The Conjuring: Last Rites is the climactic send-off for Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal-investigator couple whose case files have anchored one of the most successful horror franchises in history. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return one final time as the Warrens, with director Michael Chaves once again at the helm, closing out the main trilogy that began with 2013's The Conjuring. The film is billed as the last chapter for the Warrens, giving the long-running saga a definite endpoint after more than a decade of spin-offs and sequels.

The story draws on the real-life Smurl haunting, a widely publicized 1980s case in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in which a family reported violent supernatural activity that the actual Warrens were called in to investigate. As Ed and Lorraine confront one of the most dangerous entities of their careers, the film also turns inward to their family, giving their grown daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) a central role and treating the case as a deeply personal reckoning rather than just another job. The result is a horror film that leans as much on the couple's marriage and legacy as on its scares.

Last Rites became a phenomenon at the box office, opening to franchise-record numbers and going on to rank as the highest-grossing entry in the entire Conjuring Universe — a rare feat for the ninth film in a horror series. Audiences turned out in force for the promised farewell, and the film's success underscored how thoroughly the Warrens had become horror institutions. It streams exclusively on HBO Max.