‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Review: Slow, Scant on Spooks, High on Sentiments
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The 2025 horror film ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ makes little pretense of being anything other than an emotional farewell to the Warrens, the paranormal duo whose cases inspired one of the world’s biggest horror franchises. And while the Warrens get a soaring goodbye, the scares are overshadowed by sentiment.
Directed by Michael Chaves (‘Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’, ‘The Nun II’), the film sees Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise their roles as Lorraine and Ed Warren for the final haunting of their careers. Mia Tomlinson plays their 22-year-old daughter Judy, while Ben Hardy portrays her boyfriend Tony Spera.
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ opens in 1964, where a much younger Ed (Orion Smith) and a heavily pregnant Lorraine (Madison Lawlor) visit an eerie antique shop and encounter a powerful demonic mirror. Cut to 1986, and the same mirror ends up with a family of eight in Pennsylvania, where ghostly entities begin tormenting the entire household. Even though the Warrens have retired, they are forced to help the Smurl family at their daughter Judy’s insistence.
As newcomers, Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy bring warmth to this horror tale, and the amount of screen time they receive hints that their characters may be poised to inherit the Warren mantle. Tomlinson is compelling as a young woman unraveling under demonic visions, balanced by Hardy’s dependable presence as the partner who never wavers. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson remain dependable as the paranormal investigators, and the ‘protective parents’ sub-plot makes their characters more nuanced.
Ironically, the film’s strongest moments aren’t the supernatural scares (which are surprisingly sparse) but the everyday family dynamics: the noisy dinner-table scenes at the Smurls, or Tony’s painfully awkward efforts to impress Judy’s parents, especially the ever-skeptical Ed. For a more effective “haunted mirror” horror, Mike Flanagan’s ‘Oculus‘ (2013) remains far scarier, while ‘Last Rites’ recycles familiar Conjuring tropes which frankly feel slightly stale.
Of course, part of the fun lies in the nostalgia: spotting familiar elements from earlier films, like the Warrens’ infamous occult museum. “Don’t touch anything. Everything you see here is either haunted, cursed, or tied to some ritualistic practice. Nothing’s a toy. Not even the toys,” Ed warns memorably in this installment, just as the camera lingers on the ghastly Annabelle doll.
Only in the second half does the haunting truly escalate, with Ed, Lorraine, Judy, and Tom gathered for the climactic exorcism. But what should have been terrifying instead plays out like a family affair, robbing horror fans of a truly terrifying experience. The special effects are mediocre at best, the ghostly entities overtly garish, making them more laughter-inducing than scream-inducing. Despite being such a successful franchise, it’s ridiculous that the creators still refuse to invest in delivering better VFX.
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ may stumble with pacing and recycled scares, but it earns points for giving the fictional Warrens a warm, memorable goodbye.
Rating: 6 on 10. Watch ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ in theaters.
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