And so we arrive at the 'latest' instalment in 'The Conjuring' franchise (unless your reading this in the future, in which case disregard this intro.) And *allegedly* its the final chapter for 'The Warrens' as we know it…

Historically; The Warrens had at least a few more 'outings' after the events of this movie. But having glanced through their wikipedia page, anything that happened after around 1990 feels a bit like a very late in the day 'Three Stooges' short…with them pottering around graveyards, hunting werewolves and all the while, being locked in a never-ending battle to the death with the 'New England Skeptical Society' (The Warrens lost that one…)

BUT! For now! its 1986, folks are still kind of religious, The Warrens have all but retired from getting blown out of 2 story buildings and getting thrown across the room by the most vile offerings of satan…Instead? they're doing slide show tours of campuses…Something they'd been doing since 1971…But, by 1986 films like 'Ghostbusters' had been on the scene for a couple of years, and the 'fear' that came with possession and demonic pestilence had kind of been softened to the point that, when we re-join the warrens, their talks (which previously would pack a room) are down to just some stragglers. And because Ed Warren was still recovering from a major heart attack, the pair had decided to slowly wind down the paranormal shenanigans.

That is! Until two things happen at the same time. One being that a family in Pennsylvania begin to experience horrifying attacks on the entire family by some unseen force that may be tied to a mirror that was gifted to one of the daughters in the household. And the other is that the Warrens daughter Judy, has found love, and is now seemingly experiencing stronger and more powerful visions, a trait gifted to her from her mother.

The two plot points run side by side for most of the first half of the movie, until Judy seemingly vanishes to Pennsylvania after being guided by a vision and 'vibes' and winds up at the 'Smurl' household…Shortly followed by the Warrens who, on arriving spot the mirror and are sent back to a terrifying night they hoped to forget in 1964…when they first crossed paths with that mirror, and the terrible curse contained within it. Leading to an epic final showdown that DEFINITELY concluded Ed and Lorraines story…they DEFINITELY didnt spend most of the 90s claiming werewolves were real and being trailed by fact checking nerds…or at least…as far as their IP and likeness contracts state…they DEFINITELY didnt…

I'll be honest, of all 'The Conjuring' movies i've seen up to this point, this one was the most disappointing…and not for a single reason either. 'Last Rites' tries to frame itself as a closing point to the series, but its a bit of a nothing burger in how it wants to wind things down.

Probably the biggest problem I have with this one is that it doesnt really tie into ANY of the expanded universe stuff that they've been making us watch every couple of years. 'The Nun II' came out 2 years prior to this film, and the last 'Annabelle' film was 6 years prior, and neither of them get even so much as a nod or acknowledgement in this entry. Which really annoyed me, because 'The Nun II' had at least a COUPLE of elements in its plot that subtly nudged the idea that there was more things to uncover, that would be answered at some point, and I presumed that would be in the next movie…I.E This movie. But nope! You could pretty much watch this film as a standalone feature, as it has only the lightest of ties to the other films, and if anything feels the need to firmly press that. Which, if anything just makes 'The Nun II' somehow EVEN MORE of a pointless watch, because it LITERALLY doesnt bring anything else into the wider picture at this point…

Add to that that they introduce Ben Hardy as Judy's boyfriend (amongst a handful of other new characters) and NON of them will have a future in this franchise, because they (apparently) arnt building forwards in this series anymore, and will instead be focussing on the Warrens 'early years'…So why bother trying to sell me so hard on the new guys, when the new guys LITERALLY will never be seen again.

Add to that, that the film is TWO HOURS AND 10 MINUTES LONG. and is the entry in this franchise that EASILY feels the longest vs its actual runtime. It spends a good hour setting everything up in painful detail, theres SO many moments that are just there to pad the runtime in the name of character development. Its a backside numbing experience make NO mistake. I struggle to watch horror films that are south of an hour and 45…It can be a decade easily before I revisit films that are + 2 hours long…I have to clear my evening for stuff like this…So to do that, and find out its just 'okay' or even worse, is 'DULL.'…Well it can be downright depressing frankly.

Across the board everythings just 'Fine'. I wish I could say more than that. The script is bloated, but the story is 'fine' not as good as the other 'Conjuring' films, but WAY better than most of the spin off entries. its got a steady and consistent tone, the act structures are all clean, clear and solid, it ends in a very boring and predictable way that wasnt really all that satisfying, the dialogues a bit mixed in quality. but on the whole, its just a steady retreading of the kind of things we've seen in all the other Conjuring movies…just not as interesting, creative or 'out there' as those films. this is safe. Which is disappointing.

Same goes for the direction and cine. Theres a couple of fun moments where some thought was put into presentation. But for about 90% of this films runtime, its just…retreading old ground again and again. Overly safe, Not trying to rock the boat or do anything above and beyond 'Its fine.' Which is the problem. I dont want a film that just…does everything a film school grad would think to do with a film like this, I want someone pushing against the norm, I want to see someone try to give this thing a SOUL. But its just dead behind the eyes. just clunking through the acts and scenes trying to get it to the end without doing something that could be a bit more interesting.

The performances 'are fine.' if you've seen a conjuring film before, they dont bother to do anything different than anything else they've tried up to this point. In some regards it actually feels like a step back from 'The Devil Made Me Do It' because at least there they gave the characters a bit of a twist on the stuff they were know for doing. Here? its right back to familiar and solid ground…Which is exactly what I DIDNT want in a series that just tried to strike out and do something different.

And the soundtracks a bit more 'Jukebox hits' this time than the other entries…and thats 'Fine.' But, and this has been a problem with EVERY 'Conjuring' film since the first one. its not enough, its just drone and period relevent pop songs…I've been fed up of horror 'drone' being the soundtrack now since the early 2000s…by this point its positively necrotic, and I know im fighting a losing battle. But I just want them to do something different than a sliding pitch not or a synth sting…its done. done to deat. and I want it to stop.

'The Conjuring: Last Rites' is 'Fine'. and thats the problem. I cant recommend it because of that. its WAY too safe, WAY too by the numbers and WAY too dull. I've seen all of these now, and my honest advice? would be to watch either 'the conjuring' or 'the conjuring 2' (they're interchangeable to me really…) and then 'The Devil Made me Do it'…once you've seen those, you dont really need to see any of the others…including this one. 'Its fine' may BE fine…But I dont have time for it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-conjuring-last-rites/