Time to Reflect: The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) Review

Director: Michael Chaves

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. 

 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

Director: Michael Chaves

Notable Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Shannon Kook, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Keith Arthur Bolden

 

With almost $2 billion dollars in the box office now, The Conjuring Universe has solidified itself as one of the premiere horror franchises in history. What started as Wan’s love letter to 70s supernatural horror has become a lucrative money-making machine that has spawned far more spin-offs than entries into the original series. The quality of these entries varies, often to a shocking extent, but one thing about the series is that it always finds a way to entertain - even if the whole product is flawed.

 

The latest entry into the series, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, is now the third of the original series and finally catching up to its spin-off series, Annabelle, in quantity. This entry represents a deviation from its two predecessors in a few ways, most notably in that James Wan has stepped away from the director’s chair, but it’s not one that completely abandons the core values for a slightly more convenient approach. Certainly, The Devil Made Me Do It is not the efficient and tightly crafted modern classic one might hope, but it’s also not the wild misfire it might have been. 

 

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

Director: Gary Dauberman

Notable Cast: Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Michael Cimino, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Samara Lee

Annabelle Comes Home is a fascinating occurrence. The Conjuring franchise is only two films long and it has inspired five theatrically released spin-offs. The latest is the third of its own franchise and the focus of this review. How many theatrically released films can make that claim? There are many franchises where the spin-off series has more entries than the originator, but most of those are relegated to direct to home video with the Scorpion King/Mummy series being the first to come to mind. Here we are with the latest Conjuring-verse film and while none of the spin-offs have held a candle to the roaring fire of horror quality that is the main films, Annabelle Comes Home, weirdly, might be the best. That’s not saying a whole lot, honestly. Although I am quite the fan of most of the films, the quality of the spin-offs has been middling at best with mediocre scripts uplifted by solid directorial choices. Oddly enough it was the last Annabelle film, Annabelle Creation, that was my favorite of the spin-offs and after seeing Annabelle Comes Home with a packed audience, this one just might top it. Barely.

The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

Director: Michael Chaves

Notable Cast: Linda Cardellini, Roman Christou, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tony Amendola

The Conjuring Universe has so much potential as a wide-reaching horror franchise. A lot of the potential can already be seen as the series expands past the Warrens with this year’s (first) Conjuring-Verse film, The Curse of La Llorona. The expansion of the franchise into time frames and places outside of the main characters adds a lot of value to what this franchise has to offer horror fans. Last year’s The Nun was problematic for a lot of reasons, but what it did do right was that the main story itself was in its own unique time and place. The Curse of La Llorona takes it a few steps further by tackling another supernatural story based on “real-world” and only loosely tying it to events in The Conjuring franchise, but allowing it to exist on its own. While the concept is great, the execution of the first film to embrace it results in more of a mixed bag honestly.

The Nun (2018)

Director: Corin Hardy

Notable Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Demian Bichir, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Ingrid Bisu, Charlotte Hope, Sandra Teles, August Maturo

There was a lot of talk about The Nun leading up to its release. Not only about the titular demon, which was featured as a villain in the fantastic The Conjuring 2, but about the marketing. There was little known about the plot, the characters, and what The Nun would actually be about leading up to the release. Most of the marketing featured jump scares centered around the piercing eyed monster and plenty of gimmicky one-liners. Hell, we didn’t even really get a true trailer for the film. It was mostly bits and pieces of teasers. At first, I thought this was rather clever. The villain was enough reason to see the film, combined with the overall success of the franchise, but now that The Nun is unleashed in the megaplexes it was almost necessary that the film never unveiled its plotting or narrative. Why? The one it has is a fucking mess. The Nun is a film that has its merits, at least in moments, but it does not live up to being part of The Conjuring cinematic universe. It flounders around with its concept and mostly delivers eye-rolls for the audience rather than scares. 

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Director: David F. Sandberg

Notable Cast: Talitha Bateman, Stephanie Sigman, Lulu Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto, Grace Fulton, Philippa Coulthard, Samara Lee, Tayler Buck, Lou Lou Safran

After the original Annabelle did substantial box office numbers a couple of years ago, it didn’t require some other worldly demonic signs to see that it was going to get a continuation. Not to mention it was a spinoff of the already super popular Conjuring franchise. So, like it or not, the spin off was getting a franchise. The result was Annabelle: Creation. While the first entry was something of a forgettable and mediocre effort at trying to recreate the Conjuring elements without being a knock off instead of a spin off, there is an ace in the sleeve for this prequel (to a prequel, might I add.) An ace named David F. Sandberg. Granted, this prequel certainly has its flaws in the script, but Annabelle: Creation is remarkably fun and is lifted above the mediocre aspects by a very talented young director. It’s not necessarily the runaway critical and fan friendly hit that the main Conjuring films are, but it’s easily better than its predecessor and retains faith in the strength of this Conjuring-verse.