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Cultural Apologetics Column
This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, Volume 48, number 04 (2025).
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[Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for
The Conjuring: Last Rites.]
[Please also see Editors’ Note below.*]
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Directed by Michael Chaves
Screenplay by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan
Based on characters by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes
Produced by James Wan and Peter Safran
Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson, and Ben Hardy
Feature Film (Rated R)
(New Line Cinema, 2025)
Few horror franchises in recent memory have left as deep an imprint on popular culture as The Conjuring film series. Launched in 2013 under the direction of James Wan, the original film — which even a decade later consistently appears on lists of “scariest horror movies ever made”1 — introduced audiences to Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga), real-life Catholic “demonologists” whose case files became the foundation for what has grown into a sprawling cinematic universe. From the sequels The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), and most recently The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) to spin-off franchises such as Anabelle (2014–2019) and The Nun (2018–2023), the series has built an interconnected mythos not unlike the superhero universes of Marvel or DC.
The marketing of these films leans heavily on the phrase “based on the true story,” which lends them a certain air of authenticity among audiences.2 Each of the mainline installments claims inspiration from one of the Warrens’s reported encounters with the supernatural: the Perron family haunting of Rhode Island, the Enfield poltergeist in England, the trail of Arne Johnson in Connecticut, and now the Smurl family haunting in Pennsylvania, as well as the various artifacts said to reside in the Warrens’s infamous “occult museum.”3 Yet the cinematic versions of these characters and stories are, unsurprisingly, heavily dramatized. Elements of each case have been amplified or rearranged or invented outright to craft a narrative arc suited for the screen. The films present the Warrens as heroic, almost saintly figures who enter darkened homes and confront malevolent spirits armed with little more than courage and prayers. By contrast, the historical record is considerably murkier, with many of the Warrens’s claims having been disputed and testimonies that often do not align with what appears on screen. It does not help that Ed Warren has been accused of engaging in an extramarital affair with an underaged girl beginning in the 1960s, with Lorraine’s knowledge and consent.4
This gap between the “true story” and the films’ portrayals of events is not incidental; rather, it is essential to the genre. Horror cinema thrives on atmosphere, on escalation — the very elements that real-world hauntings often lack. A door creaking in the night or a shadow glimpsed in passing may unsettle a household, but it rarely provides the clean narrative arc demanded by visual storytelling. As a result, the movies take liberties that transform ambiguous events into pitched battles with identifiable demons, complete with names and histories. As is always the case, the moment Hollywood gets involved, the true story, whatever it may have been, becomes a canvas on which filmmakers paint a morality tale of good besieged by evil.
The purpose of this article, therefore, is not to engage in debates about what “really” happened or speculate about the validity of Ed and Lorraine Warrens’s claims. In the context of cultural apologetics, the “true story” is far less relevant than the cultural footprint left in the wake of this series of films. I often think it escapes the notice of the casual filmgoer just how many people turn out to see these movies. To put it into perspective, this franchise of nine films has a combined budget of about $265 million (that’s a little under half the production budget of Avengers: Endgame [2019]) — yet the series has made over $2 billion at the box office since 2013. In terms of a return on investment, The Conjuring series is easily the most successful horror film franchise ever created, and the latest film, Last Rites, annihilated box office projections by a 65 percent margin to deliver a genuinely staggering (by horror-movie standards) $187 million opening weekend against a production budget of $55 million.5 To say that these movies are successful among general audiences is an understatement.
For the Christian cultural apologist, then, there are some important questions to ask about this series. The films trade in overtly religious imagery — crucifixes, exorcisms, Latin prayers, holy water, and the visible power of Christ invoked against the demonic (all hallmarks of the exorcism film, to be sure). To the average filmgoer, this may seem like a straightforward affirmation of Christian belief in spiritual warfare. Yet what the films portray is not a catechism on angels and demons but a stylized mythology. Catholic ritual becomes cinematic shorthand for “light versus darkness.” Demons are given an outsized agency, while the sovereignty of God is often reduced to a narrative device.
While The Conjuring universe draws inspiration from Christian categories, it presents them in a way that is both perhaps too familiar and distorted. The “real world” of spiritual conflict, as Christians confess it, is neither so tidy nor so theatrically staged. Scripture depicts the devil as a liar and an accuser (Genesis 3:1ff; Revelation 12:10), often working subtly through deception rather than overt spectacle. The exorcisms Jesus performs in the New Testament texts — such as that of the Gadarene demoniac — emphasize Christ’s authority over the chaos of the demons. The cinematic imagination reverses this order, offering a universe of loud terrors and visual manifestations crafted to thrill and frighten rather than instruct. Recognizing this distinction allows Christians to engage these wildly popular stories thoughtfully, appreciating their artistry and cultural influence while also discerning the difference between horror entertainment and the reality of the situation as Scripture presents it.
The Final Case. With The Conjuring: Last Rites, the series returns to the haunted house format that launched the franchise, though its characters are a little older now and their priorities are different. Drawing inspiration from the infamous Smurl family haunting, the film centers once again on Ed and Lorraine, who are retired, worn down, and facing the kind of ordinary frailties that no exorcism can banish.6 Ed can no longer indulge the foods he once loved, while Lorraine is intent on reclaiming lost time with their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson). When one of their longtime friends, Father Gordon (Steve Coulter), commits suicide, the Warrens come out of retirement and are drawn into a highly publicized case of possible demonic activity involving the Smurl family. Like the original film, two storylines following the respective families parallel each other until they finally converge. This means that an unexpected amount of screentime is spent with the Warrens’s domestic concerns, suggesting that these are not incidental details; they frame the Warrens as characters whose power has always been rooted less in Catholic ritual than good ol’ fashioned endurance.
This is, in point of fact, what sets the four mainline Conjuring films apart from their spin-offs. Where Annabelle and The Nun lean on gothic lore and spectacle, the numbered entries are about the marriage of Wilson’s Ed and Farmiga’s Lorraine. The horror is always filtered through the lens of their relationship. In hindsight, the Perron family haunting of the first film played out as much in their kitchen-table conversations as in the cellar. The Conjuring 2 made Lorraine’s premonitions of Ed’s death the real source of tension. Even The Devil Made Me Do It, which departed from the haunted house template, returned in the end to the question of whether their shared faith and loyalty to one another could withstand the strain of supernatural evil. Last Rites completes the pattern by confronting the Warrens less with the question of whether they can defeat demons than whether they can hold fast to each other (and make room for a new member of the family) as age and inevitability close in.
The haunted house remains the franchise’s most effective stage, but the real subject of The Conjuring films — including Last Rites — is goodness. Ordinary, human goodness tested under extraordinary pressure. Families under siege and threatening to fall apart, spouses refusing to turn on one another, parents protecting their children: these are the weapons the film places against the darkest manifestations of evil. The counterweight to the spectacle of possession and grotesque manifestation is stubborn fidelity and small gestures of care towards people the Warrens do not even know.
And this is where the films strike closest to truth, even as they distort the larger theological picture. Evil in The Conjuring universe is overwhelming, theatrical, relentless. Yet the films insist that goodness, while quieter, proves stronger. It is not hidden in relics or rites but found in sacrifice and something as disarmingly simple as love, which evil can and does distort, but ultimately fails to corrupt. That, more than the Warrens’s case files, is probably why these movies resonate. They dramatize a conflict audiences recognize: the fragility of home and family in a world bent on undoing them.
Closing the Circle. Last Rites is framed as the final chapter of the series, ushering Ed and Lorraine off the stage even as their daughter Judy steps into her own adult life, marrying her boyfriend, Tony. The film’s conclusion is strikingly tender for a franchise that has built itself on immense darkness and dread.7 After decades of battling demons, the cinematic Warrens are shown growing old together, keeping the flame alive in small ways, and still consulting on cases — if only over the phone. It is a vision of endurance, of a couple who refused to compromise their relationship, and that marriage functions as the narrative spine of the series.
That ending is unabashedly sentimental, which seems odd to say about films that are among the bleakest and most unsettling produced in mainstream cinema. But the contrast is intentional. The Conjuring universe has always paired spectacle with sentiment, countering its violent and chaotic depictions of evil with a closing insistence that Ed and Lorraine’s love for one another has always been stronger. In this way, the series delivers the kind of resolution horror rarely allows: not merely survival, but survival together.
For Christian reflection, however, this conclusion requires a sharper eye. The films present the endurance of human love as the bulwark against evil, and on one level this resonates. Scripture itself teaches that goodness is often made manifest in fidelity and sacrifice. Evil thrives on isolation as fracture, whereas love resists both. But the series leaves the impression that this is enough — that darkness can be beaten back by the sheer persistence of human affection. And that is where its vision, however noble, falls short.
The New Testament does not allow for such a tidy resolution. Evil is not simply noise in the night or shadows in the hallway, but a power that demands a Redeemer. Paul describes sin and death as “powers” that enslave humanity (see Romans 6:12–14; 1 Corinthians 15:56), rulers that cannot be overthrown by resolve alone. In his letters, he speaks of the “god of this age” fogging up the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4) and of spiritual forces that stand opposed to Christ’s reign (Ephesians 6:12). Human love, for all its beauty and strength, cannot withstand these realities on its own. Marriages still collapse, families still fracture, and even the most faithful are undone by death. The final word belongs not to sentiment but to Christ’s triumph over the devil, sin, and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:54–57; Hebrews 2:14, 9:26), the victory that places all lesser fidelities in their proper frame. To say this is not to diminish the value of marital endurance, but to place it where it belongs: as a signpost pointing beyond itself (Ephesians 5:22–33).
Last Rites ends with the Warrens still answering the phone, still available to consult. It is an image of faithfulness persevering to the end. But for Christians, the hope is and must be more than that. The Christian story does not end with two people growing old together, however noble that may be. It ends with the kingdom of God breaking in — a future where “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4), where evil is not merely resisted, but utterly and finally destroyed. It is often the case that horror films — largely by design — can only gesture toward such a resolution. Scripture, on the other hand, declares it.
Cole Burgett is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute. He teaches classes in systematic theology and Bible exposition and writes extensively about theology and popular culture.
Editors’ Note:
As Cole Burgett observes, The Conjuring films resonate because they depict both the reality of evil and the endurance of human goodness. Yet they also reduce Christian truth to stylized myth, giving demons spectacle and God little more than a narrative role. In a culture where truth and falsehood are increasingly blurred, the mature Christian, whose senses are trained “to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14 NASB1995), must therefore engage such stories responsibly and bring truth to bear on the surrounding culture with grace: the truth of Christ’s decisive victory over the devil, sin, and death. In addition to Burgett’s excellent film review, we recommend the following resources for cultivating a biblical understanding of spiritual warfare and the demonic:
The Covering: God’s Plan to Protect You from Evil (W Publishing Group, 2002) by Hank Hanegraaff
“The Armor” by Hank Hanegraaff
“Spiritual Warfare — God’s Way” by Elliot Miller
See also
“Sinning at the Movies” by Brian Godawa
“An Apologetic of Horror” by Brian Godawa
“The Power of the Devil Compels Us: Possession and Exorcism Movies in a Modern Age” by Philip Tallon
NOTES
- See this Rotten Tomatoes poll from 2024, “The 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever,” Rotten Tomatoes, October 15, 2024, https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/the-10-scariest-horror-movies-ever/.
- Apart from the writings of Ed and Lorraine themselves, the earlier works of Gerald Brittle from the 1980s are largely responsible for popularizing chronicles of the Warrens’s investigations into the supernatural. See Gerald Brittle, The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Berkley Books, 1980).
- It may interest some readers to know that comedian Matt Rife and streamer Elton Castee have purchased the Warrens’s former home and the corresponding museum as of August 4, 2025, with plans to reopen the property for overnight stays and tours after it was shut down in 2019. See Kelsi Karruli, “Comedian Matt Rife Reveals He Is Now Guardian of the ‘Haunted’ Annabelle Doll After Purchasing Paranormal Investigators’ Connecticut Home,” Realtor, August 4, 2025, https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/matt-rife-ed-lorraine-warren-connecticut-home-annabelle-doll-haunted/.
- See Kim Masters and Ashley Cullins, “War over ‘The Conjuring’: The Disturbing Claims Behind a Billion-Dollar Franchise,” The Hollywood Reporter, December 13, 2017, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/war-conjuring-disturbing-claims-behind-a-billion-dollar-franchise-1064364/.
- Brooks Barnes, “‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Sets a Surprise Box Office Record,” The New York Times, September, 7, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/business/media/conjuring-last-rites-box-office.html.
- Randall Colburn, “Is The Conjuring: Last Rites Based on a True Story? Inside the Twisted Smurl Haunting (and What Skeptics Had to Say),” Entertainment Weekly, September 6, 2025, https://ew.com/conjuring-last-rites-true-story-smurl-haunting-case-11803730.
- See Nick Romano, “The Conjuring Delivers Last Rites: An Exclusive First Look at Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s Final Haunting,” Entertainment Weekly, May 6, 2025, https://ew.com/the-conjuring-last-rites-first-look-vera-farmiga-patrick-wilson-cover-story-11727734.
