The Warrens' Last Case: The Conjuring: Last Rites

The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) is a supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves and written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. It is the ninth film in the Conjuring Universe and the fourth main Conjuring film. It is based on the Warrens’ investigation of the Smurl haunting in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as Ed and Lorraine Warren, now semi-retired. A cursed mirror from their past comes back for their grown daughter, Judy (Mia Tomlinson). Ben Hardy plays Judy’s boyfriend, Tony Spera. Warner Bros. released the film on September 5, 2025, billed as Wilson and Farmiga’s final outing as the Warrens. Reviews were mixed. It opened to $84 million in the US and grossed about $499 million worldwide, the most of any film in the series.

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At a glance

Release date	September 5, 2025 (US)
Director	Michael Chaves
Writers	Screenplay by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan
Based on	Characters created by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes
Starring	Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy
Music	Benjamin Wallfisch
Runtime	135 minutes
Rating	R (US): bloody/violent content and terror
Budget	$55 million
Box office	$499.2–499.3 million worldwide (sources differ slightly)
Franchise	The Conjuring Universe: follows The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

Plot summary

In 1964, a pregnant Lorraine Warren collapses while investigating an antique mirror. She sees a vision of an entity and her unborn child, and goes into labor. The baby is stillborn, but Lorraine’s prayers bring her back, and she names her Judy. Twenty-two years later, in 1986, Jack and Janet Smurl move into a house in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, with Jack’s parents and their four daughters. Jack’s father gives his granddaughter Heather the same mirror as a confirmation gift. Soon a ceiling light crashes down and nearly hits her. The family is then terrorized by the spirits of an old woman, a younger woman and a man with an axe.

Ed’s heart condition has forced the Warrens into retirement, and their lectures draw small crowds. Judy, increasingly troubled by psychic visions, has learned to shut herself off from the supernatural. She accepts a proposal from her boyfriend, Tony. The Smurls go public with their story, and a priest, Father Gordon, takes up their case. When the Warrens won’t help, he turns to the Diocese of Scranton, where the demon drives him to kill himself. A vision at his funeral sends Judy to Pennsylvania on her own. Her parents and Tony follow, and the reluctant Warrens agree to help.

Spoiler section: the mirror

Lorraine learns that the demon controls the three spirits: a man who killed his wife and her mother. Ed and Lorraine recognize the mirror from 1964 and realize the demon has been hunting Judy all along. It possesses Judy, triggers a cardiac episode in Ed and attacks Lorraine in the basement, where Tony rescues her. Ed cuts Judy down when, possessed, she tries to hang herself, and Lorraine revives her with prayer once again. Ed’s exorcism fails. Lorraine tells Judy to embrace her abilities, and together the Warrens recite a prayer that shatters the mirror. The Smurls stay in the house three more years without trouble, and the pieces of the mirror go into the Warrens’ artifact room. The film ends at Judy’s wedding to Tony.

Production and behind the scenes

Before The Devil Made Me Do It came out in 2021, Chaves told Empire he would be “excited to see where it could go from here.” Farmiga said, “we have to up the fear in each one.” In October 2022, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a fourth film was in development, with Johnson-McGoldrick writing and James Wan and Peter Safran producing. Before The Nun II in 2023, Chaves said the project was meant as a “finale” to the franchise’s stories. He was confirmed as director by February 2024. That September, Goldberg and Naing were rewriting Johnson-McGoldrick’s draft of a story he had developed with Wan.

Filming took place in London, starting by mid-September 2024 and wrapping on November 22. Sterling Jerins, who had played Judy as a child in earlier films, was replaced by Mia Tomlinson because she looked too young to play the adult Judy in 1986. Benjamin Wallfisch composed the score.

Release and reception

The film opened in some markets, including the Philippines, Mexico and Indonesia, on September 3, 2025, and in the US on September 5. Projections of about $50 million for its opening weekend proved far too low. It made $34.6 million on its first day, a franchise record, and opened to $84 million. That was the best start in the series and the third-biggest opening ever for a horror film. It finished with $177.8 million in the US and Canada and $321.4 million elsewhere. In the Philippines it set several horror records and took 91% of the box office on its opening weekend.

Reviews were mixed. Rotten Tomatoes lists 57% of 190 reviews as positive. Its consensus says the film “underwhelms as a climactic chapter” but “solidly upholds the franchise’s spooky standards.” Metacritic scores it 54, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a B. Gregory Nussen of Deadline called it “appropriately terrifying” and “far more successful on a scare-by-scare basis than the second or third films.”

Legacy and influence

Last Rites became the highest-grossing film in the Conjuring Universe. After its success, Warner Bros. developed a prequel. In January 2026 the studio announced the title The Conjuring: First Communion, set for release on September 10, 2027. Reports said Wan might not be involved because of a pay dispute. Annabelle makes a brief appearance, as she did in the previous film. The series began with Wan’s The Conjuring (2013).

Trivia

In the 1964 prologue, Madison Lawlor plays young Lorraine and Orion Smith plays young Ed.
The Smurls’ dog is named Simon.
Its $8.5 million in Thursday previews was also a franchise record.
It was Warner Bros.’ seventh film in a row to open above $40 million, a first for any studio.
In India, it passed Final Destination Bloodlines to become the highest-grossing American horror film there.