The Conjuring: Last Rites was released in the United States on September 5, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $350 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film in the franchise.
Plot
In 1964, an expecting Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate a haunting involving an antique mirror at a curio shop. Lorraine collapses upon seeing a vision of an entity and her unborn child, and goes into labor. Ed speeds Lorraine to the hospital, but the baby is stillborn. However, Lorraine's prayers revive the baby, whom she names Judy.
Twenty-two years later, the Smurl family moves to West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Jack and Janet Smurl share the home with Jack's parents, Mary and John, along with their four daughters: Dawn, Heather, and twins Carin and Shannon. For Heather's confirmation ceremony, John gifts her the antique mirror. During dinner, a kitchen ceiling light suddenly crashes down, narrowly missing Heather.
Due to Ed's worsening heart condition, the Warrens retire from their investigations but continue giving lectures, which are now sparsely attended. While at dinner, Judy, who has become increasingly sensitive to psychic visions, has an episode and begins to panic. Using a rhyme created while Judy was a little girl, Lorraine helps her calm down and reminds her to always shut herself off from the supernatural. Dawn and Heather attempt to dispose of the mirror, but the family continues to be terrorized by three entities: an elderly woman, a younger woman, and a man wielding an axe. Exhausted, the family shares their story with the press in the hope of finding help, which attracts the interest of Father Gordon.
Judy's boyfriend, Tony, proposes to Judy during Ed's birthday party, which she accepts. Unable to obtain the Warrens' help, Father Gordon goes to the Diocese of Scranton to assist the Smurls. The demon attacks Gordon at the diocese and induces him to commit suicide. At Father Gordon's funeral, Judy learns from a vision that he died while investigating the Smurls' haunting. She secretly leaves for Pennsylvania to investigate, and Lorraine has a vision that warns her about Judy.
Ed, Lorraine, and Tony are led to the Smurls, and Judy convinces her reluctant parents to help. Lorraine discovers that the three spirits are of a husband who had killed his wife and her mother, but they are being used as a facade by a demon. Judy's visions lead her to the attic, where she is attacked, causing her to fall down the stairs. Ed and Lorraine discover the mirror and realize it is the demon from their first investigation. Certain that the demon is hunting Judy, they decide to transport the mirror back to their home, where it can be contained. Judy falls ill as the Warrens are unable to remove the mirror from the house.
The demon possesses Judy and causes Ed to have a cardiac episode while Lorraine is attacked in the basement. Tony rescues Lorraine, and Ed recovers. The possessed Judy, now in the attic, attempts to hang herself but is cut down by Ed. Lorraine again uses prayer to revive Judy, and the demon attacks them. Ed is unable to excise the mirror, and Lorraine resolves to tell Judy to embrace her psychic abilities. With Judy's help, the Warrens destroy the mirror. The Smurls live in the house for three more years, and the remains of the mirror are kept within the Warrens' occult museum.
Sometime later, Judy walks down the aisle with Ed during her wedding to Tony. On the eve of the wedding, Ed and Lorraine embrace, and Lorraine shares a vision that she has about their future, excited to live the peaceful life they have always wanted.
Additionally, the real Tony Spera and Judy Warren make cameo appearances at Ed's birthday party scene. Also, Lili Taylor and Mackenzie Foy reprise their roles as Carolyn Perron and Cindy Perron from the first film, Frances O'Connor and Madison Wolfe reprise their roles as Peggy Hodgson and Janet Hodgson from the second, and Julian Hilliard reprises his role as David Glatzel from the third. James Wan, the creator of the Conjuring universe, has an uncredited cameo appearance at the end of the film.
Production
Development
Prior to the release of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in June 2021, director Michael Chaves commented in an interview with Empire on the possibility of future installments in The Conjuring series: "What [The Devil Made Me Do It] hopefully does is open up this new chapter for the Warrens. This has a very unique ending to The Conjuring films. I would be excited to see where it could go from here."[7] Actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga also expressed interest in returning. "Oh my God, I'd love to [continue]," stated Farmiga. "It's interesting, we have to up the fear in each one. Demonology is already so high-pitched and operatic."[8] In October 2022, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that a fourth Conjuring film was in development with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the screenplay, and James Wan and Peter Safran returning as producers.[9]
Prior to the release of The Nun II in September 2023, Chaves stated that work on the script was likely to continue, stating that the project was intended to be seen as a "finale" of the stories in the franchise that had come before.[10] By February 2024, Chaves was hired to once again serve as director.[11] In September of the same year, it was announced that Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing were completing rewrites of Johnson-McGoldbrick's draft of an original story co-authored by Wan and Johnson-McGoldbrick. Ben Hardy and Mia Tomlinson were added to the cast in supporting roles.[12]
Filming
Filming was scheduled to take place in London between September 10 and October 10, 2024,[13] and had started by September 17.[14][15] Filming concluded on November 22.[16]Sterling Jerins was not expected to return.[17] She was recast with Mia Tomlinson, as Jerins looked too young to play the adult Judy Warren in the film’s current time period.[18]
The Conjuring: Last Rites was released in the United States on September 5, 2025.[20] Earlier screenings in other regions, such as the Philippines, Mexico, and Indonesia started on September 3, 2025.[21][22]
Reception
Box office
As of September16,2025[update], The Conjuring: Last Rites has grossed $135million in the United States and Canada, and $215million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $350 million.[4][5][23]
In the United States and Canada, Last Rites was released alongside Hamilton, and was originally projected to gross around $50 million from 3,726 theaters in its opening weekend.[3] After making $34.6 million on its first day, including $8.5 million in Thursday previews (both franchise records), weekend estimates were raised to $75 million. It went on to debut to $84 million, the best opening of the franchise and third-biggest ever for a horror film. It was also Warner Bros.' seventh consecutive film to open north of $40 million, a first for any studio.[23][24]
In the Philippines, a market where the horror genre is widely popular,[25][26][27]Last Rites broke the records for the highest-grossing opening day for a horror film as well as second highest for a 2025 release,[28][29] the highest-grossing opening weekend for a horror film, the highest-grossing opening weekend for an R-16 film,[29] and the highest-grossing opening weekend of 2025. During its first weekend, Last Rites held a 91% share of the total Philippine box office.[30] In India, it surpassed Final Destination Bloodlines to become the highest grossing American horror film.[31] In Indonesia, the film has grossed $5,344,824 in its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing opening weekend for an international horror film in the country for 2025.[32]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 170 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Purportedly Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's final outing as the Warrens, Last Rites underwhelms as a climactic chapter for The Conjuring but solidly upholds the franchise's spooky standards."[33]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[34] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while 58% of those surveyed by PostTrak said they would definitely recommend the film.[24]
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