El conjuro 4

I went into this flick hoping for a grand send-off. What I got was a limp, recycled mess that felt more like a bad spin-off than the franchise's finale. The setup had promise, but the movie just dragged until the halfway point. By then, I'd already checked my watch 2 times.

The screenplay? Paper thin. Characters exist just to be spooked, and the scares are predictable jump-outs you can see a mile away. There's no tension, no atmosphere, just loud bangs and cheap tricks. At this point, you can practically set a stopwatch to when the next door will slam.

And then there's Michael Chaves. Let's be real-this isn't his first stumble. La Llorona was weak. The Devil Made Me Do It barely felt like a horror movie. The Nun II was a snooze. And now here we are again, same bag of empty tricks. He confuses loud noises for scares and speed bumps for suspense. If James Wan built this house of horror with care, Chaves has turned it into a carnival ride running out of batteries.

Who in their right mind thought that hey let's give the guy who delivered 3 trashes in a row another story to butcher? Perfect for a franchise closer.

Sure, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga do their best, as always. Their chemistry still works, but they can't carry a whole movie on their backs. A "heartfelt farewell" means nothing when the movie itself can't even scare a nervous teenager in a dark theater.

First off, the based on a true story tagline is like that one friend who tells you that he met a extremely good looking girl and that she was extremely down for him the whole night, but in reality, these two just had a coffee and talked about the economy or smth the whole night, maybe she slightly striped her feet upon his knee or something but... that's it.

These film are overly-exaggerated pieces of HALFWAY real events, and I don't mean that by scenario or concept, I also mean that by performance and cinematography. When you look at a film like The Exorcist from 1973, it roughly cuts fast, it is very slow paced for today's standards, the camera holds itself long, not many effects or anything, the whole horror is made by build-up and performances... it's the simple things. Lightning and Sound-Design are top tier and makes you feel unease. Here, we have so much of it, and it still feels flat. Why? Because they don't know how to CREATE and USE tension. It is a tool to boost emotional development of the characters. It is also a tool to increase our feeling of unease for example. And to anyone who says, The Exorcist was the first film and is hella old, they can't just redo that all the time, you don't get the point.

Veronica, a Spanish horror film, made in I believe 2013, falls into this category of great reality-inspired horror. It is terrifying because it doesn't hold or loses its tension, it does neither of that. It just FLYS by, and what we care for, is her psychological well-being and the survival of his brother. We gotta care, and know that THESE characters aren't safe, these films don't play anymore with psychological fears of the human mind that are deeply rooted in our nature. Recently I watched and film from France, Spoorlos, or The Vanishing. Without context, there's a scene where a character lies in an tomb alive. That was scary and made me feel uneasy, it made me sick for minutes. Same with claustrophobic environments, they just want to scare us with LOUDNESS and unexpected things. And that is the main problem.

There are a few scenes where that feeling gets transported, for example when someone looks around and see's a demon in silent darkness, or when someone suddenly starts to throw up glass and blood, these scenes are great, especially the second one catched me, but that is made by the performances of her and everyone standing beside her.

Conjuring's Final isn't bad by any means, but It is so exaggerated in its simplicity of that makes sense. It's not bigger, it's not more intense, it's just overly-more exaggerated in the way it pays-off its scenario. The actual characters, especially the Main Cast, they deliver well and the chemistry of Lorraine and Ed is again what makes this film halfway good. I just think they're chemistry and love is perfect and felt through every scene of these films, especially in this one.

I enjoy it for what It is, but looking back, the first Conjuring was something that still gave you shivers weeks after watching only by thinking about it...

I just left the cinema, and there's a lot to share. Conjuring: The Last Rite opens really strong-the beginning and build-up are amazing, with a solid story foundation that pulls you in right away. Unfortunately, the ending didn't land for me. The tension and scares were there in parts, but they never fully hit the level I was hoping for. Compared to the first movie, which is still the best in the series for me, this one falls a bit short in delivering lasting chills.

That being said, the cast was great-the actors really carried their roles well and gave strong performances. Overall, it's worth watching if you're a fan of the franchise, but the payoff at the end just didn't match the promise of its opening.

I watched this in IMAX, so of course my expectations were pretty high for The Conjuring: The Last Rites. Maybe I set the bar a little too high, but honestly it didn't disappoint me.

What I liked:

• Solid emotional build-up.

• A satisfying ending.

• A few scenes actually made me flinch.

What didn't work for me:

• Way too predictable (though, to be fair, the Conjuring formula is easy to guess).

• A slow burn at the beginning.

• The music didn't feel scary enough.

• The ending felt a bit rushed.

The movie has a slow build-up but lacks interest in developing the story of the demon, or it had a rushed ending with a lot of questions not being answered. As the movie has a few sequels, we expect more as an audience. For me, The Conjuring 2 is still the best, with a perfect build-up and living up to the characters. It was a shame to see such a good story turn into another "fast food" movie.