Soon horror fans will witness stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga make their last outing as Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring: Last Rites, but with directing the final Conjuring movie as we know it comes great responsibility, as director Michael Chaves knows all too well.
"I thought it was an incredible opportunity," said Chaves in an interview with GamesRadar+. This not Chaves' first rodeo when it comes to the horror franchise, as he previously directed The Nun II, The Curse of La Llorona, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. But, since the franchise was created by James Wan, who directed the first two Conjuring movies, Chaves says he "felt all the pressure" in taking on the Warrens' final installment.
Despite the pressure, Chaves says he ultimately wanted to "make something that felt really special for fans who have grown up with the franchise. "I grew up on, like, Nightmare on Elm Street – that was my first horror movie. And I know so many people that, this is the movie they grew up on," says Chaves. "This is the movie that they saw when they were 11, 12 years old at a slumber party. It was their first horror movie… so I know what it means to so many people, and I totally knew the responsibility going in.”
The Conjuring universe launched with The Conjuring in 2013, and has since spanned 9 movies, including multiple The Nun and Anabelle spin-offs, right up to The Conjuring: Last Rites. But everything good must come to an end, as the fourth The Conjuring film explores the Warrens' final case, where they take on a demonic presence lurking in the Smurl family home.
When asked why now is the right time to say goodbye to the Warrens, Chaves says: "I think you want to end on a high point. I think it was something that everybody had the confidence to say, you know, we're in a great space with this, with a series, and we don't want this to be a series that just kind of gets [run] into the ground. We wanted to end with confidence and on our own terms.”
However, just because The Warrens' Conjuring is over, doesn't mean we won't get any more movies, as New Line Cinema's president Richard Brener told The Hollywood Reporter that Last Rites is just the end of The Conjuring phase one.
The Conjuring: Last Rites hits screens on September 5. For more, check out our guides on how to watch The Conjuring movies in order and our ranking of The Conjuring movies, and keep up with upcoming horror movies.
