The Conjuring: Last Rites Movie Review

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” is a new movie that will continue — and perhaps end — the legacy of the ‘Paranormal Activity’ husband and wife team of Ed and Loraine Warren. They are called into a new case. And this time — it’s Personal!

 

These two faith-filled ‘spirit hunters’ are Ed Warren (played by Patrick Wilson) and his wife Lorraine (played by Vera Farmiga). From “The Conjuring” onward, these two lovebirds have faced various angry ghosts, poltergeists, evil meddling spirits and even demons.

 

They have some backing by the Catholic Church, and get some helpful priests to sometimes join in. They have collected an entire room of cursed objects and artifacts. Of course, they keep all of that in their house in Indiana.

 

However, this one starts with a much earlier case. Much younger Ed and Lorraine are helping a woman who might have a cursed object in her Antique Store. Lorraine is very pregnant, and should probably have sat this one out.

 

But she has a very bad encounter the evil that is inside the ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’. Ed and Lorraine needs to get to a hospital quickly. Their daughter is born — but almost doesn’t make it. I’m sure that ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’ will never turn up again, right?

 

But now they do have a daughter, Judy. They continue to investigate and work to eliminate quite a few spirits, remove the curses from haunted houses, and collect more accursed objects. They generally become the ‘Go To’ couple for possessions and supernatural dangers.

 

Lorraine has a ‘Sixth Sense’ to understand the spirits and the ghosts. She is clairvoyant and can find out how to eliminate the unwanted guests. Ed has a background as a demonologist, and he knows exactly which incantations can be used to drive out demons. Nice folks to invite to a haunted party…

 

But in the current time, the late-1980’s, Judy (played by Mia Tomlinson) is grown up and she is also very spirit sensitive. She has a new boyfriend, Tony (played by Ben Hardy), who wants to marry.

 

Lorraine is very pleased, but Ed is still a little grouchy about things. In a recent case, Ed had a heart attack. So, he is not up-to-speed as of yet. All of the Warren ‘cases’ have been put aside. They do not think that Ed is strong enough yet to handle another encounter.

 

At the same time, not too far away from Indiana, there is a large family who moved into a new home in late-1980’s. It is located in West Pittson, Pennsylvania. There are quite a number of people in the house, including the father Jack Smurl (played by Elliot Cowan) and his wife Janet (played by Rebecca Calder).

 

They have several daughters, and his parents live there with them. They even have a friendly dog to make the home complete. All is well in this ‘Little House on the Oil Fields.  Until the house gets a new resident…

 

Remember that ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’ that Ed and Lorraine unfortunately met years ago? It somehow makes its way into the Smurl household. And then, all things start to go haywire. There are erratic lights in the house. One large overhead light falls on the dining room table, during suppertime. There are spooky levitating dolls. There is eventually a levitating Jack Smurl. Things are scary things in the basement, as well as more scary things in the attic. This is a perfect place for a Warren investigation.

 

But the Warrens are smack-dab in the middle of preparations for the wedding of Judy and Tony. They hear some rumblings of the spooky happenings in West Pittson. But Ed is not yet well enough to tackle a big ‘project’.

 

Or so it seems. Ed and Lorraine’s oldest priest friend is named Father Gordon (played by Steve Coulter). He goes over to investigate the Smurl family situation. He does not come back alive…

 

Judy, since she has many of the same gifts as her mother, is able to sense how dangerous the situation is right now in West Pittson. The Smurl family is in deep trouble, and the evil that plagues the ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’ is the one that almost caused Judy to become stillborn.

 

The Smurl family is living the nightmare of that cursed object, with multiple ghosts and a very evil demon in charge. And this sucker is gunning for the Warren family. Yes — this time it’s Personal!

 

All of the Warrens but commonsense on the back-burner, and they all head over to visit the Smurl family. Ed and Lorraine are prepared for this. But still  Ed is in a weakened condition. Judy, who has never gone with her parents before, is overwhelmed with the danger that is at hand. Tony is going to have a trial by fire to become part of the Warren family. Lorraine has the ability to determine what they are up against.

 

The house contains several spirits, and these would usually pose no problem for the Warrens. But the Big Bad in the house is some type of evil demon — hiding in the ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’.

 

This is the same one that Warrens had run into once before. They were young, and Lorraine was about give birth. So, they could not stick around to properly handle this thing earlier. But it had waited patiently until it could get the entire Warren family back one more time.

 

The Smurl family just wants to have an un-haunted house, so they will help the Warrens with anything they need. There are plenty of dark and spooky occurrences. People sometime do dumb things. Like go into the haunted basement alone. Or investigate the creepy attic all alone. Hey — it would not be a horror movie if that did not happen! Right?

 

Ed Warren and Jack Smurl do the most obvious thing. They go about removing the ‘Spooky Creepy Cursed Mirror’ from the attic. But this turns into a frightful sequence of scares that defy any possible explanation.

 

The Warren family — Lorraine and Ed and Judy and Tony — are pitted against the truly evil demon spirit that exists in the Mirror. It will take an extraordinary amount of effort to fend off the monster that has been haunting the Warrens for many years.

 

There is pressure on the Warrens, and especially on Ed. He is still recovering from a prior heart attack. Will this cause another? Lorraine is worried about Ed, and about her baby – Judy.

 

Judy is in touch with the spirits, and the demon in the Mirror wants to see her dead. Can she survive? Tony is reeling from the overwhelming paranormal activity that is all around the haunted house. Will he think twice about getting hitched?

 

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“The Conjuring: Last Rites” is pretty much a swan song for the Warrens — that is, for Ed and Lorraine. But this is set up in such a way that it might be a springboard for the ‘next generation’ of ‘Ghostbusters’ in the Warren family — Judy and Tony.

 

It follows the ‘Conjuring’ formula as it is defined. When it says ‘Based on a True Story’ — then expect the movie to be mostly in the ‘Based on’ side of things, and hardy at all in the ‘True Story’ side. The main focus is on the Warren family. Vera Farmiga (as Lorraine) and Patrick Wilson (as Ed) are again perfectly suited for these roles.

 

The biggest drawback is the pacing in the dual story lines. It flips between the Warren family, digging deeper into the family drama. But it flip-flops over to the Smurl family. And they are experiencing nothing but terrifying trauma! It takes a full hour until the two families get together – so that the supernatural sparks can start to fly.

 

Perhaps a tighter script or more editing could shave off some excess time from the movie. There are a few times when it feels like it drags. But only towards the end are the brakes released and the wheels are about to come off.

 

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” is a somewhat muddled mix of family drama and supernatural trauma. Why is it so dragged-out? Maybe ‘The Devil Made Them Do It’!