The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) Review Cinemax
Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 on 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 (for first -rate jump fears)
Directed by Michael Chaves
Written by Iain Goldberg, Richard Niang and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
The Conjuring: Last Rites is another solid entry into the Warren saga. Again, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are about to know as Lorraine and Ed Warren, offering anchored and passionate performance. The film is again loaded with first -rate leap fears and fantastic design of period production. The history of ghosts this time is a confused waste, however, and some of the secondary characters feel forced, preventing him from making the greatness of the first entry of the franchise.
The Warrens are still worth watching. They are humble and devoted semi-sanctioned exorcists. Twelve years after having published the original Conjuration film, Wilson and Farmiga can reliably deliver an intense story of ghosts.
“Based on a true story!” Boldly proclaims the film’s slogan. It is a proud tradition of conspiracy, because the real warrens have documented many of their investigations. The claims are some of the strongest elements of the combined films, but in this case, the real story can have components that confuse the intrigue, to a certain extent. This particular case belongs to the Smurl family in Pittsfield, in Pennsylvania. In the long history of the cases of Warren, it was a trial which was not deemed unresolved by our protagonists. This film explores some of the elements of the real case, but essentially, the events adhere to the events reported.
The most significant adjustment is that the film connected this case to an incident at the start of the Warrens career, which traumatized Ed and Lorraine so much that they did not dare to investigate the lair after a heartbreaking meeting. This involved complications with the birth of their daughter Judy. Fans of the Annabelle franchise will remember that Judy plays an important role in Annabelle returns home, and for this film, they exchanged the actresses playing Judy.
The casting of conspiracy: Last rites
- Patrick Wilson, once again, plays Ed Warren, a real ghost hunter who has retired from Chasing Ghosts business. For the moment.
- Vera Farmiga returns under the name of Lorraine Warren, half empathetic of the Warren verse. Lorraine may feel the presence of minds, while ED is the answering machine.
- Mia Tomlinson is Judy Warren, Lorraine and the only child of Ed. She is now about to marry …
- Ben Hardy, who plays Tony Spera, a former cop who asks for permission to marry Judy.
- Steve Coulter is back to play Father Gordon, a Catholic priest and a longtime ally of the Warrens.
- Rebecca Calder embodies Janet Smurl, the matriarch of the Smurl Smurl besieged ghost.
- Elliot Cowan plays Jack Smurl, the father of the Smurl family.
- Beautiful Gadsdon plays Dawn Smurl, the eldest girl smurl.
- Kila Lord Cassidy plays Heather Smurl, who recently crossed a Catholic confirmation ceremony.
- Molly Cartwright plays Carin Smurl, a young twin girl.
- Tilly Walker plays Carin Smurl, Molly’s twin sister.
- Peter Wight plays grandfather.
- Kate Fahey plays grandmother.
A synopsis of conjuration: Last rites
In a flashback in 1964, we meet the Warrens as a young couple, just starting their paranormal activities. They interview a woman who works in an antiquity store, where she blamed a mirror for the death of her father. When they investigate, a pregnant Lorraine touches the mirror, which invokes a demonic presence which obliges it to work. Baby Judy is almost a stillborn victim, but luckily (or by prayer), she is life, and Ed and Lorraine abandon this powerful investigation into the cursed article.
Twenty-two years later, Ed and Lorraine have now withdrawn from the hunting of ghosts and demons. Ed now has a heart disease, and we know that Lorraine, during four films, has been horribly tormented. No one would blame them to hang it up. They work the conference circuit, attracting fans of ghostbusters and little ones. Judy grew up and returned to Connecticut to visit them, where her boyfriend, Tony, offers. Everything is fine with the Warrens. For the moment.
Meanwhile, the SMURL family, a medium-low income family in Pittsfield, Pennsylvania, involuntarily brought the mirror after buying it during a sale of succession. It is a confirmation gift for their daughter, Heather. Immediately, the forces in the mirror strike. The evil in the mirror invokes three ghosts linked to the property. As it is usual for this trope, ghosts start with small things. Move objects, break the lamps and be a general nuisance. Heather and Dawn took out the mirror for garbage collection, but that forces the spirits to become violent.
The longtime ally of the Warrens, Father Gordon comes to help the SMURLS. He immediately achieved the amount of harm in the house, but became a victim and a conduit for the demon. Thanks to Gordon, Judy is summoned to the House, which ultimately brought ED and Lorraine from retirement to save Judy. It’s Warren’s time! Can they save Judy? Can they banish evil? Will SMURLS become smart and came out? This is what the third acts are used for …
The excellence of the conjuration leap is scary:
The Conjuring series has always been one of the best franchises for quality jump fears. Films manage to obtain R notes despite the lack of most triggers who generally earn an R note, such as minimal gore, small blasphemy and no nudity or sexual content. In other words, these films gain their limited status by being really intense and by making excellent jump fears.
The Conjuring: Last Rites continues proud tradition. Interestingly, this film loads most of its jump. James Wan has mastered this job. Michael Chaves has proven that he can also deliver the cries of the public. My Podcast partner, Mike Campbell, is well known for his impatience. This time, he shouted audiblely during one of the jumps. Look at this with someone who is scary easily. This alone will entertain you for a while.
However, these fears are perhaps less part of history than the first conspiracy, for example. In the last rites, ghosts appear at perfect moments. They are the raw equivalent of someone who jumped from behind an object and shouts “Gotcha!” Honestly, it works. Prails Coisseux? Yes. One of the drawbacks of this frightening methodology is that you only have a quick overview of the bad guys.
Decreasing yields of the franchise
Two things should work perfectly for the optimal franchise film. We know that Wilson and Farmiga are solid gold. They will be a constant. Steve Coulter is a reliable secondary player. The routine “based on a true story” is better for this franchise than most others. Most audiences know that the warrens were also involved with Amityville, and I admire Warner Bros. so as not to have gone to this house. It was done to death, literally and figuratively.
What will raise a story of conspiracy is a family relating to danger and a solid story about the haunts. In this regard, the latest rites are adequate. SMURLS are disjointed terrain. Like many of the previous families, they are an united group. Because they are relatively poor and there are so many, they will not leave the house. Unfortunately, we do not spend as much time with them as we owe it. Think of the Perron family in the first film. We fell in love with them. We knew them. With the SMURLS, it is no longer a surface treatment. This film looks like a story that depends on Ed, Lorraine, Judy and Tony. Smurls end up being foreigners in their own house.
The ghost history here is disappointing. He has the bones of something great. The return of the mirror demon was very promising. Unfortunately, there was a second layer of nasty spirits, and the hierarchical order and the motivations of the spirits were often confusing. Perhaps this story is closer to the real case, but it has made a vague enemy. Admittedly, events and actions, especially in the third act, were wild and heartbreaking, but they did not have the power of motivation.
In addition, Judy felt like an extended red herring. I did not buy its connection with the demon, or if the demon really tried to recover it, it was a subtext and not a line through Claire. This is the problem when the other ghosts are superimposed on the top. In addition, when Judy is in danger, the Warrens should have left the House of the Smurls … in particular if Judy had been the target from the start.
Final thoughts
The Conjuring: Last Rights is a well -designed and scary film. He is at his best in the bits not discarded. The marriage of Tony and Judy. The funeral. Tony’s proposal in Judy. Ed, Lorraine and Judy are at the restaurant. The game shines in these moments. Small moments with Wilson and Farmiga exchanging awareness. Or when Tony tries clumsily to obtain permission to marry Judy. These are really fun songs, especially since we know the main actors. Curiously, even if the scary moments are really frightening, they feel less intimate. We do not know the ghosts well. We don’t really have much knowledge of the broken down.
The film is clearly preparing to be a last chapter for Ed and Lorraine. The wedding scene is a clinter. In the post-key roller, the history of the Warrens is stated, a real epilogue. However, the film won the bank. Two weeks in theaters, and to date, he has already won $ 356,678,705 worldwide. 2025 was very good for horror films at the box office, in particular Warner Bros.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is currently being released and will probably be in the cinemas for a few more weeks as Halloween approaches. For fans of the franchise, it is an excellent shipment for Ed and Lorraine … or at least for Wilson and Farmiga. Given the success of the box office of this film so far, it is likely that more Warren films will be made. Perhaps the younger versions (Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor) will finally carry the torch in the prequelles.
Review by Eric Li
