After more than a decade of demons, haunted dolls, and things that go bump in the night, the couple who started it all are finally hanging up their crucifixes. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” arrived in theaters this weekend, on September 5, 2025, billed as the ninth and final chapter of the main Conjuring saga and the farewell outing for Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). And audiences did not treat it like a quiet send-off. They turned it into the biggest opening the entire franchise has ever seen, proving that even in an era stuffed with horror, this particular haunted house still draws the biggest crowd on the block.
Let us appreciate what “The Conjuring” built, because it is genuinely remarkable. What began in 2013 as a single, unusually well-crafted haunted-house movie ballooned into one of the most successful horror franchises in history — a sprawling universe of nine films that spun off the “Annabelle” movies, “The Nun,” and more, all orbiting the case files of real-life paranormal investigators. It did this without a recurring slasher villain or a gimmicky kill hook. It did it on atmosphere, craft, and, above all, the warmth at its center. Warning: beyond this point there are spoilers for The Conjuring: Last Rites and the Warrens’ final case.
Because here is the secret weapon that separated “The Conjuring” from the pack: the Warrens actually love each other. Wilson and Farmiga turned Ed and Lorraine into one of the most convincing married couples in modern cinema, horror or otherwise.”
Because here is the secret weapon that separated “The Conjuring” from the pack: the Warrens actually love each other. Wilson and Farmiga turned Ed and Lorraine into one of the most convincing married couples in modern cinema, horror or otherwise. In a genre that usually treats its leads as disposable victims, this franchise gave us two people whose devotion was the emotional anchor of every terrifying case. You were scared for them because you cared about them, and that is a much harder trick to pull off than a good jump scare.
“Last Rites” leans into that legacy, positioning itself as a closing statement — the Warrens facing one final darkness before stepping away. The record-breaking opening, the best the franchise has ever posted, tells you exactly how much goodwill these characters have banked over twelve years. Whatever the reviews said, and they were more mixed than rapturous, audiences showed up in force to say goodbye. That kind of turnout for a ninth film is the mark of a franchise that earned real loyalty rather than mere brand recognition.
The BR team has a lot of respect for how this universe operated. It proved that horror could sustain a genuine cinematic universe years before it became a buzzword, and it did so with a consistency of tone and quality that most franchises would kill for. Not every spinoff landed, and the sequels varied, but the core Conjuring films remained a reliable delivery system for old-school, dread-soaked scares built on filmmaking fundamentals rather than cheap tricks. That is a legacy worth honoring.
Ending it now, with the original stars choosing to walk away rather than being written out, is the right call. Franchises rarely get to leave on their own terms, and letting Wilson and Farmiga close the Warrens’ story with dignity is far preferable to recasting them or running the concept into the ground. The universe itself will almost certainly continue in some form — a property this lucrative does not simply vanish — but the heart of it, the Warrens themselves, gets a proper farewell. That matters.
For those of us tracking the Conjuring Universe as one interconnected web of hauntings — the mainline films, the “Annabelle” saga, “The Nun,” and the rest — “Last Rites” is the emotional keystone, the moment the whole thing began around finally reaching its end. It is the goodbye to the two people whose love story made all the terror mean something. The lights are dimming on horror’s biggest universe, at least in its original form, and it is going out on top. Rest easy, Ed and Lorraine. You earned it.
What Do You Think? Was the chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga the real secret to “The Conjuring” becoming horror’s biggest franchise? Is ending the main saga while the stars choose to leave the smart move, or should a series this profitable never say goodbye? And with the Warrens stepping away, can the Conjuring Universe survive without the couple at its heart?
See you on the next binge!
