The Conjuring: Last Rites (15)

The incredibly successful Conjuring franchise reaches its final installment, as our intrepid ghost hunters, The Warrens, take on a very personal case.

It’s 1964, a young Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) prepare for the birth of their first child. But Lorraine’s labour comes on suddenly when she’s confronted with an evil mirror, and it threatens disaster. Cut to 22 years later, when their adult daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) brings home her boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy) and both mother and daughter start to experience strange and terrifying visions. They seem to have something to do with the Smurl family in Pennsylvania, who are experiencing a haunting that also, whaddaya know, follows the arrival of an antique mirror in their home; spooky antics are, of course, abound.

Wilson and Farmiga remain solidly incarnate throughout, like paranormal super-heroes, capable of enlivening even speculative spiritual dialogue. Being the (supposed) final film, there are callbacks to the previous entries to tie everything together neatly at the end. It’s sinister fun, just don’t watch it before attempting to enter the loft and pantry.