The Conjuring: Last Rites is a decent enough send-off to this branch of the horror franchise that starred Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The film is directed by Michael Chaves, and the screenplay is written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick with James Wan sharing story credit.

Wilson and Farmiga reprise their roles as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the reputed paranormal investigators who allegedly conducted several exorcisms over the years. Mia Tomlinson plays their only daughter, Judy Warren. Ben Hardy, Elliot Cowan, Rebecca Calder, and Steve Coulter are also included in the cast.

The Warrens have largely stepped away from exorcisms and major investigations in favor of writing and lecturing due to Ed’s heart issues. Their daughter gets drawn into the supernatural plight of the Smurl family, who have been dealing with various ghostly manifestations for several months that seen to be centered around a strange-looking mirror that was gifted to one of the daughters. Judy is also recently engaged, and the young man is pulled into this last dance with the demonic.

This film is actually pretty good. It is somewhat predictable, but I have come to enjoy the chemistry between the two lead actors here. I am not sure that I really believe in the legend of the Warrens, but I like the portrayal put forth by Wilson and Farmiga. The film also strangely seems to promote the benefits of a loving, committed marriage and even manages to not bash the Christian faith.

The jump scares are pretty standard but well done. The background of the spirits menacing the Smurls is pretty standard. Not much is done here to break new cinematic ground, but I didn’t necessarily mind that.

The performances were solid enough, and I felt sympathy for the people involved. It’s pretty obvious that quite a bit of artistic license was used, but the film worked well enough to shrug that off.

This film is not really any sort of masterpiece of the horror genre, but it gets the job done as far as being a reasonable diversion from the daily stressors of life. That’s just fine with me. Go see it with my blessing, for all that is worth.