The Conjuring: Last Rights - Finale?
- Ricky Labouve
- Sep 8, 2025
- 4 min read
The Conjuring franchise has been scaring audiences in multiple storylines for more than a decade. The first hitting theaters in 2013. Those that were unaware were introduced to the Warren's. Paranormal experts that investigate hauntings and demonic possessions.
Audiences got to meet Annabelle (who was actually a Raggedy Anne doll, not a big creepy doll), a demonic nun and multiple families who needed their help. Their story ends here with Last Rites.
Compared to the other Conjuring movies, this was my least favorite.
All the movies tended to have a certain formula to it. Each one traditionally begins with a oner. A one track shot going through the house where most of our action will be taking place. As we go room to room, we meet the large family who will be haunted by a dark entity. This was always my favorite part of these movies. You learn everything you need to know in these couple minutes. The layout of the house and the dynamic of the family.
This one was much shorter only going through the living room and kitchen as the family prepared for their daughters Confirmation into the Catholic Church. Because each family had a lot of kids, usually around five, it was loud and chaotic. It felt more chaotic in this one with the two youngest racing around the house like a couple Tazmanian Devils.
Before we get to the family, we start in 1964. Lorraine and Ed Warren investigating a haunting latched to a mirror. Lorraine has a vision of her baby in distress. They leave without finishing the job and their true miracle baby (who was stillborn) is born.
We hop in the Delorean and head into the the 80s...1986. The Warrens are still teaching classes, but the classes are less full and those that are there are coming off the wave of Ghostbusters. They've backed off taking cases because of Ed's heart complications.
We meet the fam and as a gift for their daughters confirmation, they get her a cherub mirror...the same mirror The Warren's investigated two decades before.
The slow build haunting begins and the two oldest Smurl daughters do what any rational person would do with a mirror that's giving them the creeps...they toss it. Unfortunately, as Ed Warren has stated in other movies, its a very bad idea to do this.
The movie goes a different way, spending more time with the Warrens than the family being haunted. I understood why they went this route because their daughter, Judy, is starting to get more and more visions and is also connected to the demonic entity who wants to finish what it started when she was still in her moms tummy.
As she prepares for her wedding to former cop Tony, she gets haunted as well. The scene in the bridal store was great, but seriously...being in a small room completely surrounded my mirrors? 360 Infinity Mirror? Pass. Hard pass. Especially in a room with a black ceiling. Not the best aesthetic for trying on wedding dresses.
We only get brief check-ins with the Smurl family during the movie, which I feel kind of hurts the movie. We revisit them as a Father Gordon (friend of the Warrens) arrives and Grandma Smurl is being carried away in an ambulance, having fallen down the stairs. The escalations aren't shown until the Warren's finally arrive for a final showdown.
Turns out the mirror that was thought to be thrown out and crushed, was in the attic. The Warren's and Judy's fiance arrive and they all worked together to get the mirror out of the house while taking on the dark spirit that wanted to take Judy's soul.
This is a true finale and should be. They've built a great universe of haunting movies. Seeing the families Ed and Lorraine saved at Judy's wedding definitely was a cap on it. Along with the time jump showing Judy's kids and their kids gathered around Ed playing guitar and what happened to both of them as they died.
You could always stretch it out, hiring the "younger" actors to do older cases from the 60s when they first started out, but you don't want to drain the well. It's best to go out on top. Though, I wouldn't call this on top.
I enjoyed the movie. It's just like I said, the focus was more on the Warren's and not the family being haunted. A large chunk of the movie was spent with the family just doing family things with few scares in between. When it went hard, it went hard.
The time spent with the Warren's was understandable because it was about building the connection between the entity and Judy and Judy inheriting her mom's gift of sight. You don't really get to connect with the Smurl family, which has always been an important part of the movies, caring and connecting to the family that's being haunted.
Aside from tv footage, you don't really know what's going on inside the house.
Enjoyable if you love the franchise. Otherwise, I wouldn't rush to see this one.
2/5
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