This The Conjuring: Last Rites teaser is ready to wrap this sucker up

The new trailer is not shy about playing the creepy doll hits, or prepping audiences for saying goodbye to Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.

This The Conjuring: Last Rites teaser is ready to wrap this sucker up

It’s always been kind of weird that the Conjuring films have put so much of their focus on depictions of actual used-to-be-living people Ed and Lorraine Warren, in so far as the movies concern themselves with things that are not, uh, real—despite the many books the Warrens wrote, and the large amounts of money they received, for claiming that ghosts and demons exist, and are a serious problem in your day-to-day life. (They don’t, and they’re not.) Which makes it kind of especially weird to see the ludicrously successful horror franchise finally putting itself in finale mode, suggesting that the case depicted in this September’s Last Rites—and, consequently, in the teaser trailer for same, out today—represents some big turning point in the couple’s lives that caused them to stop paranormal activity-ing for good. (Ed died when he was 79, and Lorraine when she was 92, so unless the film indulges in some serious old-age make-up at the end, we have to assume they’ll be fine. Also, that last movie had Ed try to murder Lorraine while under the effects of a curse at the end, which seems like a wild thing to apply to two people who actually lived!)

But it’s possible we’re just being churlish. The trailer shows plenty of the stuff that The Conjuring movies do well: Lots of shots of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson stoically looking like they actually believe this shit, some creepy dolls of various descriptions, a bunch of ghost creatures who never seem to wash their hands. (One shot, of a sink over-flowing with blood, got a genuine little shiver out of us.) We have no doubts whatsoever that this movie will do exactly what it’s supposed to: Cost less than $50 million to make, get back more than $200 million at the box office, and provide fodder for like four more spin-offs down the line.

The Conjuring: Last Rites arrives in theaters on September 5.

 
Join the discussion...