‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ movie review: Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson conjure up comforting thrills

Can a horror film be a comfort watch? The Conjuring: Last Rites, the ninth and supposedly final film in the first phase of The Conjuring universeww (Marvel has a lot to answer for), proves that it most certainly can.

With all the real-world terrors, bombings and dismemberments, having random demons glower from mirrors or demented dolls rocking maniacally in chairs, seem as soothing as a cosy quilt.

In 1961, renowned writers and parapsychologists Lorraine (Madison Lawlor) and Ed Warren (Orion Smith) investigate a mirror in an antique shop.

Lorraine, who is heavily pregnant, sees a vision of a malignant entity and her unborn child in the mirror, and collapses, going into labour. The Warrens rush to the hospital in the blinding rain. As the lights flicker and go off in the operating theatre, the doctors deliver a stillborn baby.

Lorraine prays for her baby, and her faith is rewarded when the baby girl cries. The girl, Judy (Mia Tomlinson) shares her mother’s clairvoyance. Lorraine teaches Judy ways to manage her visions. Years pass and in 1986, Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) have retired because of Ed’s weak heart.

Judy is a kind young woman, though still troubled by visions. She is dating a former policeman, Tony (Ben Hardy), who proposes to her on Ed’s birthday.

In Pennsylvania, the Smurl family, Jack (Elliot Cowan) and Janet (Rebecca Calder), and their four daughters, Heather (Kíla Lord Cassidy), Dawn (Beau Gadsdon) Shannon (Molly Cartwright) and Carin (Tilly Walker), move in with Jack’s parents, John (Peter Wight) and Mary (Kate Fahy).

John gives Heather the haunted mirror for her birthday. With no knowledge of its evil antecedents, the family places the mirror in one of the rooms. Bad things begin to happen, starting during Heather’s confirmation.

Heather and Dawn are uneasy about the mirror and try to get rid of it, but the evil cannot be got rid of so easily as is obvious when Dawn vomits shards of glass in great gouts of blood.

The Smurls seek help from the church and go public with their story. The media circus does not help and neither does the church. Father Gordon (Steve Coulter) asks the Warrens to help the family.

The Warrens initially refuse saying they have retired, but head to the Smurl home when Judy has a vision and decides to help the family. Will this haunting prove the most diabolic the Warrens have witnessed as the title crawl suggests?

There is something comforting about faith being enough to banish the legions of hell, and that proves to be The Conjuring: Last Rites’ most attractive feature.

Farmiga and Wilson deliver solid performances and their chemistry centres the film. Eli Born’s cinematography is excellent. The sequence where Judy tries on her wedding dress, in the mirrored fitting room reflecting brides to infinity, with one image doing the unexpected, presents a delicious thrill.  

There is an old-world charm to the movie from the vintage fashions, to the gigantic spectacles and the VCR. Heather identifying the vile entity from the video of her confirmation proves she has a great future as an film editor.

Based on a story from the Warrens’ case files, The Conjuring: Last Rites, is a solid, old-fashioned ghost story, with the requisite amount of gentle transgression and gore.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is currently running in theatres