'The Conjuring: Last Rites' Review: The Warrens Ghost Adventures Fizzle in Finale

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It's been thirteen years since audiences met Ed and Lorraine Warren, fictionalized versions of controversial ghost hunters that have continued to frustrate and fascinate viewers. James Wan's 2013 feature is one of the best horror films of the decade, while 2016's The Conjuring 2 has some solid moments. But the franchise has had diminishing returns of late and it's hard to find life in the old ghosts of Last Rites, and that's definitely a challenge considering how many ghosts are presumably packed into this movie, spread out over two separate plot lines that are fascinating and boring in equal measure.

There's a sense of deja vu while watch the final (supposedly) installment of the Conjuring series. And we aren't just talking about Lorraine's (Vera Farmiga) visions of the past and future. There are moments that feel derivative of other horror movies--common considering the genre--as well as moments pulled directly from the previous Conjuring movies. Hell, there's even a moment where Ed (Patrick Wilson) talks about how kids don't care about what they do anymore, reminiscent of a major plot point in Universal's latest Jurassic World movie. One more movie and it's officially declared a theme! When The Conjuring: Last Rites isn't trying to figure out something new to say it's falling back on doing what worked somewhere, anywhere before.

It's 1986 and Ed and Lorraine have given up their life of ghosting adventuring due to Ed's increasingly bad heart. They're called back into service after a family in Pennsylvania deals with a haunting in their house, but this case is unlike any other. The Warrens find their faith shaken and must do whatever they have to in order to protect their now grown daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson).

Like any good sequel, or final installment for that matter, it's all about going back to the beginning, to find out information about some sort of origin that makes everything after it sensical. Because events in a franchise can't just happen in isolation. Last Rites takes us back to 1964, introducing us to a young Ed and Lorraine impeccably cast and played by Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor, respectively. A heavily pregnant Lorraine is trying to exorcise an antique mirror that could be responsible for a suicide.

The trauma of interacting with the demon causes Lorraine to go into labor and one of the best scenes in Last Rites plays out in the first 10 minutes. Lawlor and Smith don't just look like their grown counterparts but bring all the emotional impact of what these two characters will grow into in later installments. As Lawlor's Lorraine prays for a miracle the emotional resonance of her performance, complemented by Eli Born's tight cinematography and some fantastic use of lighting, creates such emotional torment. It's a moment of true terror in a highly realistic situation, no ghosts needed. It's a shame that this is Lawlor and Smith's only scene (if anything, they'd be great to continue the franchise in some sort of past universe).

From there the movie jumps into the 1980s, introducing the Smurl family of West Pittson, Pennsylvania. Similar to previous Conjuring movies they're a large family of eight living in an indeterminate amount of rooms in a small-looking townhouse who run into trouble with a large antique mirror that connects back to the opening scene. With no A-list names in the cast the Smurls are a nondescript hodgepodge of characters whose only identifiers are "Mom," "Dad," "main girl," "older girl," "other girls" and "grandparents." There's little interest in them in the script, mostly returning to them when the movie needs a jump scare, usually the result of one of the little girl's creepy baby dolls or ghosts hiding in the corners waiting for people to turn on lights. (We're a long way from the cold tension of "hide and clap" from the first.)

The more intriguing story is found with the Warrens, albeit it's not particularly a horror movie. Ed and Lorraine have crafted a legacy of being renegades and fighting ghosts. What happens when no one cares about them anymore? Or, more importantly, what are they going to do when the icy hand of death comes closer to them and the prospect of entering the plain they've been fighting against comes ever closer? Wilson's Ed, with his bum ticker that's used so often it's like he has a "heart attack" button being pressed, makes this particularly interest.

Ed isn't just worried about his legacy, but also becoming an old man who still wants to find something fun in life. He lives to hunting ghosts but struggles to be boiled down to a "punchline," in a world where people hear what they do and assume they're the Ghostbusters. (A great way of situating the time and place of this movie.) Wilson continues to be a bucket of charm and it's irritating that the movie clamps down Wilson's humor and warmth. They peek out most often with Judy's fiancé Tony (Ben Hardy), who is set up as another Ed surrogate, no doubt if they want to find another means of spinning this series off.

The primary focus of Last Rites isn't on Ed and Lorraine. It's not even about the Smurl's. It's about the Warrens's daughter Judy, a character that's basically an older derivative of Carol Ann from Poltergeist. Tomlinson, who looks like if Bryce Dallas Howard and Elizabeth Olsen were combined, plays Judy not unlike Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror. That is to say she's incredibly meek and childlike in a weird way. Having done some math during the movie Judy is 22 but acts as if she could be between 14 and 22. This is to say much of the performance is very doe-eyed with Judy perpetually in dangerous situations she needs to be extricated from. (These are also situations she puts herself in, whether that's trying on a wedding dress or deciding to follow her mom's voice into a shadowy attic, no questions asked.)

The weakest link, or at least the person who is flat out wasted, is Vera Farmiga. Long the heart of the series due to Lorraine's ability to bridge the gap between the physical and metaphysical veil, she is given absolutely nothing in this movie. It's remarkable she has any dialogue, and in fact there are long swathes where she says nothing. Farmiga is there to just look off into the distance, look at items, make a scared/concerned/sad/happy face, or scream and cry. The script can't find any reason to use her, odd considering how bonded her and Judy have been throughout the series. It's probably because the script can't really decide what story it wants to tell: the Smurl's haunting or unknown entity (possibly Annabelle the evil doll?) that's been haunting Judy since the beginning. There are so many threads the script stitches in, but can't pluck the one it wants to focus on nor knit them all together.

For nearly 90 minutes of the film's laborious 135 minute runtime it's a back and forth between the Warrens and the Smurl's, with the most tangential of connections between them. In this case, it's a priest the Warrens know who takes an interest in the case for reasons and reenacts a blessing sequence direct from Amityville. It's over an hour before the two plot lines even meet, and by then you know too much about the Warrens and absolutely nothing about the Smurls. On top of that, one narrative is a straight-up family drama with some jump scares, and another is a horror movie with few jump scares. The tonal imbalance is off the charts. But, hey, we get a possession sequence and other moments you'd check off a "You're Watching a Conjuring Movie If..." list.

By the time the movie comes to its conclusion--the Warrens have proven that stairs are everyone's natural enemy--the Smurls haunting is completely irrelevant. They give them a send-off with ten minutes of movie left. The hope is to leave audiences with a positive view of the legacy of Ed and Lorraine but Last Rites doesn't know what to do with them, and what it ends up doing undermines the fun that's come before. By the time this closes out Last Rites certainly holds true: a weak script kills the franchise and is helping it pass onto the other side.

Grade: D+

The Conjuring: Last Rites hits theaters Friday.

Are you a Conjuring fan? What do you think of this being the finale feature? Leave a comment below.

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