Are you a hardcore horror movie fan? If so, I do NOT recommend watching the newest release from one of the most-watched horror movie franchises, The Conjuring. I’ve spent a lot of my time watching movies from this universe and found myself loving them all. For example, we all know some big ones like Annabelle (2014), The Nun (2018), and all three Conjuring films. But this time, I found myself disliking the newest film a lot. I went to the theatre on Friday, Sep. 5th, the exact day it was released. I had waited months for its release, and couldn’t wait to leave school to see it. But before I share my personal opinion about it, here is a quick overview of the movie.
The Conjuring universe is loosely based on reported real-life events of possessions and demonic entities that torment and physically harm innocent families around the United States. The main characters, who were real-life people, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were American paranormal investigators associated with cases of alleged hauntings. There had been multiple movies made about each case, including the newest one, The Conjuring: Last Rites. This movie was based on the haunting of the Smurl family in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in the 1980s. The family reported experiencing paranormal activities such as physical assault, foul odors, and apparitions in their home. The Warrens got involved in the case in 1986 and confirmed the presence of a demonic spirit, which ended up being one of their hardest and last cases ever.
Let’s move on to my opinion on the movie in general. First off, the beginning started strong with a pretty good plot and character development. But that didn’t last long, as it almost immediately took a toll downhill. As the movie was getting close to its end, I realized how many jump scares it was missing. The tension never hit the level I was hoping for, and even though I could see what they were trying to accomplish, it never hit the mark. Adding to that, the whole movie felt rushed and uncared for. It’s like they were glad it was the last.
Overall, it felt boring and disappointing, as it is supposed to be the last of the franchise. Don’t even get me started on the significant use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) for the demons and special effects. At one point, it went too far and had me questioning whether this was a real horror movie or not. I almost started falling asleep because the CGI had me bored. I could see the idea of what they were trying to construct, but it ended up looking poorly made.
Two scenes in particular really stuck with me. One where they had a giant mirror that floated up in the air and spun around very fast, making it look obvious that CGI was used. In my opinion, if a movie uses CGI, they should make it as good as possible to make it look like they didn’t, but this was not the case. The CGI was noticeably bad and way overused.
The second scene where CGI was poorly used was when Annabelle was brought into the movie. Using CGI, they made her grow exponentially, until she was ginormous, and she was
crawling around the house and on the ceiling. The CGI was so bad in my opinion and ended up looking very cheesy. The purpose of this subplot with Annabelle becoming a giant was unclear. I didn’t understand it at all, and the movie went downhill from there. I understand if they thought some of the viewers would think it would be catchy to add that, because it definitely caught my eye, but not in a good way.
Overall, the movie ended up not hitting the plot, and shouldn’t have been two hours and fifteen minutes long. Even though I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would, it had a good ending for the characters in general, and how they developed. One of the best scenes in the movie was towards the end, when we were able to see a quick scene identifying everyone in the past Conjuring movies. That was cool to see, and in the end, I’m glad I saw the movie, and sad it was the last.
