Director
Michael Chaves
(THE NUN II, THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT)

Starring
Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga and Ben Hardy

The final instalment of the Ed and Lorraine Warren stories opens with a harrowing flashback set in 1964 where the paranormal investigative duo attend a haunted antique shop that triggers Lorraine’s premature labour, nearly costing the life of their newborn daughter. From that moment on, the malevolent force that was awakened in that moment will look for a way to try to finish what it started.

Supposedly ‘based on true accounts’, this most recent and final film of the Conjuring universe doesn’t hold back on the mayo. The film is chronologically all over the shop, but let’s pretend that their daughter was born almost 2 decades after she actually was, same too Ed and Lorraine who would have been in their 60’s in 1986 where most of the movie transpires, despite clearly being presented as 40 something’s. Even with that put to the side, the focus of the story is a little mixed. On one side, we have a more prominent focus on Judy Warren (Mia Tomlinson) who is haunted by paranormal visions, only subdued when she chants a little rhyme. The other side is the plight of the Smurl family whose home is taken over by demonic forces by way of a haunted mirror. The two stories finally intertwine properly in the final act, however by that time, the scares seem to have evaporated and instead absurd frustration has taken hold…..please tell me why people living in a supposedly haunted house refuse time and time again to TURN ON A DAMN LIGHT????!!!! Defs better to creepily walk around with a torch than flick a bloody light switch.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is certainly an improvement on its most recent predecessor (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It), but it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as the first or even second film (the first of which is my favourite and most terrifying horror film of all time). The problem when the benchmark is so high is that it’s easy for a director to go back to the same well until you’re drowning in predictability.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga bring their consistently solid A-game to the mix once again and the supporting cast more than hold their own. Plus there’s a nice little group cameo from previous instalments at the end of the film.

Ultimately The Conjuring: Last Rites does everything it needs to for fans of the franchise without trying to reinvent the wheel. You’ll get your fill of jump scares and discomfort, but know all along that you’re in safe hands.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is in cinemas now.