The Conjuring: Last Rites Director Reveals Logan Inspired Emotional Ending

Warning: Some SPOILERS lie ahead for The Conjuring: Last Rites!The biggest modern horror franchise has said farewell for the time being with The Conjuring: Last Rites, but director Michael Chaves reveals a very different genre inspired him on it. The film serves as the ninth, and potentially final, mainline installment in The Conjuring Universe, as well as Chaves’ third consecutive movie in the franchise.

Set in 1988, The Conjuring: Last Rites sees Ed and Lorraine Warren having retired from their investigation work, largely due to the former’s worsening health. However, when a family finds themselves terrorized by a demon with ties to their past, the Warrens find themselves pulled back into investigations, including their daughter Judy, whose psychic abilities have continued to grow.

Featuring the returns of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine, The Conjuring: Last Rites cast also introduces Mia Tomlinson as Judy, taking over the role from Sterling Jerins and Mckenna Grace, Ben Hardy as her eventual husband Tony, and Rebecca Calder and Elliot Cowan as the patriarchs of the Smurl family. In spite of mixed reviews, Last Rites was a box office smash, becoming the highest-grossing installment in the series.

As the movie comes to digital platforms, Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Michael Chaves for ScreenRant to discuss The Conjuring: Last Rites. The director talked about how Hugh Jackman’s Logan served as a key inspiration for the movie’s story and tone, while also discussing the movie’s dark opening sequence and weighing in on the franchise’s future.

Logan Had A Big Inspiration On The Movie’s Ending

After laying the groundwork for a bigger future for her in Annabelle Comes Home, the new film gave Judy a much bigger role in the story, allowing her to actually take part in the investigation. Moreover, she even got to assist Ed and Loraine in destroying the haunted mirror in the finale and gets married to Tony in The Conjuring: Last Rites‘ ending.

In reflecting on crafting the emotional closure to the sequel, Chaves affirmed Last Rites was “always designed as a goodbye“, not just to the Warrens in The Conjuring, but “to the whole series“. For the ending, in which Judy and Tony are left with the option of leading their own stories, or enjoying a quiet married life, Chaves says the team specifically “used Logan as a reference” for the film.

“Logan’s one of my favorite movies, and what I loved about it is that you can imagine the daughter going off on adventures in Canada and having this young mutant life,” Chaves explained. “It gives you hope just thinking about it. But I think that there’s also something wonderful about feeling that conclusion; feeling the end of that story. That’s really what we wanted to deliver for this.“

The Last Rites’ Opening Was Important To Establish It As “The Darkest Chapter”

When it came to helping craft the overall story for the potential final installment with franchise vet David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and creator James Wan, Chaves denoted that the “driving force” of The Conjuring: Last Rites was the theme of “letting go“. The director acknowledged that “so many franchises really struggle with that final chapter“, not only to deliver a fitting conclusion, but also “because it’s hard for audiences to let a story go“.

Joking that “no one goes to the funeral and says, ‘That was great’“, the filmmaker went on to explain that the best way the team felt they could say goodbye to the Warrens was to make it a very Judy-driven story. Namely, he felt that the wedding came with the concept of “letting go of a daughter” for Ed and Lorraine as she would “enter into the world and start [her] own family“.

However, in order to get to this ending, Chaves needed to add on Last Rites‘ opening, in which we see Ed and Lorraine leaving an investigation due to an overly powerful demon and Lorraine’s water breaking while pregnant with Judy. “I just thought that would be a really good bookend that really takes us from the beginning to the end,” Chaves expressed.

That being said, the opening quickly became one of The Conjuring Universe’s darkest yet, which, when paired with some of the movie’s other scares, Last Rites was advertised as being “the darkest chapter” for the franchise. While pointing out this kind of label is “sometimes just a marketing trick“, the director did actively try and think “What is the darkest thing that we could possibly do?“.

This led to the “gut punch” of the movie’s opening in which, as they race to the hospital, Judy is stillborn, with Lorraine’s prayers successfully bringing her to life. Describing it as “so grim and so unbelievably dark“, Chaves felt it important to communicate to the audience “how dark we’re going to go” for the rest of the film.

The Conjuring Team Is Being “Very Careful” About The Future

Despite the apparent plans for Last Rites to conclude the franchise, The Conjuring Universe’s future looks to be alive and well. New Line boss Richard Brener described the movie as only the end of “Phase One” of the franchise. The months since have seen reports of development on a prequel for the younger Ed and Lorraine Warren, as well as the greenlight for an HBO Max spinoff with Nancy Won signing on as showrunner.

With his deep-rooted connection to the franchise, Chaves was asked if he had any new insight on what’s to come for its future, particularly the Annabelle and Nun spinoff movies, of which he directed the sequel for the latter. Reflecting on his experience making those films with “love“, the director does feel “they could have more and go on more adventures“, but says “This is the absolute end” for The Conjuring.

“I think that everybody involved wants to be very careful about how they go about expanding it,” Chaves assured.

What Else We Learned About The Conjuring: Last Rites & Beyond From Michael Chaves

ScreenRant: There are some great special features on this movie. One is “Crafting the Scare,” which dives into how the series relies on tension rather than gore. Can you walk me through designing some of your signature scares in The Last Rites, and how you achieved that suggestive horror?

Michael Chaves: Yeah, so many of these scenes have a playful nature to them. That’s what’s great about The Conjuring and about great horror; there’s something about it that it draws you in and hooks you. That was something I was always trying to get at: an accessible, playful point of entry. How can you be drawn into it, and then how can you twist it from there? Even on other projects beyond this that I’ve been developing and working on, I think drawing people in a playful way is always really fun. It unlocks the child in all of us, and it also unlocks a very vulnerable space. You’re mentally transported into that vulnerable space, that time when you were the most vulnerable in your life. I think that leads into a great space to be scared.

ScreenRant: “The Believer” is a cool special feature that explores you going from skeptic to believer. You spent a night in an English haunted house, is that correct? Did that help influence the film at all?

Michael Chaves: Totally. And it wasn’t just a night, we were staying there the whole time. It was this awesome but small manor house called the Old Vicarage. Basically, it’s a 300-year-old building, and the English priests would stay there. Someone said it was haunted, but I was more in my skeptic mindset, like, “Sure, it’s haunted.” There were a series of break-ins in the neighborhood, though, and we were on a text chain about how they were coming in during the day, so everyone was on alert. But it was always during the day, so at night we felt pretty safe. One Saturday night, my family was down in London seeing a show. I’m at home, we’re in the middle of shooting, and I’m playing video games. I hear these voices outside — and it’s not like you can hear the neighbor. There’s a pretty nice property, so it has some space.

So, I’m like, “Who the hell is outside?” I turned off the Xbox, I’m going up to the windows, and I can hear these male voices talking to each other. I’m like, “S–t, this is a home invasion. They’re coming for me.” I turned off all the lights and checked all the doors, but then I hear it from upstairs. I’m like, “Did someone get in, or is a window open?” I take one of the fireplace tools, but I have no idea if I should run outside or stay inside. I don’t know what’s going on. Slowly, I go through the whole house, but no one’s in there, and no windows are open. By the end of it, I’m like, “This house is full-on haunted. There is something here.” I was relieved that it wasn’t a home invasion, though! At the end of the night, I was able to go to sleep just knowing, “The house is haunted, but at least no one’s trying to break in.”

ScreenRant: The Conjuring is one of the best haunted house franchises ever, but if you were pairing up Last Rites with any other movie that’s not from The Conjuring Universe for a double feature, which would it be?

Michael Chaves: I think Poltergeist. Definitely the root of the visual spiritual soul of Last Rites is similar to the movies of the ’70s, like The Changeling and Exorcist. I wanted to 100% keep that consistent, because that’s the brand. That’s what you’re expecting. But I also wanted to feel a little bit of that Poltergeist vibe and bring that ’80s feeling.

Release Date

September 5, 2025

Runtime

135 Minutes

Director

Michael Chaves

Writers

David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Ian B. Goldberg, Richard Naing, Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, James Wan