The Conjuring: Last Rites' Definitive Ending Was Inspired By One Of The Best Marvel Movies [Exclusive]
by Rafael Motamayor · /Film"The Conjuring" franchise is officially over (at least for now). After 12 years and nine movies, the story of horror's greatest couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren is done. Their love story has long been the open secret sauce of "The Conjuring" franchise, the key to its success lying in the undeniable chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. But all good stories must come to an end, so in a rare move for a horror franchise, we actually get a definitive conclusion to the Warren's story in "The Conjuring: Last Rites."
The fourth "Conjuring" movie tells the story of the Smurl haunting case, with Ed and Lorraine having to vanquish a demon from a Pennsylvania family's home when it starts threatening their own family. It's a hectic, unsurprisingly scary, but surprisingly sweet note to end the story on. But given how successful the franchise has been, it is surprising that it's ending at all — unless you ask the movie's director.
As director Michael Chaves explained in an exclusive interview with /Film's Jacob Hall, the conversations about ending the Warren's story with "Last Rites" started at the very start of the development process for the film. Chaves cites "Nightmare on Elm Street" as another great horror franchise, but one that never got a proper end, with the studio simply not producing more movies after a while.
"I think that New Line and really Dave Neustadter, who is one of the key core creative executives at the studio, had said, 'You know, let's end this movie while we're strong. Let's end it on our own terms,'" Chaves said. "And that was kind of basically our kind of guiding marching orders going through the whole movie."
More specifically, there was one Marvel movie that inspired the rather definitive ending to "Last Rites" — "Logan."
Logan inspired the Warren's last case (kind of)
As Chaves puts it, they liked the idea of the audiences being able to imagine the Warren's daughter "going off and having adventures and, you know, being a young mutant." The idea that the movie could have a definitive ending that closed the story of the Warrens, while still showing that their legacy lives on in their daughter, is a nice thought, and fits one of the best parts of "Logan." Now, being inspired by James Mangold's second superhero movie is not unique when it comes to blockbuster franchises. After all, "Avengers: Endgame" was also inspired by "Logan." Even though Kevin Feige had nothing to do with that one, he still found inspiration in the way "Logan" managed to bring to a close a long-lasting franchise.
But it's one thing to market "Last Rites" as the last "Conjuring" movie and another thing to actually follow through. When asked if he could see there being more movies in the future, Chaves said simply, "I think there totally could be. I think the motto is always like, let the audience ask for more. And [...] I guess by the results they probably have!"
Still, everyone involved treated "Last Rites" as the last in the series, which added to the effectiveness of the story and its final scene. "It was honestly something I would just remind everybody about at every stage of the process," Chaves said. "And even as we were going into marketing about how important that really is. We are telling the last chapter, and to put that in the forefront. And I think it kind of brought up everyone's game."
"The Conjuring: Last Rites" is now on digital. 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD arrive November 25, 2025.