Blindness has opened a world of horror films to me that I was too chicken to watch the first time around. I’m not a big fan of cheap jump scares, because there’s a difference between being startled and scared. The latter actually lingers, and stays with you. You can be startled by damn near anything anytime, without necessarily being scared of it.If you’re sitting in silence, a loud noise will make you jump, which is something horror directors thrive on time and time again.

So I avoided The Conjuring. It looked like it was full of jump scares back in the day. Then, after my blindness, I started into horror films with audio description, and the conjuring is one of those few films I’m really glad I saw. James wan directed the shit out of that film. He does really mount tension, and hold back a lot of the really obvious material until after the film is half over. for the first half, it becomes about building mood, maintaining a sense of dread, and expanding on these characters and their unseen silent suffering at the hands of… something. Wan stepped away after the second film (which is good, but not great)) becoming just a producer, and passing the torch to Michael Chavez, who just is not a good director. He’s an average director lacking in nuance, which beleaguers his contributions like The Nun 2 and the previous Conjuring film The Devil Made Me Do It. His newest, and sadly final Conjuring, is last Rites, which fails to grasp even a pithy amount of tension of the original.

In this sequel, we say goodbye to Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and vera Farmiga respectively), and open the door to their daughter and her boyfriend, who certainly are no Wilson or Farmiga. But, this film introduces the idea of this generational curse that seems to have been passed down, a haunted mirror, hints at objects and demons of things past, and a family in danger. It follows the same formula, but really lacks any of the style and substance of the original, and mines zero new frights as a result. Even my old chicken self wouldn’t have been scared by this. the jump scares felt heavily telegraphed and ineffective, almost like Chavez had very little up his sleeve to begin with.

An example of how mindnumbingly tedious this film is highlights one scene where the daughter is alone, and thinks she hears her mom in the creepy old attic. Being of the Warren family, she should have been born with better sense, but she still ascends into the attic, where we know her mother isn’t, like one of the worst written characters in film. But what is the point of having this film, this generational passing of the torch, if not to show how the daughter has really learned from watching her parents? How can she be so easily convinced to do the stereotypical horror movie tropes? Shouldn’t she be better? Shouldn’t this film?

I can’t fault the audio description, which certainly tries to bring out as many scares as it can, but it is hard to milk a cow that dried up two films ago. wan got out when the timing was right, and Chavez has just been helping Warner Bros. Collect paychecks with reductive gothic vibes that we have seen done better not only in the franchise,but across other like minded haunted house, or exorcism films. If I had been in the pitch room, this film would be dramatically different, with a daughter who defies demon logic, seemingly aware of any evil that believes it is two steps ahead. She should be ten ahead of that. A better actress, ready to play a smart female lead that benefitted from seeing her parents do this work. her boyfriend can still be a dolt, but she should be next generation. She should be the X-23 of the film.

I’ve largely avoided mentioning Mia Tomlinson, because this isn’t a drag on her, it is a commentary on the simple conception of how her character should be, and the choices she should make. the problem is with the script and the direction. Tomlinson might have been just as capable playing a smarter version of her character, as she does occasionally have glimpses that hint at her ability to offer more as an actress, in a film designed to not let her.

the COnjuring: Last Rites isn’t so deeply flawed it is beyond unwatchable, but it is disappointing considering where the franchise began, and the claim that this was the final fright. It deserves to have rebounded from its mediocre predecessor, but instead seems to suggest Chavez has no gas in the tank, if he ever did.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is just a sad farewell to a profitable franchise, so much so that I hope a new, better director will later resurrect it for one more Conjuring just so this series can end properly.

Rotten: 4.8/10