The Conjuring Last Rites Revives the Franchise With a Heart-Pounding, Haunting Finale
The Conjuring Last Rites begins with the sound of creaking doors, voices in the shadows and families hiding in fear as the shadows draw near. Once you see this title, you are fully aware of the type of horror you are about to read – and you are certain Ed and Lorraine Warren will be the focus of it. However, following a series of follow-ups, prequels and spin-offs some of which were as frightening as The Nun, others much less successful, the franchise was in dire need of a victory.
Does The Conjuring Last Rites offer the Warrens the last bone-chilling or is the film a ghost that haunts the movie machine? It is not though the haunted house of your grandma and, of course, she cannot construct her own house on a channel to hell and rent it to an absolutely nasty demon.
The question that this sequel tries to answer is whether the franchise can get back on track and revisit the original story as the Warrens deal with one, terrifying case that challenges them to their utmost possibilities. Rather than opening up to its universe, the goal of Last Rites is to create a lean, direct and suspenseful experience that recreates what made the original so efficient.
Does Last Rites Bring the Scares?
The answer to that is in the short run yes, but perhaps not as you might suppose. The director, Michael Chaves, who has worked on The Devil Made Me Do It before, has obviously learnt his lessons. Jump scares are there, of course, but they are more justified in this instance.
The movie works well when it does not overpower with dreadful atmosphere but employs loud things emerge out of the shadows. The novel focuses on a small Maine family with an ideal life that is ruined by the display of possessiveness by their youngest son.
It is a clichéd structure, yet The Conjuring Last Rites intelligently employs it to explore more about the Warrens themselves. We have a more mature and worldly Ed and Lorraine, who have decades of supernatural warfare upon them. It is not only about saving another family but also about whether the Warrens have anything left to offer.
The Warrens’ Final Stand
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga once again prove that they are the soul of the franchise. Their chemistry also gives the film a feeling of seriousness bringing the movie into a different sphere besides the typical horror film. You receive their fatigue, their horror, and more than it all, their eternal belief in each other.
It is a horror film and rather a love story about the sacrifices they have made together. The demon in the middle is the cartoon demon. It is also a king of psychological torture and the inner traumas of the Warrens are their weapons against their past.
The final exorcism scene is a bloody, emotionally stressful climax, a scene no doubt among the most effective in the show. Here, the special effects are relegated to the back seat in favor of naked, desperate emotion and the result is a soul-throbbing climax.
Is This Really the End for The Conjuring?
Having a title such as Last Rites, one would expect an ending. The Warrens do receive a somewhat heartening, albeit melancholic, ending of the main story in the movie. Nevertheless, it leaves the door so slightly open to more. Admittedly, until these movies become unprofitable, there is always another haunted artifact or haunted doll lurking in the shadows.
Before long, we shall have The Crooked Man, The Big Day Out, or Annabelle Goes to College. Other than sarcasm, this is a good last chief entry, though. The Conjuring: Last Rites is not an ideal horror movie; it still relies on certain stereotypical elements and half-baked subplots.
Whether or not it truly is the Warrens’ final chapter , The Conjuring: Last Rites serves both the heart and the horror that makes us remember why this series became the new face of the supernatural filmmaking.
