Notable Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia
Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Shannon Kook, Steve
Coulter, Kila Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, Tilly Walker, Molly Cartwright, Orion
Smith, Madison Lawlor
Had anyone let me know ahead of time that The Conjuring: Last
Rites was about a haunted fuckin’ mirror, I would have bought my tickets
for opening night instead of waiting for the end of the weekend. Not that a
haunted mirror movie is guaranteed to be awesome by any stretch of the
imagination, but when you have The Warrens going toe-to-toe with a mirror that
looks remarkably like Mike Flanagan’s Oculus, I sure as shit would have
been there Thursday night at the previews.
Sure, the entire idea that the last mainline Conjuring
film would have the delightfully family-focused horror series pitted against a
giant 6-foot-tall gothic mirror seems silly, which, to be fair, it is, but this
series is known for elevating its material above its schlocky 70s haunted house
concepts. And once again, The Conjuring: Last Rites accomplishes that.
This fourth (and final?) entry into the series manages to overcome some serious
landmine-littered ideas and script issues to deliver another round of
love-affirming horror delightfulness while still getting in some intriguing
layering that held me until I could write this review. Fans of the series will
enjoy it enough, even if it doesn’t reach the heights of The Conjuring
or The Conjuring 2, and it puts a nice little period at the end of this“first phase” of the brand.