The Conjuring is a fascinating, multi-tiered franchise. What began with a single, incredibly well-made horror film back in 2013, directed by genre stalwart James Wan, gradually evolved over the course of its run. While the first film, The Conjuring proper, stood out against the contemporary horror landscape of its time by presenting classical, old-school, suspense-driven thrills, the subsequent entries and spinoffs became much more indicative of the time and place in which they were made, rather than the decades-of-the-past settings of the stories themselves. In total, there have now been nine films set within this sprawling, interconnected universe (including the four mainline Conjuring movies, three Annabelle movies, and two The Nun films). At a certain point, they stopped being counterprogramming of a unique variety and instead became the new status quo.

With the new film, The Conjuring: Last Rites, the long-running and extremely prolific supernatural horror franchise appears to be coming to a close. And while Last Rites is far from the worst entry in the franchise and does an admirable job of bringing things full circle, it isn’t exactly the kind of final film that makes the whole interconnected cinematic journey feel worthwhile.

TOP FIVE OF THE CONJURING: LAST RITES

5. Wilson and Farmiga are Great

Credit where credit is due: easily the most consistently stellar element of this wide-ranging franchise has been Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren. The two have remarkable charisma in their own right, great chemistry together, and know precisely how to sell even the most hokey ghost-hunting beats. I have nothing but respect for them and how steadfastly committed to this franchise they’ve remained over the course of more than a decade. These are bona fide actors with thriving careers outside of this series, so the fact that they stuck around after the first film—much less for so many installments—is truly a testament to their dedication and how much they enjoy making these movies together.

4.  Michael Chaves’ Direction Has Improved

Cards on the table: I was very much not a fan of the previous mainline Conjuring film. In fact, I’d argue that The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It sits near the very bottom tier of the entire franchise, which is why I was less than thrilled to hear that its director, Michael Chaves, was returning for this supposed final entry. But, to my surprise, Chaves’ direction feels like a much better fit here, and he manages to craft some genuinely strong, suspenseful set pieces along the way.

In fairness, I don’t think any filmmaker’s work would look particularly great if they were tasked with following James Wan on a Conjuring film. Wan started the franchise, and the first two entries are powered almost entirely by his unique cinema-of-attraction verve, so I don’t envy Chaves’ position on that prior installment. Here, though, it feels like he’s come into his own, far more comfortable with the film he’s making—and it shows. It also helps that Eli Born’s cinematography is strong, lending the film a tactile, authentic visual approach, a quality sorely missing from The Devil Made Me Do It.

3. Story is Fucked

The screenplay and story for The Conjuring: Last Rites are credited to a combined total of four writers—and it feels that way. This egregiously long, two-hour-plus film spends nearly two-thirds of its runtime just getting the Warrens to the Smurl house, where the supposed haunting is taking place. By the time they finally arrive, there’s no room left to explore any interpersonal relationships or develop anyone beyond the Warrens themselves. Instead, the movie barrels straight into the third-act climax, practically shoving the Smurls—the family the film is allegedly about—out the door to stand in the rain as glorified extras.

It’s particularly odd considering how much time is squandered in the opening acts. In the first film, James Wan smartly anchored audiences with the family at the heart of the haunting, and then had the Warrens crash into their story. In that setup, the Warrens functioned almost like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot—not the protagonists, but observers alongside the audience. That approach would have worked far better here. Making the Warrens the overt leads of these later films has sapped much of the narrative tension.

And that’s especially true in Last Rites. While the first two-thirds aren’t without strong moments, the whole thing feels unfocused and, in hindsight, deeply frustrating.

2. Why the Fuck is Annabelle in This?

Spoilers, I guess—but since the marketing has already made a point of showing her, it is what it is. Obviously, Annabelle the doll is a big deal. She became the Conjuring franchise’s mascot and gave James Wan the perfect outlet for the kind of creepy doll shenanigans he loves. But why is she featured so prominently in this movie?

Every one of her scenes revolves around her haunting Judy, with the flimsiest single line of exposition tossed in near the end to vaguely justify it. Honestly, it feels less like a natural story choice and more like one of the four credited writers was told to cram the square peg of Annabelle into the round hole of this plot.

Worse still, the film squanders what should have been a monumental payoff involving her—something the franchise has been building toward for over a decade. Instead of landing with weight, the moment is undercut, mishandled, and ultimately wasted. For a character as central to The Conjuring’s mythology as Annabelle, that’s a huge misstep.

1.  When Everything is Scary, Nothing Is

The Conjuring: Last Rites runs over two hours, and I’d be hard-pressed to name a five-minute stretch where some kind of horror sequence isn’t happening. From the opening frame to the closing shot, the film never lets up—and it’s absolutely exhausting. Every moment is treated like the big scare of the movie, with drawn-out buildups and dramatic payoffs, until the whole thing just becomes monotonous. By the time the climax rolls around—complete with wind machines, spinning mirrors, and supernatural chaos—it barely registers, because the audience is already numb.

This points to the bigger issue, one that has plagued the latter-day Conjuring entries: the scares dictate the story, instead of the story dictating the scares. Without downtime to breathe, to build atmosphere and character before hitting the audience with terror, even strong moments lose their bite.

To be fair, there are some solid sequences here, and Michael Chaves’ direction shows clear improvement since his last outing. But whatever gains he makes are drowned out by the sheer oversaturation of nonstop “big” scares. The result is a film that tries too hard to be terrifying at every turn, and in the process, forgets how to actually scare.

RGM GRADE

(C-)

The Conjuring: Last Rites is fine. It’s nowhere near the franchise’s best, but it’s not scraping the bottom either. Instead, it lands squarely in the middle—another serviceable entry that ties things up well enough and sprinkles in a few solid scares along the way.

Will Jones