There’s some good, unpleasant ideas, like the mirror’s bloody, glassy clapback at its would-be destroyer. There's also an inspired bit when Judy finds herself trapped in a bridal shop fitting room, where each reflection could be a demon. Brilliant. But as a final hurrah, you’d expect it to go for broke. Here, even the bits that should be properly sinister feel held back (hangings are never meant to make you go, ‘huh, that happened’).
The haunted house, meanwhile, often feels more like a domestic inconvenience, a boiler replacement, than something that so often ends up with a dead priest before it’s all sorted out. Also, grinning, wide-eyed, shrieking demon types always look like something from a student Halloween night. They’re not scary.
That said, as an entry in The Conjuring canon, Last Rites ranks somewhere in the middle. It's a decent romp that, though occasionally slow in getting to the action, is fun enough. Fans will get a kick out of it, and dig the callbacks, especially when one particular old toy comes to get in on the party. But as a funeral for such a rip-roaring success and significant player in the world of modern horror, you just wish they could have conjured up something a bit more apocalyptic and final.
Verdict: 3/5
The Conjuring: Last Rites is released on September 5 via Warner Bros.