The aging Warrens are pulled back in for one last paranormal case—and it might be their last. We hear mentions of faith in Jesus here, and family plays a big role this go-round. But this pic is mostly focused on spewing blood, slash-bash violence and a whole lot of demonic creepiness.
Back in 1964 when Ed and Lorraine Warren first started their work with the paranormal, they were young, eager and expecting a child. That first case—involving a haunted antique mirror adorned with hand-carved cherubs—nearly caused Lorraine to lose her baby.
However, after a harrowing delivery marred by an evil presence, their daughter, Judy, was born. Ed and Lorraine thanked God for little Judy’s safety and pressed on to spend their lives helping others plagued with ghostly problems.
Now, in 1986, the pair can look back on 20-plus years of cases. They’ve battled poltergeists, dealt with haunted homes and faced a demon-possessed doll. The list is long, and they’ve got a room full of creepy objects they’ve collected over the years, with each piece either haunted, cursed or used in some ritualistic practice.
That room tells the story of their lives.
But their lives are changing now. A few years ago, Ed had a massive heart attack. That troubling event, and their doctor’s stern warnings against another like it, have caused the famous (or some might say, infamous) Warrens to lock away their life’s work and retire from “ghost chasing.”
They’re now quite happy to see Judy begin her own married life with her boyfriend, a former cop. Who knows, grandchildren might not be all that far away. Ed and Lorraine will probably write a book and do an occasional lecture or two. But a life free of wrestling with demons and ghosts might be exactly what they need. They’re done with all that.
However, the paranormal might not be done with them.
A family in a nearby Pennsylvania town has popped up in the news. That family, the Smurls, have experienced terrible things. And though the news channels chuckle over the idea of a “devil” moving to Pennsylvania, the truth of it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to the Warrens.
Ed and Lorraine might’ve ignored the story had it not been for their daughter. Judy is hearing voices and feeling inexplicably drawn to the Smurls and their plight.
Oh, and did I mention there’s an antique mirror in the mix? It’s adorned with hand-carved cherubs.
Ed and Lorraine have faced many perils and evils in life, and it’s evident that their shared dangerous adventures have drawn this couple closer. They both would go to any length to protect their spouse. And they have the same love and protective feelings for Judy. They put their lives on the line for her. Judy’s fiancé, Tony, does as well.
When the Warrens move to help the Smurls, Ed makes some pancakes for the family. Tony finds this confusing, but Ed explains that their job isn’t to simply deal with dark and scary things, but to help hurting people know that they’re not alone.
[Spoiler Warning] Judy and Tony marry by film’s end and Lorraine has a vision of their happy life and children.
Three spirits curse a large mirror, and those spirits are, in turn, controlled by a lurking demon. So, it won’t surprise you that cackling spooks leap at the camera out of the dark.
Possessed dolls factor in the story. One of those is a mechanical toy that creeps about, stands on its own and levitates. Another sitting doll cracks and snaps its dolly limbs into place as it rises and then grows and grows until it becomes a massive monster that chases someone down a hallway.
Whispering entities plague young and old. Ghostly hands appear on people’s shoulders. Creepy figures stand barely hidden in the shadows. Cursed objects appear from nowhere. A huge mirror grows heavier and heavier until it falls on a collapsed victim. Someone is possessed and turns to attack loved ones with a sinister glare and snarling grimace.
A reflection breaks through mirrored glass and takes its victim by the throat. A horrific creature crawls up and floats above an unconscious individual. Another entity crawls out threateningly from under a woman’s long skirt. Etc., etc., etc.
Jesus’ name and biblical-sounding passages are used against these demonic things: Sometimes they produce the desired effect, other times they don’t. For instance, a beleaguered-but-upright priest calls out “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And when cornered by evil, he holds up a cross proclaiming “I am protected by God Almighty!” But … he’s quickly possessed and murdered, nonetheless. We see a Bible and crosses burst into flame during a spiritual attack.
The Smurls are Catholic. We see them at their daughter’s confirmation ceremony at church. The officiating priest proclaims, “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The large family also has a porcelain bust of Jesus and a number of crosses adorning their home’s walls. (The Warren’s home is much the same.) The family also prays before a meal together.
In flashback, a young Lorraine is rushed to the hospital when she unexpectedly goes into labor. (It’s strongly implied that her early onset of labor pains are caused by an outside spiritual force.) She then sees some crawling creature on the ceiling of the delivery room. When her child is stillborn, Lorraine prays fervently and the infant gasps to life.
But despite that scene, the power of prayer is somewhat minimized. Even when Lorraine helps Judy as a young child deal with the dark things she sees and hears, she never suggests that her daughter pray or turn to the Bible. Instead, she teaches her a silly limerick about a girl who lost her pockets.
Tony tells Ed that he quit the police force after he miraculously survived a shotgun attack. (The shotgun misfired.) He declares his belief that he’s dead in “another world.” And he couldn’t bear the idea of not being able to marry Judy and raise a family with her.
Ed and Lorraine hug and kiss. Judy and Tony do, too. We hear of a husband who became enraged by his wife’s infidelity and ended up murdering both his wife and his mother-in-law.
A corpse hangs by the neck in an antique shop. And then his ghostly image hangs unseen behind someone else. A demon takes possession of a young woman and causes her to try and hang herself in an attic. People struggle to hold the choking woman up while someone else cuts the rope. When the body falls, they all crash down through the floor to the level below.
Someone puts their hand into a jammed garbage disposal. A sink overflows with a gushing torrent of blood. A large man threatens several people with an axe. He then hits one woman in the temple with it. She falls forward and bleeds profusely.
A car swerves off the road and crashes into a fence. A baby is delivered with its umbilical cord wrapped tightly around its neck. An overhead kitchen light crashes down on a table, sending shards flying and gashing a teen girl’s forehead.
Someone gags on pieces of glass and spews a great deal of blood on nearby people and into a sink. We see Ed clutch his chest and fall over on a couple of occasions—apparently suffering heart attacks. A man wraps an extension cord around his neck and hangs himself from a third-floor railing.
A huge heavy mirror slides down a ladder and crushes a man ankle. It’s dragged across the floor tearing someone else’s leg open from a protruding nail. And that huge mirror also ends up choking someone out as its weight nearly crushes his throat.
Jesus’ name is blended with a f-word. There are also two or three s-words in the dialogue along with uses of the words “d–n” and “a–hole.” God’s name is misused twice.
Ed takes some prescription heart medication. Several people at a pool party have beer.
The Smurl’s two teen daughters tend to jab at each other with less-than-kind comments.
Staged as yet another dramatized “case” in ghosthunters Ed and Lorraine Warren’s real-world catalogue of paranormal investigations, The Conjuring: Last Rites has all the typical scary elements you’d expect from a horror pic.
There are weathered and creaky wooden floors and doors; an axe-swinging, murderous wraith; a malignant object possessed by evil spirits; ghoulish faces that leer out of the inky black shadows; flooding gouts of hemorrhaging gore; and more deeply demonic jump scares here than you can shake a Bible at.
What you might not expect is all of the story’s family devotion and earnest emotional moments. Ed and Lorraine fight valiantly to protect their young adult daughter from the evils of the otherworld: dark things that wish her ill. And you can easily see that struggle as a symbolic parallel to the very real struggles that families often face (even without creepy crawlies on the ceiling).
If you’re unfamiliar with this franchise—four core Conjuring flicks and six related spinoffs—you might also be surprised by how often Jesus’ name is invoked here. And how many crosses you’ll see on the walls and Bibles clenched in fervent hands.
Those are the real positives in a film like this. The storytellers are unashamedly able to bring up the fact that faith in Jesus can guide a loving family through their worst moments. (Many movies don’t even bring up faith, unless it’s to make a derisive point.)
Now, granted, this film paints everything with a broad, rather twisted theological brush and doesn’t actually explore even the most basic tenets of real faith at all, but at least it brings the subject up. And it uses that faith to defeat the powerful demonic evil at the story’s core.
Hopefully then, some horror fan might stroll in and watch a film like this for the frights and bump-in-the-night screeches and walk out wondering about the spiritual side of darkness and light. It’s not a given. But it’s an interesting … possibility.
The other side of that coin, however, is recognizing that this Conjuring pic is saturated with dark, demonic and blood gushing stuff. And frankly, those are things that everyone will walk out with.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
