The Conjuring Last Rites Movie Review

Ed and Lorrene Warren go out on a solid sweet emotional note.

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities they must confront. The Warrens go out on a satisfying conclusion in solid heartwarming installment that nails the family drama but with scares that leave you wanting more. Director Micheal Shaves with this film makes his best film yet in this universe but you notice the drop from James Wan who directed the first 2 Conjuring movies with the scares but nails the character work to be fair.

Michael Shaves does a solid job wrapping the Ed and Laraine part of the Conjuring story up he nails the character drama between Ed Laraine and their daughter Judy I love them you are endeared to them as a family but also see how Judy in the first half of the film doesn’t feel comfortable telling her parents her mother in particular with what she is experiencing. The dynamic between Ed and Tony is a great juxtaposition to the Laraine and Judy story Shaves does a good job weaving these 2 story lines throughout the film for me it’s the strongest part of the film. The weak part of the film for me is the scares are as strong as I would like I didn’t feel the tension like I did in the first 2 conjuring films for example the painting scene in 2 is amazing in how it is filmed even when you know what’s coming it still gets to me to jump and edited James Wann is a master at jump scares where Shaves just isn’t at skilled which hurts the film along with the set pieces not being that memorable like the clapping in the first film where the daughters are under the bed is white knuckled there isn’t anything like that in the last 2 films Shaves has directed. Another example is there is a scene in a basement like there is in the 2^nd film, but Shaves placement of the camera, the timing of the edit, and the construction of how the scares aren’t as skillfully done Wann’s direction is almost Hitchcockian level which is missing.

The cast of film is stellar across the board starting with the actors that played young Ed and Laraine Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith are stellar in the opening set piece of the film that lays the groundwork for the story you believe they are the young version of the older versions of these character we love from their mannerisms, their speech patterns, and how they capture the Warrens deep love they have for each other at this young age dealing with the first demon they went up against. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are once again fantastic as these characters they don’t phone it in for a second seeing them deal with their daughter getting engaged it’s a different thing for them to play from the previous films and love where they end up in the end. Mia Tomlinson as Judy and Ben Hardy as Tom are great you can see how they are mirroring Ed and Larraine but are different Judy having the same ability as her mother is so great seeing how she is struggling to deal with it whether or not to tell her everything or to try to face this demon on her own but having the same desire to help people and Tom being the fiancé who wants to prove himself to Ed that he loves Judy and is worthy to marry her is heartfelt while being funny at times.

Overall I liked this movie I didn’t love it like the first 2 movies the script and the scares aren’t as strong as they could be they feel a little repetitive at times with not same craftsmanship that Wann brought to but would still recommend to go see it I will give it a 3 and a half out of 5.