The fictionalized version of the legendary Ed and Lorraine Warren has finally come to an end (or has it?) with the fourth and final movie in The Conjuring film series releasing on September 5th, 2025. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their famed roles as renowned demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, for what they’ve said is the last time. I sat down with my friends to catch up on everything that I missed Conjuring-wise before the newest movie. With a fresh opinion in mind, and a boatload of spoilers, here are my thoughts on the final movie:
Judy Warren Finally Got Her Moment. was it worth it?
Judy Warren survived multiple movies living in her parents’ haunted house, on the same property as the infamous museum of cursed objects. We’ve watched Lorraine fret over her safety each investigation they do. It only seems fair that a grown-up Judy must fight her own battle. So why was it unfulfilling?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the acting of Mia Tomlinson, and the relationship between her and Ben Hardy’s Tony Spera could be cute at times, but some of the haunting, possession, and final acceptance of her abilities just didn’t seem to fully do it for me. You mean to tell me this young woman who witnessed her mother’s clairvoyance didn’t want to tell her about the frequent visions and demons she’s spotting? Call me easily irritated, but it led to a whole lot of issues the second she showed up at the Smurl house with the hope of helping them.
The mystery of the injured leg
Ben Hardy’s Tony Spera got his leg torn to shreds in the finale by the malevolent demons inhabiting the cursed mirror. We all watched that thing slowly tear open his flesh like a wooden saw and almost decapitate the poor guy. Second thoughts on marrying into the Warren family? I guess he didn’t have any. Maybe that’s because he limped out of the house like he had only sprained an ankle. This is a minor complaint from me, but I raised an eyebrow and side-eyed my friends the second I noticed this.
Annabelle keeps coming back
If there’s one piece of haunted memorabilia that I could never care about, it was always Annabelle. The haunted doll possessed by a demon keeps reappearing in small scenes throughout The Conjuring movies. Sure, this makes sense because the Annabelle movies are in the same cinematic universe, but it gets old fast, and there are many more interesting spirits and demons to inquire about.
In Last Rites, Judy sees Annabelle in the Smurl house contort and morph into a giant moving doll able to chase her out of a bedroom and down the hall. I would absolutely freak out if this happened to me, but watching it in IMAX surrounded by other people had me giggling because of how outrageous it looked.
Getting spooked by an axe-murderer
I can’t lie, I was caught off-guard by the towering, long-haired figure found either lurking in the basement or chasing down a teen girl with an axe. The jump scares in this movie got me more than they did in the previous movies, although the second installment had its moments. This axe-wielding maniac looked terrifying, and I would never want to run into this man while doing laundry.
As with typical jump scares, the scene where Judy tries on a wedding dress and gets spooked by a withered, old woman under her dress was horrifying to watch, even though we all saw it coming. The second that door opened into a room of mirrors and Judy didn’t see who came in, I just knew I was in for a fright. For some people, maybe none of this spooked you. As someone who typically watches horror movies on my laptop in my room, this was a more intense experience.
The Ed and lorraine of it all
One of the best parts of the Conjuring series is the love story between the main characters, Ed and Lorraine. I’ll never be able to listen to Elvis without thinking of them. Though I wish this movie had the balance of the first two, I still loved seeing these characters work together out of the love they have for one another. In my opinion, these horror movies can also be described as a romance. Despite all this, I do wish we had gotten to see more of the Smurl family’s torment because this was labeled as the scariest case that they had ever dealt with. Alas, this movie was always going to be about the Warren family, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
The end of father gordon
This was genuinely the most terrifying part of the movie for me. The jumpscares made me flinch, but the death of a character that was in it from the very beginning makes you feel total hopelessness. A symbol of faith and devotion to God losing to a force of evil is sometimes unthinkable, which makes this scene so grim to watch on screen. A crucifix being lit on fire, his hand catching on fire, and the apparent possession leading to his death had me wondering what could come next. This was one of the strongest scenes for me.
So yes, this movie could have come out better. It could have balanced out the terror the Smurl’s felt with the power of love and friendship that seemed to defeat all evil. Let’s be honest, no one really cared about Tony’s proposal to Judy. We came here for the spirits and exorcisms. None of that made the movie bad to me, though.
So go out and enjoy it, or play that while your bake some Halloween cookies!