What is the one thing you don’t do in a horror movie if you want to survive? If you answered “split up” you are correct! If you answered “follow my survival instincts and use my brain” you were probably in the most recent movie of The Conjuring series, The Conjuring: Last Rites.
The fourth movie in the Conjuring series was released just a few days ago, on September 5, 2025. There was mass hype for the movie and people were excited for a grand finale to the beloved Conjuring series… Well, you can get off the edge of your seats and save your money because the film was not only disappointingly corny, but it had no real resolution.
Based on the true stories of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Conjuring series has followed the hauntings remedied by the couple since the first movie was released in 2013. This important note makes the plot of the movie hard to critique, as the writers do not have full creative freedom since, to a certain extent, the plot has already been written. Nevertheless, this 55-million-dollar production made characters, like Judy in the attic scene, look like reckless fools who want to die. Maybe it was an attempt at dramatic irony, maybe it was just sloppy writing. Marketing for the movie was also anticipatory of a great conclusion—alas, the marketing, as per usual, was misleading.
The Conjuring: Last Rites feels like a scribble drawing hung on the fridge by a mother like it is precious art. Whoever wrote the storyline progression managed adequately for the first ¾ and then seemed to realize they were late to the first day of their “Intro to Film Making” class and needed to wrap it up.
If they made a game show, “Are You Smarter Than Anyone from The Conjuring: Last Rites?”, it wouldn’t be terribly exciting, because literally everyone and anyone would win.
If you like movies like Scary Movie, this one is for you. If you were fooled by the hype, you might want to wait until this one most likely comes out in 6 weeks on streaming platforms HBO and Hulu.