Conjuring – The time for judgment: an end to the airs of deja vu (critic)

End of game for the couple of paranormal investigators played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, in a very long – Routine episode of the horrific saga.

It’s time for the starting pot for the Warren spouses, superstar ghost hunters, in this fourth conjuring, twelve years after a first part signed James Wan, billions of dollars at the box office (which made it the most lucrative horror saga of all time) and spin-off in a nun. This episode announced as the last one follows the paranormal couple of investigators in what is presented as their most perilous adventure, with the mention “according to real facts”, supposed to make the chills redouble. Even if, on the screen, all that is not very creepy or original: just a new story of a house haunted by an evil spirit. The film, directed by Michael Chaves (already at the head of episode 3, under the influence of the devil, in 2021) can nevertheless charm at first, thanks to his small vintage grain, never unpleasant, and characteristic of the franchise-the action takes place this time in 1986, when the Warren, aging, tired, are in the process Rhyme first with ghosts.

Dispatched to a thorny case involving a mysterious magic mirror in a popular district of Pennsylvania, the Warren will face a surge of fairly banal visions, ba-ba of the horror debited by Chaves without much energy or invention. As in Conjuring 3, which we remember above all thanks to a nice sequence involving a water mattress, we cling here to details: a very bad scene in a fitting room, a new creepy doll, an almost subliminal image in a video cassette spent in slow motion, the sympathetic characterization of the large family tormented by the spirits, a good use of a wall phone … near everything. The film, too long (2h15!), Spends a lot of time in the privacy of the Warren, taking an interest in their daughter’s heart affairs (Mia Tomlinson), courted by a nice cop. The emphasis is therefore clear here on the SOAP foundations of the saga, playing with the public attachment for these familiar characters, which Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson now interpret in automatic pilot. Given the canon start of the film in the United States, it would seem that James Wan (still producer) was right to bet on the sympathy capital of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Besides, at this stage, and despite a last scene style of the swan, we can quietly bet they will come back.

By Michael Chaves, with Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson… Duration: 2h15. Released September 10, 2025