Verdict: ★★★½☆ (3.5/5) — An emotional, uneven farewell that works best as a goodbye to the Warrens, even when the scares run thin.
After twelve years, nine films and nearly $2.3 billion at the worldwide box office, the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren comes to an end — or so The Conjuring: Last Rites promises. The fourth mainline Conjuring film, and the ninth in the wider universe, is less a horror movie than a family drama that happens to be haunted. That is both its greatest strength and its biggest problem.
What nobody can dispute is the audience response. The film opened to around $83 million in North America — the biggest opening in franchise history and one of the largest ever for a horror film — and went on to gross roughly $499 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing entry in the entire Conjuring series. Critics were far less enthusiastic, but for a farewell thirteen years in the making, the crowds clearly came to say goodbye.
| Film | The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) |
|---|---|
| Director | Michael Chaves |
| Screenplay | Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick |
| Cast | Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan |
| Release date | 5 September 2025 |
| Runtime | 2 hours 15 minutes |
| Certificate | R (bloody/violent content and terror) |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 57% critics, audience score in the high 70s |
| Metacritic | 54/100 |
| CinemaScore | B |
| Box office | Around $499 million worldwide on a $55 million budget |
The story: one last case
The film opens in 1964, with a pregnant Lorraine Warren encountering a cursed antique mirror in a curio shop — an incident that ends in tragedy and leaves a demonic presence bound to the object. Two decades later, in 1986, the Warrens are semi-retired, and their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is now a young woman, gifted — like her mother — with psychic sensitivity, and newly in love with Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), a former police officer.
Meanwhile, in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, the Smurl family is being tormented by a haunting tied to the same mirror, given to their daughter Heather as a confirmation gift. When the Warrens refuse the case, events spiral, and the family is drawn back in for one final confrontation.
Farmiga and Wilson’s farewell
Whatever the film’s flaws, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson remain the reason this franchise works. Across four films, they have built Ed and Lorraine into one of horror’s most believable marriages — warm, funny, exhausted and utterly devoted. Last Rites leans into that, giving them quiet domestic scenes and long stretches of simply being a family. When the film finally reaches its climax, the emotional stakes land because we have spent two hours with these people, not just their ghosts.
Mia Tomlinson is the film’s other standout, stepping into the spotlight as Judy Warren with a performance that is vulnerable without ever being helpless. Ben Hardy gives her boyfriend Tony a steady, likeable presence, and Rebecca Calder and Elliot Cowan convince as the Smurl parents.
The Smurl haunting
The film is inspired by the real Smurl haunting case from the 1980s, in which a Pennsylvania family claimed their home was plagued by violent supernatural activity, and the Warrens were among the investigators called in. The film takes the broad outlines and builds a heavily fictionalised story around them, centred on the cursed mirror. Treat it as “based on” rather than a true account: the real case was controversial, and the film’s version is designed for the screen.
What works
- The Warrens themselves. Farmiga and Wilson’s chemistry remains the franchise’s greatest asset, and the film honours it.
- The family drama. The Warren and Smurl households feel lived-in, and the film genuinely cares about both families.
- Individual set pieces. A mirror-lined changing room sequence and the Smurl house’s escalating attacks are staged with real craft by director Michael Chaves.
- The scale of the farewell. The climax brings the franchise’s history full circle in a way long-time fans will appreciate.
What doesn’t work
- The pacing. At 2 hours 15 minutes, this is the longest Conjuring film, and the first hour is heavy on domestic drama before the horror begins.
- Too many threads. The 1964 prologue, the Warren family story and the Smurl haunting compete for attention, and the mirror’s mythology never quite adds up.
- Fewer genuine scares. Compared with the first two films, the scares here are more familiar — and the 57% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes reflects that.
Verdict
The Conjuring: Last Rites is not the best film in the series — the original remains untouchable, and the sequel still has the strongest scares. But as a farewell, it works. Farmiga and Wilson have both described it as their goodbye to the roles, and the final scenes carry a sincerity the franchise has always traded on: the idea that love, family and faith are the real defences against the dark. Audiences agreed with their wallets, if not always with the critics.
For fans who have followed the Warrens since 2013, this is a goodbye worth making. For newcomers, start with the first film. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Conjuring: Last Rites the last Conjuring movie?
It is the final chapter of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story, the fourth mainline Conjuring film and the ninth in the wider universe.
Who stars in The Conjuring: Last Rites?
Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as Lorraine and Ed Warren. Mia Tomlinson plays their daughter Judy, Ben Hardy plays her boyfriend Tony Spera, and Rebecca Calder and Elliot Cowan play Janet and Jack Smurl.
Is The Conjuring: Last Rites based on a true story?
It is inspired by the real Smurl haunting case from 1980s Pennsylvania, which the real Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated. The film heavily fictionalises the case, including the cursed mirror storyline.