THE CONJURING: LAST RITES Trailer Brings the Saga to an End

As with the rest of the Conjuring movies (and the third Annabelle movie), this movie depicts a purported “true” haunting/possession/demon-related case of self-proclaimed demonologist couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren. As played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the Warrens in the movies are on one hand a loving, god-fearing couple and on the other, basically superheroes. Lorraine the clairvoyant and Ed the bible-wielding sorcerer for goodness. It makes them great movie characters.

The reality of the situation is that Ed and Lorraine Warren were opportunistic hucksters capitalizing on the Satanic Panic era and a spate of hauntings. This movie takes place in 1986, surrounding the “Smurl Haunting” case, one of the last big reports of demonic activity of the period, which occurred in Pennsylvania. As with everything from the Enfield haunting to the Amityville Horror—both of which debunked thoroughly as hoaxes—the Warrens stuck their noses in and ended up co-authoring a book on the case with the Smurl family.

I’m definitely not here to tell you not to watch or enjoy these movies. They exist as exaggerated works of fiction and work very well on the level of horror. But as the movies have progressed, they’ve ceased to be fun ghost movies and have delved too deeply for my tastes into exploiting real horrible events. The biggest offender is The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, based on the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson. Johnson had murdered his landlord with a knife and as a defense claimed a demon had possessed him. Earlier, Johnson had “assisted” his girlfriend and the Warrens in attempting to exorcize a demon from the girlfriend’s little brother.

I kinda felt like the inclusion of this event in the “Aren’t the Warrens Wonderful” cinematic universe was unconscionable. So, definitely go see Last Rites if you’re inclined to do so, but keep in mind the “based on” part of “based on actual events” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

The Conjuring: Last Rites will hit cinemas September 5.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.