For more than a decade, the THE CONJURING films have followed real-life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren through cursed farms, haunted row houses, and a museum full of bad ideas you should never keep in your basement. The mainline series (THE CONJURING, THE CONJURING 2, THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT) spun off an entire universe—ANNABELLE, ANNABELLE: CREATION, ANNABELLE COMES HOME, THE NUN, THE NUN II, and the tangent-adjacent THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA—making it one of horror’s most successful connected franchises. It’s hard to argue the popularity of these films with the worldwide gross stands at $2.3 billion.

THE CONJURING: LAST RITES frames itself as a final chapter and leans on a “case file” the Warrens might have chased: a family besieged by a malevolent presence tied to a cursed object and an ugly history, forcing one more showdown with the darkness they’ve battled for years.

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as Lorraine and Ed Warren, joined by Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Elliot Cowan, and series regular Steve Coulter. Yes, the Warrens’ bond still anchors the film; the Farmiga/Wilson chemistry remains the best thing about this universe.

There are a few grace notes that echo the first two films—fleeting chills, a couple of well-timed reveals, a tender Warren moment—but LAST RITES never recaptures that early magic. Why? Because in THE CONJURING and THE CONJURING 2, the story led and the scares were the cherry on top; character stakes shaped the hauntings.

Here, the movie too often plays like a walk-through attraction: room after room of startle gags, like third-rate high-school drama kids jumping out and yelling “BOOGA BOOGA.” The result is more noisy than nightmarish, and the cumulative dread that made the first two entries sing gets lost in the shuffle. When all is said and done, this franchise misses James Wan, the architect of the first two films.

If this really is the end (color me doubtful), it’s a shrug of a send-off—watchable, occasionally spooky, but missing the soulful spine that elevated the best CONJURING chapters.

Here’s the link to yesterday’s KVNU For the People Movie Show where reviewed LAST RITES. You can catch up on any past KVNU For the People Movie Shows by visiting this page. Check out the trailer for LAST RITES below.