As the curtain prepares to fall on one of horror cinema’s most successful sagas, director Michael Chaves is opening up about the decision to conclude the main franchise with The Conjuring: Last Rites. In an exclusive interview with SFX magazine, Chaves confirmed that the final installment is a conscious choice to “end on a high,” promising a film that will be the scariest yet.
“You want to stop at the peak. You don’t want to be the one who runs a franchise into the ground,” Chaves explained, noting that the decision was a “shared sense” from all the film chiefs involved. His goal was to provide a perfect and definitive ending for paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
The director, who previously helmed The Curse of La Llorona and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, felt immense pressure to deliver a conclusion that honored the series’ roots. He stated that he wanted to bring back the “big Conjuring experience,” harkening back to a “back-to-basics haunted house movie” for this final chapter.
Set to be released on September 5, 2025, the film is based on the real-life Smurl family haunting of 1986 in Pennsylvania. Chaves has teased that this last case will be the darkest and most ruthless the Warrens have faced.
“This one is really scary,” he warned. “You need those high stakes, those really dark moments to give you that sense of conclusion… We’re going to be brutal. This is no-holds-barred.” The director also revealed that the opening sequence is designed to “take people off-guard” and act as a “real gut punch.”
Filmed for the first time in England, Chaves praised the local crew and his leading actors. He noted that Wilson and Farmiga feel a sense of “nostalgia” for the franchise and have become so comfortable in their roles that they’ve made specific “dialect decisions” for Ed and Lorraine.
With an official trailer already teasing a terrifying conclusion and a plot that promises to be one of the most harrowing cases the Warrens have ever faced, fans have high expectations for the franchise’s finale.