The Couch Critics
The Couch Critics is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan, along with a rotating door of eclectic co-hosts, dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critics bring thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan and friends guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critics
Faith, Fears, and Failed Expectations: Reviewing "The Conjuring: Last Rites"
Horror franchises often struggle with endings, and "The Conjuring: Last Rites" exemplifies this challenge perfectly. Having followed Ed and Lorraine Warren's paranormal adventures through seven previous films, I approached this "final" installment with both anticipation and skepticism. Would the Warrens' swan song deliver the emotional and supernatural punch worthy of their legacy?
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return with their trademark chemistry as the devout paranormal investigators, facing what's marketed as their last and most devastating case. The film teases a profound impact on the Warren family that explains their retirement from ghost hunting. Yet despite solid performances from the entire cast, "Last Rites" falls into familiar territory without adding anything substantial to the established formula. The promised devastating event never truly materializes, leaving viewers who invested in the "final chapter" marketing feeling somewhat misled.
What's always fascinated me about the Conjuring universe is its grounding in real events and the Warrens' genuine faith-based approach to combating supernatural forces. As a Christian viewer, I appreciate the acknowledgment that spiritual warfare exists, even when filtered through Hollywood's dramatic lens. However, "Last Rites" illustrates the franchise's increasing distance from its compelling origins. When a film set in 1986 ends with newspaper clippings suggesting the events occurred in the mid-70s, it highlights how loosely "based on true events" has become. With a new prequel and HBO series already announced, this "final chapter" joins films like "Saw: The Final Chapter" in horror's long tradition of false farewells. Have you seen it yet? I'd love to hear if you found it more engaging than my 2.5/5 star experience or if you agree it's time for this franchise to finally find peace.
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The weekend's here. It's time to unwind. Grab your snacks, leave the week behind. Blockbusters classics, they're all on the way. Let's kick it off with Cinema Saturdays.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody and welcome to another Cinema Saturday episode of the Couch Critics. I'm your host, nathan, and on today's episode it's just me talking about the Conjuring Last Rites, what was once thought to be the last movie in the Conjuring universe until recently it was announced that they're making a prequel movie and an HBO Max series based on the Conjuring universe, so this isn't really the last one. So it's just like when they did Saw the final chapter and everyone thought that was the last one until they made the other Saw movies. Yeah, that's what this is like. But before I can get into my likes, dislikes, what worked, what didn't work, I have to go over the synopsis paranormal investigators, ed or lorraine warren take on one last terrifying case involving mysterious entities.
Speaker 2:They must confront the conjuring last right stars patrick wilson, vera famiga, mia thomason and ben hardy now first. I've seen Patrick Wilson, vera Famiga, mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy Now first. I've seen every single movie in the Conjuring universe Annabelle, the Nun, the Nun 2, the Devil Made Me Do it, the Conjuring, conjuring 2, all the movies I've seen. I've seen every single one. These movies always intrigued me because, number one, they're based on real events, real people. Ed and Lorraine were real paranormal investigators and they relied heavily on their faith. And that's what intrigued me so much about these movies. It wasn't so much that I wanted to see the jump scares. It wasn't so much that I wanted to see the jump scares, it wasn't so much that I wanted to see how they would explain the demonic realm and all that stuff, because, as a Christian, I know that demons are real. I know that that realm is real, and I also know that the arguments that Christians make about other Christians seeing these movies that you gotta be careful what you watch because it can open you up to another dimension, another realm I get that At the same time, I'm the type of person. Once I've seen almost every single movie in a franchise, I feel compelled to watch what apparently, supposedly, was supposed to be the last one, and that's what I did with this one.
Speaker 2:This movie. It wasn't terrible, but it also just wasn't anything new. It's something we had seen before in all the other previous Conjuring movies. It didn't add anything to it, didn't really take away anything either. It felt like it was a lot more talk heavy than it was like the experience of what was going on. And again it's just about a family who goes through some stuff and the Warrens come in and basically save the day. That's what the movie was, and what kind of took me by surprise is at the beginning of the film they tell you that this is the last case the Warren's ever did, because something happened that devastated the family. All this stuff, and you're thinking something horrible is going to happen to either Ed, lorraine or their daughter, and then come to find out Spoiler alert, spoiler alert. Nothing really bad happens. Some things that could have been bad happen, but they end up resolving themselves.
Speaker 2:We've talked about movies that are based on true stories before, like Catch Me If you Can, and other movies that you really can't trust Hollywood if they're telling the truth. The first point is that this movie says it takes place in 1986. Well, then the movie ends and they show you clips and like newspaper headlines and all this stuff. It makes it sound like that the events in this movie actually happened in like the mid 70s. So my first question is why did you base it in the 1980s, the year I was born, when the real events quote unquote real events happened in like the 70s? I don't understand why Hollywood tends to just make those small little changes that, at the end of the day, I don't think make that big of a difference, honestly. But if you're going to say it takes place in 1986, and then at the end of the movie you're going to show that it actually took place in the 70s, I don't understand why you made that change. Again, I haven't taken the time to research this at all, but I digress.
Speaker 2:Another thing that intrigued me about these movies is the chemistry between Ed and Lorraine, the actors that play these characters. They had a really great chemistry together. They worked really well together. They actually felt like a married couple. They felt like they cared for each other and that continued in this movie. They felt like they cared about each other and they felt like they really cared about their daughter in this movie. They felt like they cared about each other and they felt like they really cared about their daughter in this film. So the acting in it, the family dynamic, is very much important and integral to these films as a whole and that just continues in this movie. But there's just something about it that it's just not as compelling as, say, the first one, the first ever conjuring movie, or even some of the side ones like annabelle and and, and I think one of the best ones was annabelle comes home. I thought that was really well done. I thought the acting in that the storyline was compelling.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing the Nun 2 with my niece and we thought that was hilarious. Not in a good way, that wasn't the greatest movie in the world. So the Conjuring Universe has had hits and misses. I thought this was a miss and it kind of was a letdown a little bit, especially since everyone assumed that this was the last one. So because of that I can't really give it a high rating. But before I give it my rating I have to talk about two things that happened in the movie theater. That again had nothing to do with the movie itself, but it just kind of made my movie experience a little less enjoyable.
Speaker 2:So, thing number one I like to get my tickets in advance. I always sit probably in the same seats, depending on the theater that I like to get my tickets in advance. I always sit probably in the same seats, depending on the theater that I go to. So I go to this theater, I get my tickets scanned, I go to the movie and someone's sitting in my seat. There's this girl sitting in my seat and she's sitting next to this guy. So I'm assuming kind of boyfriend or girlfriend. I'm like, hey, this is my seat, my seat. And the guy looks at me and he's like, oh well, we have our tickets. I'm like, I mean, so do I? It's literally on my phone. He says, oh, I actually got another one. Could you actually sit there? So this is what I think happened. Ok, they went to go get their tickets. They saw that my seat was taken. He got his ticket and bought another ticket with the, with the plan and to make whoever's seat that was and ended up being mine, making whoever's seat that was sit in the other seat. Now, thankfully, the seat that was the other seat wasn't a bad seat, so I wasn't going to make that big of a deal of it.
Speaker 2:But I really think movie theaters need to try something. I don't know what the answer to this is, but they need to be able to find a way to not let people do stuff like that because it's kind of annoying. Now, granted, I'm an A-lister not let people do stuff like that because it's kind of annoying. Now, granted, I'm an a-lister, so I'm paying 20 something dollars a month to see four movies a month, even four movies a week, but I don't do that. I see, you know, however, movie however many saturdays and sundays off and on there are in a month, sometimes so, but it does pay for itself, okay. So that's that's thing number one. That kind of ruined my, my experience a little bit. Thing number two this is something that theaters could actually do something about.
Speaker 2:One of my biggest pet peeves about movie theaters is the fact that they allow children to be taken to rated r movies. I don don't understand that logic. I'm sitting there and I see this old lady come in and then a young child, obviously elementary age, come into this movie and the first thing that happens is they both sit down and then the old lady walks out. So my first thought is you've got to be kidding me. She did not buy a ticket to this movie just to let this little kid watch it by themselves. Now, thankfully, that was not the case. She came back in, but the point still stands.
Speaker 2:And there was a part there. I mean there was a moment where they were talking to each other and you could hear them and he says oh no, no, no, this movie doesn't scare me, I'm not scared. So no, no, this movie doesn't scare me, I'm not scared. So I don't understand why movie theaters can't stop that from happening. Why can't they stop adults from bringing their young children to a rated R movie? That is obviously not appropriate whatsoever for a young child to see. I don't understand, and the biggest warped thing about it is that this grandmother came out I'm assuming it was a grandmother came out telling everyone how amazing the movie was, and I'm just thinking what world are you living in? That this movie is amazing for your child or grandchild to go see?
Speaker 2:This movie wasn't amazing. It wasn't bad because the performances were still pretty good, but it wasn't amazing. It wasn't awesome. It was disturbing and it was boring at times. It was very slow. It wasn't as compelling as the other Conjuring movies have been, but it was just very disheartening to see an adult bring an elementary-aged child to this movie with this type of content in it. It's very disheartening when I see this happen in any movie. I felt the same way when I saw children go to see Deadpool and Wolverine. It just doesn't make any sense to me. So I would give the Conjuring Last Rites a 2.5 out of 5. It's a kind of low rating. It's mostly getting a 2.5 because of the performances, because I still thought they were pretty good. I mean, everyone in this movie did a pretty decent job when it came to acting, but the storyline was just basically more of the same that we've seen before and it was sold as like oh, this was the case. That made them retire because something devastated happened to their family and nothing devastating happens. I'm sorry to ruin it for you, but nothing, oh my gosh, happens in this movie. So that's why this movie is getting a 2.5 out of 5.
Speaker 2:This tuesday you can listen to me and maybe someone else talk about jingle jangle and then next cinema sunday. I believe mitch and I will be talking about spinal tap 2. That's right. They made a sequel of this is spinal tap and we're going to be talking about it. And before I end this episode, whether you agreed with Charlie Kirk or not, I still am asking you to pray for his family during this terrible, tough time they're going through. Take time, love one another. Whether you agree with one another or not, we are called to love. That is what Jesus said. They shall know you are my disciples for how you love one another, not for how you agree with one another, but from how you love one another. Take care, this is the Couch Critics where every movie gets its close-up.
Speaker 1:So grab a seat, let the credits play. We'll see you next for Cinema Saturdays.
