The Conjuring: Last Rites: Movie Review

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mia Tomlinson, Steve Coulter
Director: Michael Chaves

There's plenty of portentous talk in the supposedly final outing for the Conjuring team of Lorraine and Ed Warren.

With pre-marketing discussing much of the fact that this was the final case and on-screen titles warning that this was the investigation that devastated their family, The Conjuring: Last Rites has a lot to live up to.

Unfortunately, despite some impressive atmospherics and a sense of unease throughout, the film doesn't quite deliver on the dread and feels creepily inert when it should be scaring the willies out of everyone.

Centring on both the Warrens' first case and the haunting of a house and family of eight in Pennsylvania, there's much fertile ground to be mined here. 

From the growing concern over the future of their daughter Judy to their own health concerns, gloom hangs over like a pall in this - and casts a shadow over proceedings.

But in truth, while returning director Chavez delivers a solid film that feels a little unspectacular in places with the obvious build-up to jump scares and a crashing soundtrack to foreshadow any moments, The Conjuring: Last Rites never really feels funereal at all - more a fairground ride of expected jolts and turns

Both Wilson and Farmiga settle back with ease into their characters, imbuing each with thr familiarity of previous outings and adding a few more layers of depth to what's gone on

But it's Tomlinson as the grown up Judy who shines here, with her gradual unraveling amid the strain of the family line truly starting to show. The emotional core of the film rests with her and she lifts it well, even when the movie itself puts narrative jolts above psychological depth.

With cameos from Annabelle the haunted doll,The Conjuring Last Rites closes the chapter nicely on the Warrens, with real-life footage over the credits sealing their legacy - but thanks to predictable direction and a script that never quite elevates itself away from carnival-style flights, this is a film that in parts feels like an indulgence, rather than a case not to lay the franchise to rest.