Lately, I’ve noticed that a lot of movie franchises keep trying to build up either bigger or better stunts to keep the audience’s interest and focus.
And while we’re mostly used to it from an action movie standpoint – the same desire to top one’s film predecessor can be found in other genres like horror or science fiction.
“The Conjuring” film franchise is certainly guilty of trying to progressively top its big scares and thrills since beginning in 2012.
For me, once I’ve seen one jump scare then I’ve seen them all, but there are some things that never fail to make me cringe.
Oddly enough, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” manages to provide new chills and unsettling horror despite the same well-worn story centering on demonic possession.
Still, I was surprised at how the flick ended on such a positive note and I’m wondering what blood-curdling series I can get my hands on next.
Last Rites is a 2025 American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves and written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.
The film is the ninth installment in The Conjuring Universe and the final chapter of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s silver screen story.
Based on the true-life investigations of the Smurl haunting, the film stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who reprise their roles as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, along with Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Elliot Cowan, Beau Gadson, Kate Fahy, Rebecca Calder, Steve Coulter, Peter Wight, Kila Lord Cassidy, Molly Cartwright, Tilly Walker, Madison Lawlor, and Orion Smith.
While it clocks in at 135 minutes long, the movie is rated R for bloody/violent content and terror.
In 1964, Ed (Smith) and Lorraine Warren (Lawlor) are investigating a haunting which involved an antique mirror at a curio shop.
As Lorraine touches the mirror, it subsequently breaks.
She instantly collapses, seeing a terrifying vision of an entity and her unborn child.
Ed then drives her to the hospital as she is in labor while tension ramps as the couple instinctively ward off the entity after Lorraine gives birth to their only child, Judy.
Unfortunately, Judy is stillborn for nearly a solid minute before the Warrens barely get her back from the brink of death.
Twenty-two years later, the Smurl family moves into a two-story house in Pennsylvania.
Jack (Cowan) and Janet Smurl (Calder) share the home with Jack’s parents, Mary (Fahy) and John (Wight), along with their four daughters: Dawn (Gadson), Heather (Cassidy), and the twins, Carin (Walker) and Shannon (Cartwright).
For Heather’s confirmation ceremony, John buys her a large mirror, which the family places in the home without suspicion.
During the dinner, the same night, a heavy kitchen ceiling light suddenly crashes down, narrowly missing her.
Janet and her daughters begin to hear disembodied voices, see shadowy entities moving through the home, and experience a series of paranormal events.
The disturbances focus around the mirror which they find unsettling, leading to the two oldest daughters deciding to throw it away.
The mirror then manifests shards of glass inside Dawn’s body the next day, causing her to collapse and violently vomit blood.
On the same day, Jack is assaulted by a woman-like entity that haunts their home, while Heather is attacked by a man wielding an axe in their living room.
The Smurls get even more desperate after that while the Warrens are trying to nail down their retirement and things predictably get worse before they get better.
Overall, the franchise ends on a happy note and I think it does the material justice to some degree, but feel free to judge for yourself.
