Way, way back in 2013, for a different publication, I raved, “The Conjuring doesn’t try to reinvent the tropes of horror movies, whether it’s ghosts or demons or exorcisms, but Fred Astaire didn’t invent tap-dancing, either.” And after such an auspicious launch, it’s been depressing to watch the Conjuring movies — and their offshoots involving dolls, nuns, and La Llorona — become less special and more routine. And so, with The Conjuring: Last Rites, this venerable franchise finally (one hopes) gives up the ghost, not with a bang, but a whimper.
It’s 1986, and demon-hunters Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) have somewhat reluctantly entered semi-retirement, since Ed’s heart condition can’t take the strain of their ghost-chasing activities. With dwindling, and less respectful, crowds attending their lectures — cue the Ghostbusters jokes — the two are more focused on their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson, The Lost Pirate Kingdom) and her impending nuptials to Tony (Ben Hardy, Bohemian Rhapsody).
Judy has inherited her mother’s clairvoyance, to say nothing of her affection for elaborately-collared blouses, and the younger Warren starts sensing a disturbance that ties into a family in Pennsylvania mine country that has recently suffered a haunting. Turns out the full-length mirror they picked up at a swap meet was a part of the Warrens’ very first case in 1964, when a pregnant Lorraine was sent into labor after encountering a malicious spirit that lived within the antique. (The flashback Ed and Lorraine are played by Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor, providing convincing Muppet-baby versions of Wilson and Farmiga.)
Cue the creepy attics and doom-filled cellars and horrific visions of ax-wielding maniacs, but these haunted-house trappings no longer carry the fright or the fun that the Conjuring movies once reliably provided. Director Michael Chaves (The Nun II) offers up exactly one memorable set piece, involving Judy in a bridal-store dressing room that becomes a haunted hall of mirrors, and while that moment gives cinematographer Eli Born and editors Elliot Greenberg and Gregory Plotkin a moment to shine, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the film’s plodding 135-minute running time.
What used to make the Conjuring films special, besides the effective scares, was the relationship between Lorraine and Ed, with their deep and abiding love getting each other through any number of paranormal scrapes. Farmiga and Wilson remain as committed to their performances as ever, but the script (from a trio of writers) doesn’t find any new depths to explore as this relationship stands the test of time. There’s more attention given to Judy and Tony, clearly setting them up for possible sequels — and at this point, that’s not an attractive prospect, no fault of Tomlinson and Hardy.
The Conjuring: Last Rites includes some Easter-egg shout-outs to the earlier movies, as we see people the Warrens have helped in earlier chapters, and with this series coming to an end, it’s hard not to think of Farmiga and Wilson as the real-life equivalents of those liberated haunted home-owners: now they are free to make better movies.
Director: Michael Chaves
Screenwriters: Ian Goldberg & Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick & James Wan, based on characters created by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Steve Coulter, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Beau Gadsdon, Kíla Lord Cassidy, John Brotherton, Shannon Kook
Producers: James Wan, Peter Safran
Executive producers: Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Hans Ritter, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Natalia Safran, John Rickard, Michael Chaves
Cinematographer: Eli Born
Production design: John Frankish
Editing: Elliot Greenberg, Gregory Plotkin
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Sound design: Bill R. Dean, re-recording mixer, supervising sound editor
Production companies: Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, The Safran Company, Atomic Monster
In English
135 minutes
