The Conjuring: Last Rites - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Conjuring: Last Rites



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The Conjuring franchise has been fascinating to watch over the last 12 years, especially considering how badly the horror genre was doing back in 2013. James Wan’s supernatural horror film took the genre by storm and reinvigorated the supernatural horror genre literally overnight. To this day, I still consider It Follows and The Conjuring to be two of the best supernatural horror films of the 21st century. But like all good things, they get worn out and used up when the powers that be see a successful one-off film and try to continue those profit margins until the wheels fall off. Sure, the 2nd film in the main franchise was pretty decent, and several of the spin-off films in the Annabelle series were pretty fun from a trashy B-movie point of view, but the rest of the films were pretty abysmal. The 3rd Conjuring proper film was so bad that I almost wanted to give up halfway through, so I was more than a bit reticent by the time we got confirmation of a 4th and final film for the franchise. And for good reason. Michael Chaves has overseen the worst that the film universe had to offer, directing the previously mentioned 3rd film, The Curse of La Llorona, and The Nun II, which were all lackluster at best. And...well...we got exactly what I expected. A mediocre Conjuring film that does a decent job of saying goodbye to all the characters, but lacks a lot in plot and weight in ways that are very typical of Chaves’ previous films in the same horror universe.

Last Rites is a bit overlong and overstuffed, blending 2 timelines and two story lines that converge around the center of the film. The first involves Ed and Lorraine’s (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) daughter Judy being stillborn due to the influence of a demonic presence, with the second being the “in the present” story with Judy introducing her fiancé Tony (Ben Hardy) to her overprotective parents. Both stories intersect halfway through the film when the now-retired Warrens are called in to do ONE last job for a family in Pennsylvania. A job that the old demon hunters are reluctant to complete due to Ed’s bad ticker. But when Ed and Lorraine find out that the same haunted mirror that was present during Lorraine’s pregnancy is the same haunted mirror that is afflicting this family in another state. Now it’s a battle of wills as Ed and Lorraine come to grips with the first demon they ever encountered (and botched), as their story comes full circle at the end of their careers.

Last Rites is the very definition of playing things safe. It doesn’t cover any new ground, and neither does it just slop stuff on screens. We have a good old-fashioned demon trying to take over a family once more, and they play REALLY hard at the nostalgia aspect of the story, driving home that this is the last time we’re going to see this universe. On one hand, I really enjoyed the goodbye type of story, but at the same time, the film plays it too safe. There are no major scares or creep factor; rather, we are just being absorbed into the horror world of The Conjuring once more. The best I can say about the film is that it’s not terrible like The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It. Instead, it just goes through the motions and delivers some fun jump scares and a killer audio track. Ben Hardy and Mia Tomlinson do great as the fresh blood of the series, and both Patrick and Vera fall back into their old roles like a well-worn catcher’s mitt. And while it most certainly is not going to be the best of the franchise by a country mile, it earns its rank as an official The Conjuring film and should please long-time fans enough. It’s not perfect, it’s not even good, but the film is a reasonable entry, and that’s actually pretty high praise considering how bad #3 was, and the most recent spinoffs in the universe.




Rating:

Rated R for bloody/violent content and terror.




4K Video: Video:

Last Rites sports an excellent native 4K encode that simply does what we’ve seen in previous films of the series with precision and well-worn repetition. The film alternates between cool blues and greens to the heavy sepia and amber tones depending on lighting and location. Fine details remain superb, and while I don’t have the Blu-ray to compare against, this looks VERY nice in 4K. The black levels gain a very appreciable boost from the Dolby Vision, with great shadow detail, very minor crush, and no signs of banding that I could detect. There’s an outdoor barbecue that actually looks pretty neutral, but overall the film tends to lean towards stylized blues and amber/sepias more often than not. One small note is that while the film is primarily in 2.39:1 scope, there are TWO scenes in the film (which are a little over 6-7 minutes added up) where the film opens up to 1.78:1. But all in all, this is an impressive-looking disc to send off the series.







Audio:

The Atmos tracks for the previous films have ALWAYS been fantastic, and this is no different an experience. The dialog is crisp and clear in the front of the room, and the ambiance through the mains and surrounds is incredible. The creaks and groans echo throughout the film, as well as the roaring and screaming that happens during the final confrontation with the demon. The flick can sound quiet and demure as well, reducing the power and ferocity when Ed and Tony are having a discussion in the locked “artifact” room, or out having a BBQ. But when the demon hunting gets crazy, so does the audio mix. Overheads and surrounds utilize a ton of discrete sound activity as well, making this one of the more aggressive and encompassing varieties to boot.









Extras:

• Last Rites: An Era Ends – featurette
• The Conjuring: Crafting Scares – featurette
• Michael Chaves: Believer – featurette

Final Score: ​

Director Michael Chaves has never been the best of the The Conjuring movies, but he earns his keep here with probably his best take on the series yet. There’s a lot of nostalgia and “saying goodbye” that may boost the film more than it would have been otherwise, but this WAS the highest box office gross in the entire series history, meaning that a lot of fans wanted the chance to say goodbye to a beloved horror franchise. The 4K UHD disc looks and sounds great as expected, but the extras are anemic at best, and while I would recommend you rent this before you buy, fans of the film will find the specs good enough to please them from a technical standpoint. Decent enough watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mia Tomlinson, Steve Coulter, Ben Hardy
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Written by: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC (1.78:1 pieces)
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Bros
Rated: R
Runtime: 135 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 25th, 2025

Recommendation: Middle of the Road Watch

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