Before James Wan wrought a dancing M3GAN upon the world, he terrorized audiences with Annabelle, who opened the first The Conjuring movie, and then she was off to the demonic races (and our own reality) with her own trilogy of horror films. A decade later, The Conjuring universe includes nine released movies including a pair of The Nun flicks devoted to hellish Valek, The Curse of La Llorna, and three movies that mainly revolve around Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are also known to pop into other parts of the universe, too.
In other words, there’s no rest for those who investigate the wicked or audiences (who have shelled out over $2 billion globally for these spookfests), and although Wan has a buffet of other horror projects in process (including Longlegs director Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey and Wan’s Teacup series for Peacock), he still has time for more of The Conjuring.
Specifically, The Conjuring: Last Rites is coming, so let’s roll out what we know:
Plot
First, is this the final The Conjuring universe movie? Wan used the words “potentially wrapping up” while speaking with Collider and when pressed to clarify, he declared, “We never know. You never know. We’ll see.” Now, the movie does have a release date, but Wan added, “With the Conjuring films, we are very precious about [them]. And so we kind of want to just take our time to make sure we get it right and to make sure the emotion of the Warren stories that we want to tell, and … we just want to make sure that it’s the right thing.”
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Nun II director Michael Chaves is reportedly back for more, and the screenplay has been written by Wan himself, so we are in good hands behind the camera. And naturally, nobody else can portray paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine other than Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, so we should expect to see them to dramatize a real-life Warren case. To briefly refresh, the first film co-starred “The Conjuring House,” otherwise known as the location of the Perron Family Haunting. The second film then hit the London-based mystery of the Enfield Poltergeist, and the threequel followed Arne Johnson’s (unsuccessful) murder defense strategy, which matched The Devil Made Me Do It subtitle.
This fourth Warren-focused movie will presumably revolve around a theme involving the “Last Rites” sacrament, which won’t have to stretch to be on point, given the religiously-themed hauntings, jump scares, and alleged possessions that have surfaced thus far. Hollywood Reporter did note earlier this year that the movie was “operating currently under the simple title of The Conjuring 4,” although the outlet did have some fun with referring to “one last ride. Or one last rite, as it were.” It’s no wonder that the movie began being referred to as The Conjuring: Last Rites, a title that has since become official.
If this is indeed the final movie of The Conjuring universe, then Wan surely labored over which of the Warrens’ other cases to adapt, but for now, he’s keeping his lips zipped on which one he has chosen.
Cast
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga will obviously be onscreen as Ed and Lorraine Warren, and that would be the only confirmed casting news at this date. If we don’t receive a cameo by Bonnie Aarons as Valek/The Nun, then elbows are gonna fly.
Release Date
The Conjuring: Last Rites will spook theaters on September 5, 2025.
Trailer
Since we cannot have a trailer yet, we can attempt to manifest seeing Valek do this again in the final Warren hurrah: