By Kiera Tempel, Staff Contributor
Maybe you’ve heard of The Conjuring films, in other words, the highest grossing horror franchise to exist to date. But is it really worth its name as number one on the list of horror fame?
The Conjuring: Last Rites was the most recent addition to the franchise, releasing early this September and focusing once again on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and their daughter Judy. Based on a true story from 1986, the Smurl family reported multiple times that their home was inhabited by a demonic presence for years. This leads to disturbing activity, physical violence, and sounds like growls, whispers, shrieks, and distorted voices, often mimicking animalistic noises.
As with previous films in the franchise, this movie takes these accounts to a much higher dramatic level, even going so far as to invent details like a cursed mirror, making it hard to balance what is real and what is not. We know that The Conjuring franchise has always had mystical and completely made up elements in the series. With these kinds of movies there’s a certain suspension of disbelief when watching them, such as with the character of Annabelle, who we know wasn’t really a killer doll from the spirit of a dead girl. But the structure of the story is supposed to make these deviations from the story believable, whereas the mirror seems unconvincing.
In the film, Ed and Lorraine have supposedly stopped taking paranormal cases after the scare of almost losing Judy during her birth, deciding to carry on their research by teaching others about their work and techniques instead. However, when the Smurl family reaches out for help with the multiple spirits haunting their Pennsylvania home, Judy convinces her parents to take on “one more case.” When we hear words like that, we solemnly believe this film will be the great big finale of the franchise, the one that ties everything together while giving us a thrill. In reality, it ends up being more of a filler film than a huge finish.
Last Rites is 135-minutes long and takes almost 100-minutes just to set up the story for a continuation of the franchise. A franchise that has had the same fanbase throughout, meaning that the largest part of its audience will already be longtime The Conjuring fans who know the setup as it is almost exactly the same as every previous movie. Now, I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of horror films, mostly because it’s rare to find one with genuine quality. But with an overall 2.9/5 star rating on Letterboxd, my opinion, even as one who has little to no knowledge of The Conjuring franchise, is not far-fetched. I watched it in theaters with my friend who is a big fan of the original film, and, both having such a difficult time trying to stay awake or focused during the so-called jumpscares, we agreed this film was more filler than thrill. The foreshadowing was handled so poorly that I was able to tell exactly what would happen before it did. For example, there is a line at the beginning where a character says if Ed were to have another heart attack, he wouldn’t survive it and, sure enough, an hour later it happens – only for the “twist” to be that he survives anyway. It feels like the writers want desperately to pass the legacy of the franchise onto Judy and her new husband, making them the next Ed and Lorraine. But they seem scared to commit to that idea because they know it might not work out. This is why Ed has the heart attack but magically lives, they literally can’t let him go. If he dies, the franchise dies.
And then there’s the whole Annabelle thing. The number of times this movie shows or mentions Annabelle is almost embarrassing since she has nothing to do with the plot. It makes it feel like her only purpose here is free advertisement for her own spin-off franchise. At the end of the day, this movie comes across like filler, the same way a TV show will spend two or three episodes on a training arc before the next big event. Last Rites feels like it was created purely to move the larger story forward, not to stand on its own, and because the creators knew the audience wouldn’t be interested in a glorified setup, they tried to distract us with multiple appearances of Annabelle to make it seem like the movie had weight, but ultimately it just felt empty and disappointing. Let’s break it down:
Plot/Story: The plot of this movie is a complete mess. The mirror isn’t based on the true story, and the writers make things unnecessarily confusing. Judy is apparently a stillborn who comes back to life, which angers demons who feel she’s “cheating death,” so they torment her for the rest of her life. And yet, they barely spend any time progressing that plot. Meanwhile, the Smurl family just wanted to thrift a mirror for their daughter’s birthday and ended up with four spirits trying to kill them, poor Smurl family, right? And don’t forget that this all somehow connects to Judy. It’s a premise with potential, but the execution is all over the place, jumpy, and full of holes.
Writing: The writing is, quite frankly, terrible. There isn’t a single moment where the dialogue or script feels strong. Even Judy’s song that’s supposed to keep her safe comes across as cringe instead of comforting or eerie. The film had countless opportunities to take the story in a more engaging direction, yet every choice felt lazy and uninspired, leaving me disappointed. The family dynamics are somewhat well done, I felt genuinely concerned for both families. But, ultimately, you know nothing significant will happen to them. The film is afraid to take risks, which kills any real suspense. Some characters are heavily hyped only to disappear midway through the film or contribute nothing meaningful to the story. When a movie refuses to take bold steps, it leaves the audience uninvested.
Visuals/Special Effects: The CGI is shockingly bad for a movie with a $2 million budget. The bloody scenes look unrealistic, and many background shots feel half-finished. Horror films rely heavily on atmosphere, camera work, and immersive visuals—but here it feels sloppy and rushed. If you’re spending that much on a horror production, the technical aspects need to be the strongest part, not the weakest.
Side Note: I noticed that higher ratings on Letterboxd almost always include comments like jack!!’s “GUYS ED IS SO FUCKING HOT HAVE YOU SEEN HIM SHIRTLESS?? OH MY GOD. HIS ARMS. Also the dad of the family is so like yes please. And this random dude dancing to the right of ed and lorraine at the end omfg smash” …which says a lot about how people are viewing this film. Most of the genuine reviews have lower ratings, but the fans who are loyal to the franchise or simply only care about hotter characters seem to have a higher rating.
Overall: I’d give this film a 2/5. While the ‘80s aesthetic is surprisingly well-executed and not overdone, the rest of the movie falls short. It isn’t particularly scary, the foreshadowing is clumsy, and the jumpscares are predictable; the exact opposite of what horror fans come for. Worst of all, the ending leans on the tired “power of friendship” trope, with characters holding hands and praying instead of giving us a creative or shocking conclusion. After so many films in this franchise, you’d expect something fresh, but this feels like the same recycled formula all over again.
