The Conjuring: Last Rites

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES takes the film series out in style, scaring up plenty of tension, some killer jump scares and plenty of audio terrors thanks to a classic horror score by Benjamin Wallfisch.

Knowing that we're here for an appropriate sendoff for The Warrens, the film makers have created a solid emotional base for the film, which pays off several times.

The film opens with Ed and Lorraine Warren, on one of their first paranormal cases, facing off against a powerful demon. It's a great opening scene that lands Lorraine in the emergency maternity ward, delivering her daughter as a very creepy entity advances.

Wallfisch has created terrific scores for some of my favorite films of the past year, including "Twisters" and "Alien: Romulus". He delivers some terrifying goods here, including a main title theme over scrolling credits that gave me more creeps than any title music since Friedkin's mad scherzos over "The Exorcist" blood red titles.

The man knows how to set a mood, and he keeps you on edge.

The film moves forward to 1986. Ed (the ever likable Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga, terrific in the role as always) have stopped confronting evil, mostly due to Ed's second heart attack in the third, and for me worst, Conjuring film, "The Devil Made Me Do It".

They're now on a sparsely attended lecture tour that seems to be mostly populated by college students wanting to meet Bill Murray and the Ghostbusters. Their now grown daughter, Judy (Mia Tomlinson) encourages them along the way, but Ed is ready to get back to battling entities.

Meanwhile, we meet a multi-generational, blue collar family, The Smurls. In a real life haunted house story that dominated headlines in '86, the real Smurl family was all over network news, sharing stories about the horrors they faced in their Pennsylvania home.

The film has a great time doing a slow reveal on the terrors within, released when Grandma and Grandpa Smurl choose perhaps the weirdest confirmation gift of all time for one of the teenage girls living in the tiny house. It's a giant standing mirror that looks like something Tim Burton would design for Vincent Price's birthday.

The three cherub heads on the top of the mirror reminded me of the bedframe in "The Haunting". Damn spooky.

I've been wanting to see a film about a haunted house that gave me the same big=screen thrills that I remember when I saw the original "Poltergeist"opening weekend. The film that got the closest for me since, was the best film in this series, "The Conjuring 2", but this entry gets pretty damn close in several sequences.

That mirror turns out to be pretty hard to get rid of easily.

The film pops back and forth between the horrors of the Smurl home and the everyday life of the Warrens. Judy's boyfriend, a former cop named Tony (Ben Hardy from "Bohemian Rhapsody") is ready to pop the question. But Judy, who shares Lorraine's psychic gift is staring to have stronger and stronger visions. Many of them terrifying.

Where are they coming from?

The Conjuring films have always thrilled with great set pieces, sequences that standout with suspense, ever increasing tension and some of the best jump cut scares in the business.

There are several doozies in the Smurl house and seeing them in Dolby Cinema, the sound, bass and screams punched me all in the chest at the same moment as some new horror suddenly filled the screen. Holy crap two of them are all time classics.

Note to the Dad in the Smurl family, Jack (Elliot Cowan): if your bedroom door slowly creaks open in the middle of the night and it feels like someone as entered the room.....YIKES. GREAT jump scare, followed by some kick ass levitations and Wallfisch's score swirling deep inside your head.

We all know, from the trailers and common sense, that the Warrens are going to end up at the Smurl home in what was their final supernatural case. What happened in that house ended their careers?

It's a hell of a finale, nearly thirty minutes of non-stop "Exorcist"/"The Omen"/"Poltergeist" feels that are definitively, after four films, territory that The Conjuring Universe can call its own.

Farmiga and Wilson are terrific, throwing themselves into their roles for one last hurrah with intensity. Wilson's style is so likable and so damn funny that he earns some big laughs that release the tension.

Rebecca Calder (Wrath of Man) is excellent as Mrs. Smurl, the first to witness the evil in her home. Her trip to the basement to do laundry early in the film is every reason I hate basements. Kudos to the lighting and production design team for creating corners that seem to hold every childhood nightmare just beyond your field of vision. Her scenes in the kitchen are the greatest promotion every for cordless phones.

Steve Coulter also makes a welcome return as Father Gordon, whose loyalty to The Warrens in battling demons may have finally caught up with him.

The lure of the Conjuring series is that Ed and Lorraine were actual paranormal fighters, well documented and respected in their circle. Warner Bros delights in plastering "Based on a True Story" on these tales and who can blame them. It ups the fun and laughter amongst the screams if just a little bit of us thinks deep down that some of this crazy shit actually happened!

As Conjuring films go, LAST RITES is a lot of fun, clocking in right behind the original for me in chills & thrills. The difference this time out, is that the longer running time allows the story to dive deeper into the Warrens and root their battles in emotion. It makes their battles with the devil more palpable when the crazy final act kicks in.

With over $65 million at the box office it's opening weekend, my bet is that this enjoyable tale has already set up the road ahead for Ed and Lorraine's successors.

Count me in.

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES is far better than the last chapter, scaring up a very solid B and fond, appreciative farewell to the original cast.