Did The Conjuring: Last Rites Nail It Ending

The Warren Files: The Last Rite tries to be a worthy closure for one of the longest-running horror sagas in contemporary cinema. But, more than that, it strives to bring an end to the entire journey of the iconic Ed and Lorraine Warren through the franchise. The reason is obvious: the charismatic marriage of self-proclaimed demonologists played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga is a rarity in the genre. Not only for adapting a controversial couple in real life, but also for the unusual emotional charge they share. Beyond the battles against specters, demons, and possessed dolls, The Warren Files explored the history of the couple.

For that reason, the latest installment—the fourth film in the main franchise—is much more of a farewell to marriage than a horror story. Which wouldn’t be a problem if director Michael Chaves—who also directed “Expediente Warren: Bound by the Devil“—didn’t have such a hard time maintaining a balance in the film’s tone. On the one hand, it strives to show how Ed and Lorraine’s relationship is going through a complex stage, now that his health is increasingly precarious. On the other, everything that happens in the house of the Smurls, the new victims of the sinister powers against which the couple must fight.

Between the two, there are a series of situations that blend together in an unclear way: touching conversations between the Warrens and terror among the Smurls. It doesn’t help too much that the director almost completely dispenses with practical effects in favor of digital ones, some notorious and almost derisory. So the most important sequences—or the ones that should provoke terror—end up being anticlimactic.

A complex story for ‘The Warren Files: The Last Rite’

This, despite the fact that the story is presented with more order than could be expected in a film so full of characters and situations. That’s because, unlike in the previous installment of the saga, the script by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick is more precise with the details of the case. So she takes the time to show what the marriage formed by Janet (Rebecca Calder) and Elliot (Elliot Cowan) is experiencing.

In several sequences that are notoriously intentionally reminiscent of The Warren Files: The Conjuring (2013), the film introduces its characters. The camera goes back and forth between rooms and characters in an attempt to point out who is who in the plot. But Michael Chaves lacks James Wan’s ability to turn a simple family evening into something more tense. So there is a lot of haste and confusion in the way of describing the supernatural event in the family home.

Two families fighting evil

But the gist is clear: the house in which the Smurls live is full of supernatural activity. And they all come from a gruesome wooden-framed mirror that is presented as a cursed object from the first scenes of the film. The doors close, there are chilling voices, and the daughters of the family are increasingly besieged by a violent entity. However, the film has real problems in establishing its atmosphere. In reality, practical effects and a more subtle kind of horror are missing, rather than just a collection of scares and midnight horrors.

It also weighs on the film that almost all the installments of the franchise, except for the third, have a more or less similar core. A haunted house that turns with horrifying speed into a trap for its owners. In fact, the resemblance of the Smurls to the Perrons of the first installment is more than evident. Both are large families, with a father reluctant to believe in what is happening and without the means to leave the house in which they live. So there’s something predictable—if not directly flat—about the way the film sets out the events.

Perhaps the most interesting point that saves it from being a complete disaster is that the plot establishes immediate parallels between the Warrens and the Smurls. Both families are going through a hard time, and finally, they will have to support each other to move forward. So, when Ed and Lorraine finally decide to face the entity that threatens the Smurls, the film finds its most emotional moments.

For Ed, the risk of dying is much less important than allowing the escalation of violence against the Smurl to continue. Lorraine accompanies him, convinced that it is the only thing she can do in the middle of a situation that is rapidly getting out of control. Something that adds a unique twist to the classic, inevitable exorcism scene—Bible in hand—that eventually unfolds in the saga.

Fan service for all tastes

Of course, The Warren Files: The Last Rite is very much in mind that it is the last film of, at least, the part of the saga that concerns Ed and Lorraine. So there are winks, memories, and mentions of everything that, before or after, the characters have lived through—or have faced—throughout the different stories. Some are well done, but others are just cross-references for fans with nothing to contribute. That does nothing more than slow down the film, which is difficult to advance in its first hour.

In fact, one of the problems with the film is how repetitive, slow and sometimes boring it can be. Ed and Lorraine go from one place to another, while a dozen different events attack the Smurls. At the same time, the film also has time to delve into Judi, the couple’s daughter, now played by Mia Tomlinson. As you may remember, the girl also has capabilities and now, it is a point to take into account. More anecdotal is to include her boyfriend Tony Spera (Ben Hardy), who will later end up being her husband.
Step by step and in a very laborious way, The Warren Files: The Last Rite delves into its own mythology and also leaves the door open for new additions. Something more evident than the participation of Judi and Tony, in addition to the insistence on remembering that you always have to fight against evil. While all this is happening, the entity that plagues the Smurl becomes unstoppable. until an ending that, although not disappointing, is much less solid than it could be.

A correct farewell and nothing more

The Warren Files: The Last Rite inherits a lot of the saga’s problems, in particular, its tendency to repeat itself and be overly maudlin. All in all, it’s an interesting goodbye for two characters who close a cycle — althoughit’s inevitable that they’ll forget one way or another — and they also demonstrate the value of the entire franchise.

Perhaps it is missed that Michael Chaves was more risky or less routine when telling a horror story. But the easy and vivid chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga sustains the entire film and gives it its curious personality. In the end, the film makes it clear that it is an emotional goodbye to its characters, as evidenced by its interesting credits, with real scenes from the Warren archive. A touching tribute to the controversial couple.