*Spoiler Alert*

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved horror movies. I yearn for the thrill, the tension and the connection to a supernatural reality. It’s comparable to the excitement and fear you experience on a roller coaster, but better. The horror movie series that I have followed religiously since I was 8-years-old is “The Conjuring.”

When I saw the last seats available for the 9:50 p.m. showing of the last Conjuring movie ever at the R/C Carlisle Commons on Sept. 5, I booked the $12 tickets, and made the 30-minute drive in a heartbeat. 

There are four movies in this series: “The Conjuring” (2013), “The Conjuring 2” (2016), “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021) and “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (2025). These movies are based on the real-life adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married couple who were paranormal investigators. They would use their supernatural senses to help hundreds of families struggling with evil paranormal activity present in their homes. These evil spirits caused intense physical pain, unexplainable occurrences and significant heartache. 

In “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” produced by James Wan and Peter Safran, the Warrens are investigating a case while Lorraine is pregnant. Ed feels the spirits were too evil and strong for Lorraine to conquer while pregnant, but she is resilient. When she uncovers a demonic mirror with odd faces carved into it, lightning begins to strike, thunder begins to pound and she touches the mirror with her cross necklace. The mirror cracks, and she feels unexplainable pain, dropping to her knees. 

Ed rushes Lorraine to the hospital to deliver their baby girl, Judy. There were extreme complications, and Lorraine begins to see demonic figures. The electricity goes out and their daughter Judy is delivered still born. After approximately a minute, Judy begins to cry, breathe and open her baby blue eyes.

That moment was their decision to restrict their work in this field and focus on their small family. But their final case would completely end their careers, and almost their lives. 

In 1986, the Warrens traveled to a haunted home in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, that ultimately inherited the same mirror Lorraine touches the night her daughter was born. 

The two daughters of the Smurl family try destroying the mirror by setting it out on the street for trash night after a few unexplainable occurrences, but you can’t run from your demons – literally. 

The next day, the oldest sister begins to choke, throw up blood and vomit shards of glass from that same haunted mirror. This scene was the eye-opening moment that the Smurls were not alone in their home. 

From first-hand experience, in the very front row of the movie theater, the blood, acting, sounds and style all worked together to create jump scares, realistic scenes, tension and fear. The cinematography for “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” was precise and convincing, making the movie frightening, as opposed to it being cheesy, cringe or gory. 

The demon in the Smurl home was hiding behind three souls: an abusive farmer, his wife and her elderly mother, whom he slaughtered to death with an axe in the basement of the farmhouse. The demon tries possessing Judy, killing her fiancé, using imitation of other voices on Lorraine, which almost strikes Ed with another heart attack. 

This case was intense, traumatizing and risky, but, as always, the Warrens did not run from fear. The main message they relay to their daughter was to face her fears, instead of running from them because it will always come back. They conquered the demon, saved another family’s lives and destroyed the mirror as their “last rites.”

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