due to the responsible budgets, this is a series that has not once missed in that regard. I myself have always been aware of it, but have never checked any of them out until recently as I watched the mainline Conjuring movies for the first time. While I wasn’t huge on the third flick, I did greatly enjoy the first two installments, as I think they are immensely well crafted horror films that provide compelling character work along with the scares. Thus, I became even more intrigued by this newest film and was curious to see how this current saga would wrap up. Did it leave me satisfied? Let’s jump right in and see if The Warrens still have some fresh tricks up their sleeve!
After an extended prologue set in 1964 that focuses on an early and pivotal case in the career of The Warrens, one which involved the birth of their daughter, Judy, we cut to 22 years later where we follow the Smurl family as they move to a new home in Pennsylvania. For his daughter’s confirmation, the patriarch, John, gifts her an antique mirror. Soon after this mirror graces the house’s presence however, strange horrific things begin to happen to the family as something supernatural looks to be afoot. Meanwhile, The Warrens are dealing with their own issues as Ed is still suffering from his heart condition, which has lead them to cease investigating for the time being and do lectures that barely anyone shows up to. Their daughter, Judy, is also having troubles of her own with her burgeoning psychic powers leading her to see visions that are affecting her on a mental level. Soon, the two families will collide in a case so terrifying that it ended up being the Warren’s last.
It seems like Michael Chaves has become the go to guy for this universe following his work on Curse of La Llorona, the third Conjuring, and The Nun II and while I’m sure he’s a nice guy to work with, I wasn’t huge on his direction for the third film as I felt it was rather aimless and felt like a more conventional horror picture compared to what James Wan did so well with the first two movies. This film also contains some of the most key issues. I think the first hour goes by very slowly with so many scenes feeling dragged out to the point of repetition instead of engagement. We mostly just have a series of scares going on for a bit and it takes a while for the storylines of the family and The Warrens to finally cross paths. I think Chaves and the writes do a decent enough job of getting us to feel bad about the family, even if I don’t feel like they felt as fleshed out as prior ones in this series, which is unfortunate because we’re clearly supposed to care a lot about them, but I just found myself more invested in the stuff with The Warrens.
I found quite a bit of enjoyment seeing them live their lives and deal with living in an age where their profession is seen as a joke and how they navigate that as well as the trauma their daughter is going through. There is some nicely placed comedy sprinkled throughout that adds some needed humanity to the proceedings and I think once we hit the middle stretch, things do begin to pick up as we see The Warrens do what they do best and I liked see how the plot lines ended up relating to each other, mainly because there ends up being a personal connection to The Warrens that made me a lot more invested in what was going to happen and ties into what the feature is saying in regards to generational trauma and dangers and trying to end that cycle (familiar territory for horror and this series, but still effectively done). Plus, I was very fond of how the picture ended as it serves as a moving final few minutes that sends off these characters in a rather lovely fashion, while also serving as a reminder as to why these films have resonated as much beyond the horror community, and that’s by focusing on characters that are worth caring about and ground the supernatural phenomenons into something resembling reality.
As much flak as I gave Chaves earlier, I do think he has a solid sense of atmosphere that is effective, if a bit more conventional that what Wan went for. He does a solid job building up tension and managing to land a couple of effective jump scares here and there. This is one area in which he improves from Devil Made Me Do It as there are way more memorable frights here that do stick out and at best are genuinely creepy and oftentimes creative in regards to visual presentation with a scene involving a video player being an especially chilling sequence. He also does a solid job ratcheting up the tension when it comes time for the big finale which has the needed intensity and it helps that the stakes are more personal and thus higher for our heroes more than ever. Chaves also does play around with the camera in neat ways to convey the emotional distress of characters or their confusion as to what is going on, which is very evident in some of the close up shots he does. This is also a well lit picture with darkness being used well without making things look unrecognizable and I did like some of the make up used to bring some of the demons to life with this demonic elderly lady, especially looking very creepy and there is some striking imagery here and there, which Chaves has shown he is good at capturing. This all goes to show why the franchise is as popular, it’s because those behind the scenes put in the effort to make something that feels more than just the average cheap horror film.
The main reason for the season though for the majority of people is getting to see The Warrens again, for likely the last time in this form. Whatever changes were made from the real people (that’s a whole other can of worms right there), the fictional versions of them have proven to be a real winning couple with their willingness to help out no matter what, and desire to learn more about the unknown, while still feeling like a believable couple who have an immense affection for one another. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga have been at this for a while as Ed and Lorraine respectively and neither of them feel like lazily phoning it in for this final entry. Wilson manages to inject a surprising amount of charisma and level headedness that I’ve always enjoyed from this part and Ed’s occasional snarks always manage to get some sort of chuckle out of me. Given that he is still dealing with health complications, we get to see him in a bit more of a vulnerable state and him actually grabbling with certain emotions in a way we haven’t really seen him do in the other films. Farmiga is equally excellent at conveying a lot, often doing so without saying a word. She manages to be the less stubborn of the duo and serves as both a strong moral guide for Ed, while being a strong character in her own right. We even get to see more of her motherly side in how she wants to protect her child, but is unsure of how to do so given the circumstances. There is a solid exploration of them as parents and their fear of their child going out into the world on her own and how they come together as a family to fight these demons (literal and personal). It makes for compelling stuff and as much as the movie can get repetitive in getting this point across through similar scenes, I do think it is a natural place to take a theoretical final chapter for these characters.
It helps that Judy is given more attention than ever than any of the other mainline films with Mia Tomlinson doing a solid job at conveying the character’s fear and uncertainty about her psychic powers. She receives the needed sympathy and I found myself a bit surprised by the extent she ended up tying into the finale of the feature. The emphasis on this family dynamic is what makes this movie as emotionally effective as it is, with the very effective prologue showing that this is what is the beating heart of the feature and makes this a little bit more than just a standard Conjuring adventure. I was also surprised by the extent to which I enjoyed her boyfriend, Tony (Ben Hardy, striking a nice balancing act between bumbling and capable), as his awkward interactions with Ed go as expected, but are amusing and I like that he ends up being more than just comic relief as someone who loves Judy for who she is and is willing to accept the… more than unusual circumstances of her and her family. When it comes to the other characters, like I said there’s just enough done to show the love that the Smurl family has for one another for one to feel bad about them, but they do end up feeling fairly sidelined on the whole with Elliot Cowan as the patriarch, Jack, getting much of anything to do acting wise and he is quite good as a father fearing for his family. Everyone else is just kind of there to act scared and afraid. It was also kind of neat to see Steve Coulter’s Father Gordon actually do something of importance this time around, unlike when he is largely unable to do much in the first three for plot specific reasons.
All in all, I found The Conjuring: Last Rites to be a solid finale for this franchise that delivers what one would expect from these movies. The first half is quite slow going, it can be repetitive, and it really could’ve taken some time to explore the main family more, however it manages to get by thanks some strong emotion, the stuff with The Warrens being compelling, the scares being mostly effective, the technical aspects being solid, and the performances being very good. If one likes the other movies in this series, than I can’t imagine one not at least being satisfied by what is provided here. It doesn’t quite reach the levels of the first two entries, but I did find it to be an improvement over the third installment and it ends things off on a nice note that if this is truly the end, then this is a more than good enough way for that to happen. It was quite the ride checking these films out for the first time and I can see why it caught on in the way it has over the years. Say what you will about the validity of these “true stories”, but at least they work as good stories nonetheless.
Rating: B
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