The Conjuring: Last Rites Review
Horror has been all the rage for the last decade, helping to showcase an incredible array of filmmakers and talents, and telling stories that have sent chills down our spines, keeping us thinking about the fear that permeates the modern world. Indeed, it’s through filmmakers like Zach Creegar, Ari Aster, Osgood Perkins, Jordan Peele, Julia Ducournau, and Jennifer Kent (although the list is endless) that we have been taken through a plethora of social, economic, cultural and political endeavours that have
That said, there’s still room for the more traditional haunted house stories, and The Conjuring universe still stands on its own in terms of both quality and box office power, which has seen a $200million investment turn into a $2billion franchise. The real-life tales of famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played once more by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), and their encounters with possessed dolls, evil nuns, and countless haunted houses across their forty years of experience, are excellent fodder for a horror series. And, ushered into the world by director James Wan, it has grown exponentially since its 2013 debut.
Billed as the final entry – unless the tills continue to ring successfully enough – The Conjuring: Last Rites tells of the Warrens’ interactions with the Smurl family in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, back in 1986, there was a case so extraordinary and so evil that it was the couple’s final “in person” case before retiring. In real life, the Smurls had moved into their house in 1973, but the film focuses on their latter run-ins with a demonic presence taunting all eight of them – parents, grandparents, four daughters of differing ages – in some fairly gruesome ways.
So far, so Conjuring and, for many, that’s exactly what they want, but after eight films, is the expected good enough? Have we now had our fill of the strange? Last Rites continues the legacy well enough, with the usual array of jump scares, haunting images and things that go bump in the night, but with so many others using the genre to tackle bigger themes, it’s probably the right time to end it, as signs of creaks as loud as those of a haunted floorboard overwhelm all its other virtues.
The atmosphere, which was once a hallmark of the franchise, feels recycled and uninspired, relying too heavily on jump scares that lack build-up or pay-off when it should be scaring us two days from Sunday. There are some memorable moments in The Conjuring: Last Rites – one particularly involving the breakfast table – that pack a punch, and Farmiga and Wilson are brilliant as the intrepid spirit hunter couple, as is Mia Tomlinson as daughter Judy. But such is the overall lack of tension, those moments are, sadly, few and far between, and the entire endeavour, like the franchise itself, feels tired and a little past its sell-by date.
★★ 1/2
In cinemas from September 5th / Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon / Dir: Michael Chaves / New Line Cinema / 15
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