The Conjuring: Last Rites Final Trailer Retcons A Major Piece Of Franchise Lore

The entirety of "The Conjuring" movies was leading up to this. The supernatural saga, centered on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, respectively), has only gained steam over the course of nine total entries since James Wan's 2013 original — mainline films and spin-offs included. Even the spookiest things must come to an end, however, and one only has to look at the title of this year's "Last Rites" to realize it has all the makings of one final swan song for one of the most successful franchises in the entire genre.

But don't let looks deceive you. The end of the line may be coming, but there's still a lot we don't know about horror's most obsessive power couple. The first trailer for "The Conjuring: Last Rites" confirmed that the Warrens' final case would involve the infamous Smurl family haunting, a shocking bit of real-world folklore that remains contentious to this day. There, it was implied that Ed and Lorraine have encountered over a "thousand" individual cases over the course of their careers ... only a fraction of which we've actually seen over the course of the films, of course. Well, the final trailer released today (which you can watch above) adds yet another crucial piece of the puzzle. Indeed, one key reveal brings the entire franchise full circle in a way we may not have expected — and, in the process, retcons a major piece of lore in "The Conjuring" as a whole.

For those who'd rather go in completely spoiler-free, consider this your last warning to turn back now. For everyone else, join us down below. As that one creepy demon child snarls in the footage: "We've been waiting so patiently for you."

Man, if only I had a nickel for every time the past managed to catch up to us in the most dramatically ironic of ways. After decades of surviving the most harrowing paranormal events that the supernatural world could possibly (ahem) conjure up, the Warrens may have finally met their match in "The Conjuring: Last Rites." It's the year 1986, and Ed and Lorraine appear ready to finally wind down their life's work. Of course, anyone who's ever watched a single piece of narrative fiction before can likely guess what happens next. Sure enough, they're roped into one last case (very loosely based on a true story) ... and it apparently involves a demonic presence they're well familiar with.

"There's an evil here ... something I've felt before. This thing in your house is a demon. It's the first one that we ever encountered," a distraught Lorraine slowly comes to realize early on in the footage. What better way to bring things to a satisfying end than by forcing the couple to contend with the demonic entity that apparently set them on their investigative path in the first place? It doesn't sound like things went very well the first time, as Lorraine explains that she and her husband were young and frightened all those years ago. To emphasize that point, we see imagery of actors Madison Lawlor and Orion Smith, respectively, as younger versions of Lorraine and Ed, with the former caught in a terrifying vision, dream sequence, or flashback of herself stuck in a room of mirrors as one of her reflections comes knocking — literally and sinisterly.

Based on the first footage we saw from that early teaser, which foregrounded all the various trophies and possessed artifacts collected by our characters over the years, could the upcoming sequel have some more twists up its sleeve regarding franchise lore? Given how close we came to an "Avengers: Endgame"-style crossover for this movie, nothing can be considered off the table. 

"The Conjuring: Last Rites" scares its way into theaters September 5, 2025.