Last Rites may not be a terrible movie, and it's far from the worst in this franchise, but the cracks in the facade have never been more obvious.
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It's remarkable that over a decade after the original film, the Conjuring horror universe is still going strong. Admittedly it's less surprising now that horror has become a stable staple genre in theaters with at least two of the year's biggest success stories being horror films (namely Sinners and Wepaons). But still, after (deep breath here), three main line titles, three movies about the creepy ass doll Annabelle and two movies featuring The Conjuring 2 villain Vladak in The Nun and The Nun 2, with original Conjuring star Vera Farmiga' sister Taissa as the lead, you'd think well would've run dry. And yet, another box office success and presumably a ride into the sunset for a heavily fictionalized vision the Warrens. But it is worth a watch?
The Setup
Years removed from their last demon possession adventure, the Warrens are living a quieter life as lecturers on the paranormal with their daughter Judy looking to lead a normal life. But all of that gets upended when a family in Pennsylvania is beset upon by a demonic force that not only terrorizes the family that lives there, but also wants to pull Judy and the Warrens into its grasp....
So I feel like I should do a little bit of house-cleaning before I review this movie which is...I know all about the Warrens. I know that they were con artists who preyed upon vulnerable people who benefitted handsomely from their work in fame and fortune and that there are numerous allegations of wrong-doings being perpetrated or ignored by the Warrens.
I've enjoyed the majority of the movies not as "true stories" but obviously fictionalized ghost stories about family and connection winning out over malevolent forces.
And I think this movie is a let down. And there's a couple of big, easy to identify reasons.
Theme?
Last Rites has the bones of a good theme. The general idea is that the Warrens have left the demon hunting life behind, but now the one case they ran from years ago is back. Not only that, but their daughter, who is inextricably tied to the case, is being plagued by the same horrific visions as her mother. So Judy and her parents taking on this demon, at least on paper, is a means of them "facing their ultimate fear" of losing their daughter, by trusting their daughter to guide them in the right direction.
There's a lot of potential here, not just because the Warrens have left the demon hunting life behind but also because Judy has a steady boyfriend that looks to marry her and is about to start a life of her own.
Unfortunately the movie is too disjointed to deliver on this main idea. Part of the problem is that Judy doesn't seem to have agency in the story. Her visions are coming upon her, not by choice, and she constantly talks about being drawn to the haunted house by a force beyond her control. This is the demonic force's choice, not hers.
Combine that with constant reminders that Ed could drop dead from a heart attack at any moment, which is very funny/wild with Ed being played by the perpetually fit looking Patrick Wilson, and Lorraine basically capitulating any time Judy wants to do something, and it doesn't vibe. They both give in so quickly that it doesn't feel like conflict, it feels like a roundabout way of hand-waving the issues the last movie brought up.
Combine that with constant reminders that Ed could drop dead from a heart attack at any moment, which is very funny/wild with Ed being played by the perpetually fit looking Patrick Wilson, and Lorraine basically capitulating any time Judy wants to do something, and it doesn't vibe. They both give in so quickly that it doesn't feel like conflict, it feels like a roundabout way of hand-waving the issues the last movie brought up.
Direction & Scale
When I watched the third Conjuring movie, there was something that irked me about that I couldn't put a finger on, at least not in my review. But it felt off. It didn't have the same level of dread as the first two movies, or frankly the same level of terror the other movies were able to invoke.
And now, having seen multiple Conjuring movies with Michael Chaves behind the camera, I know what the problem is. Chaves doesn't know how to escalate a haunted house movie. Or rather, he thinks making everything bigger and louder is what makes it scary.
Almost all of the Conjuring movies have a winning formula for the first and second acts. We have the initial weird thing or two happen with a nice family. Then we have 2-3 creepy nights where things are really quiet before getting really creepy, and we usually end up with someone possessed.
The key to all of these scenes working? Very simple setups and payoffs.
Something as simple as, to use an example from this movie, mom is on the phone and feels a pull on the chord. No obvious answer for that. Mom notices the oddity and then pulls the chord towards her again. Chord is pulled again into a closet and Mom tells her daughters to stop messing around. She sees her daughters running far away from the chord, which tells us and Mom that something else is holding the chord. Turn on the light in the closet and you may or may not see a ghost or demon.
That's great. Why? Because that's the kind of stuff we can easily imagine happening in our own house and it's freaky as hell. If that happened in my house, I'm staying at a hotel for the night.
The key to making these movies work is making all of the horror feel grounded and semi-realistic. So even if you're exorcizing a young girl by the movie's end, you have the baseline horror of watching a young girl get possessed over the course of the film and the terror of not being able to save her. It's why the ending of The Exorcist never leaves Reagan's room.
The key to making these movies work is making all of the horror feel grounded and semi-realistic. So even if you're exorcizing a young girl by the movie's end, you have the baseline horror of watching a young girl get possessed over the course of the film and the terror of not being able to save her. It's why the ending of The Exorcist never leaves Reagan's room.
But Chaves seems to think this restraint isn't enough and constantly throws in action-movie level set pieces amd elements into it. Like a giant CGI sequence when a living actor would've been infinitely more effective. Or turn what should just be an object of influence into a literal weapon being used against the Warrens.
The scale of the conflict feels 100% too big for what are supposed to be a series of ghost encounters or domestic horrors, which breaks the tension and makes everything feel silly. I laughed or said "c'mon" when I should've been at the peak of my terror and direction has everything to do with it.
The Epilogue
I was always a bit worried about a definitive "end" to this franchise. Not because I desperately needed more movies, but because send-offs have a tendency to send everyone off into the sunset with a glowing look at everything about them. Which isn't a problem when your characters are entirely ficitonal. But it's a glaring problem when you end your movie talking about the "good work" the real life Warrens did.
Because while the movie does have a natural end point, it ignores that in favor of an epilogue that glorifies, if not outright deifies the Warrens for everything that they did, "in spite of ongoing ridicule." Like these movies have been documentaries the whole time.
I might be more sensitive to this now when every kook or bigot claims to be a misunderstood or put upon victim of society at large, but c'mon now. The Warrens were con artists. They were not heroes. Both of them have been dead for over a decade and they do not need a major Hollywood movie portraying their life's work, complete with archival footage and photos, as something important.
All of this left me with a sour taste in my mouth that made every other fault in the film stand out. The disjointed theme, the baffling directing choices, and every clunky bit of dialogue portraying the Warrens as important rebels in the fight against demons. Now impossible to ignore because you just had to make martyrs out of these people.
Last Rites may not be a terrible movie, and it's far from the worst in this franchise, but the cracks in the facade have never been more obvious.
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