The Conjuring: Last Rites review – Enjoyable chiller lets franchise rest in peace

Chaves competently juggles the expected components of a successful shocker – sudden ghostly images, off-screen bangs, slow camera pans to menacing objects, in-your-face apparitions – but the visceral excitement is missing as Last Rites seems more haunted by the Amityville Horror movies than anything supernaturally innovative.

Beginning in 1964, we witness the young Warrens investigating their very first case concerning a haunted Gothic mirror that causes pregnant Lorraine to give a traumatic birth to their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson).

Swiftly moving to five years after events in The Devil Made Me Do It, semi-retired Ed and Lorraine are on the safe university lecture circuit having stepped back from actively pursuing spooky phenomena due to Ed’s heart attack in that third instalment.

As Judy and her new ex-cop boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy) start planning their wedding, something Ed is clearly unsettled by, their priest Father Gordon (series regular Steve Coulter) hears about the blue collar Smurl family, comprised of a madhouse eight members, who moved into their West Pittston, Pennsylvania, home in 1973, and after enduring years of creepy disturbances and unexplained spiritual activity in their duplex finally went public in 1986 with their terrifying torment.

After Father Gordon goes to high-ranking Catholic Church officials to plead an exorcism for the media-swamped Smurls, ‘sensitive’ Judy feels drawn to the case for reasons she can’t spell out.

And so her concerned parents have no other option than to follow her into the dark abyss of Chase Street where three demons are in control of the Smurl household and the haunted mirror from their past proves to be the key to the turmoil involving strange sounds, dark figures in the shadows, physical attacks by everyday objects, nighttime levitation and an appearance by Annabelle, the doll star of three offshoots in the Conjuring universe.

The clear chemistry between Wilson and Farmiga is once more the central anchor for this over-long stale tale of the not-so-unexpected that is smoothly efficient in its handling of the slight fright that still does maintain a consistently enjoyably chill against all the odds. Frankly the soap opera marriage-go-round does a disservice to the thrust of the narrative, diluting the skilful old-school build-up.

Best moments concern a pantry telephone cable set-up, one character's Final Destination-style demise, a wedding dress fitting room close encounter of the hellish kind and the final fearful flurry involving the haunted mirror revolving like a whirling dervish.

It’s Chaves’s assertive visual command that pushes the tried-and-true theatrics towards the finish line. And what a conclusion because the Conjuring fan collective will greatly appreciate the respect Last Rites shows to its heritage in the rather moving epilogue reuniting franchise cast members, plus a cheeky cameo from producer/writer/director James Wan himself as the credits roll over archive footage and home movies of the real Warren family going about their much maligned daily business.

It has been a case of diminishing returns regarding the nine-movie nerve-jangling blockbuster juggernaut and while Last Rites hardly matches the pioneering nightmare spirit of the original film, it churns the cliché chills with a pleasing confidence.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th September 2025.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.