The Conjuring Universe came out with its last movie of its franchise “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” and the paranormal film gave both scary and the feeling of unity.
The movie is the ninth and final installment of “The Conjuring” franchise. Michael Chaves directed the movie, which was filmed in England last fall.
The film was great, particularly with its camera work and acting.
Some of the film’s best cinematography is in the middle of the movie, where the camera moves up in a twisting manner while rain is pouring down and lightning is striking everywhere.
The acting was strong as well. Patrick Wilson, playing Ed Warren, and Vera Farmiga, playing Lorraine Warren, have been the franchise’s starring characters since “The Conjuring” began its filming journey.
The actors show the raw emotion during the demonic scenery, the physical toll it took on their bodies to fight the demon and the undeniable chemistry between the two actors.
It begins with Ed and his pregnant wife, Lorraine, working on their first investigation in 1964 with a cursed mirror in a curio shop. A young lady started the scene crying to the Warrens about how once she and her family got the mirror, her father heard voices that drove him to kill himself.
She then explains how she started hearing them too after her father died.
The glass mirror is important because mirrors are known in the paranormal world as portals for demon entities to travel through.
When Lorraine touches the glass mirror, it cracks. The spirit she senses inside the mirror leads her to give birth prematurely, causing it to die at the hospital.
At the hospital, Lorraine sees a demonic presence hovering over the doctors trying to bring her baby, Judy, back to life. Unfortunately, they fail, which leads to Lorraine praying over her baby, begging God to revive Judy. He listens and their baby girl starts to breathe.
This is where the beginning leads to the end.
Growing up, Judy starts to develop the same ability as her mother. Lorraine tells Judy to shut these monsters out and to say the nursery rhyme, “Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Katy Fisher found it, not a penny was there in it. Only ribbon round it.”
The mirror finds its way back into the Warrens’ lives waiting for the return of Judy. It haunts the Smurl family of eight, possessing them of throwing up ounces of blood and glass, getting thrown down the stairs, choking and seeing the entities themselves.
The Warrens eventually find out that an entity is after their family.
People who have watched “The Conjuring” movies have said that this is by far the least scary film of the franchise.
My own father, who is a big movie fanatic, said it was good at the start but some of the scenes he thought were unnecessary. For example, he thought some of the scenes that showed the connections between Judy, her boyfriend and family added nothing to the movie. He thought the movie could have had more jump scares.
Even though my father loves “The Conjuring” movies and thought this was the weakest film in the franchise, I thought it was a great mixture of being scary but also having that soft spot for family.
The relationship with everybody involved leads to the main reason why this becomes the last case the Warrens investigate. This case involves the future of their family and whether they survive this demonic presence.
When the movie first came out, a ton of videos showed priests standing outside the theater praying over some individuals. That initially scared me and left me wanting to back out of watching the movie. But I’m glad I saw it because I genuinely enjoyed it.
The movie portrayed the Warrens as a tight-knit family, and how Judy, Ed and Lorraine all fought against the demon together using their special abilities given to them. This was the part I enjoyed the most.
In a weird way, the particular scene of them fighting the demon together reminded me of me and my family. We are all close and are there for one another and will protect each other no matter the cost.
