The Conjuring: Last Rites (15, 135 mins)
Verdict: Demon-and-on-and-on
[three stars]
Here we are again with another Conjuring film that doesn’t actually feature any conjuring.
Instead, it’s the continuing true story — stop non-believing there in the back! — of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), a happily married pair of demonologists who expel evil spirits from people’s lives.
The difference, in Last Rites, is that the Warrens are joined by their daughter, Judy (Brit newcomer Mia Tomlinson). The character appeared in previous entries in the series, but only as a sprog.
Here she’s a fully grown woman with some of her mum’s psychic intuition and a personal connection to the film’s main demon.
She’s also got a new boyfriend, in the form of doe-eyed former cop Tony (Ben Hardy), who’s remarkably cool with his potential in-laws’ chosen profession — and with Judy’s frequent fits at seeing yet another leering, creeping thing in the corner of the room.
Otherwise, this is pretty much a retread of the original The Conjuring (2013). Or The Conjuring 2 (2016). Or — was there a third one?
The Conjuring: Last Rites – featuring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga – a happily married pair of demonologists who expel evil spirits from people’s lives
The Warrens are joined by their daughter, Judy (Brit newcomer Mia Tomlinson, pictured). The character appeared in previous entries in the series, but only as a sprog
In any case, Last Rites alternates between scenes of the Warrens’ weird domestic life and an escalating sequence of hauntings in a Pennsylvanian family home.
Eventually, of course, the two will come together. Then it will climax with a showstopping exorcism.
To some extent, this is a series knowing its own strengths. Wilson and Farmiga remain the best thing about these Conjurings — horror cinema’s answer to Nick and Nora, an endearingly loved-up couple — so it’s a joy to spend more time in their company.
The period setting — this time it’s the 1980s, rather than the 1970s — is also beautifully evoked, right down to the last legwarmer.
But, more than a decade in, some of those strengths are also becoming weaknesses. The spooky bits used to be exhilarating, whereas now they just feel like a Conjuring trope-fest.
There’s no children’s toy that isn’t possessed. No cellar that isn’t dark and creaky. No lightbulb that won’t blow out.
No reflective surface that doesn’t reveal something horrible in the background. Last Rites even includes a tired nod to the bloody elevator sequence from The Shining.
Aside from one or two more imaginative set pieces — such as a wedding dress fitting that will give you a fear of infinity mirrors — it all starts to feel like exorcism by numbers.
To some extent, this is a series knowing its own strengths. Wilson and Farmiga remain the best thing about these Conjurings — horror cinema’s answer to Nick and Nora
The Conjuring is in cinemas from Friday September 5
It doesn’t help that the demons are fickle creatures, too. At times — such as when they off the token Catholic priest, Father Gordon (Steve Coulter) — their malicious power seems almost limitless.
But, for the most part, they seem content to just toy with our heroes, submitting them to cheap jump scare after cheap jump scare, until we arrive at…… the end? As its title suggests, Last Rites certainly wraps up Ed and Lorraine’s adventures.
But with the Conjuring and its various doll-based and nun-based spin-offs now amounting to the most lucrative horror franchise in history (and with Judy and Tony waiting in the wings) will Hollywood really be happy to let the demon-huntin’ stop? As the devil once said: yeah, rite.
The Conjuring is in cinemas from Friday September 5.