Sept. 4, 2025
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ Scared the Hell Out of Us and Warmed Our Hearts (Simultaneously)
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RSS Feed Amy and T.J. raced to see the first showing of The Conjuring’s final installment, and they say run, don’t walk to the theaters to see it! The movie, based on a true story, manages to create non-stop tension and fear and at the same time, brings a deeper emotional connection to Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-life paranormal investigators central to the movie. The film is so good, this may actually be our favorite movie of the entire Conjuring franchise!
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00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is late on Thursday, September fourth, and we wanted to come on because we want to tell you to run them, don't walk to the theater this weekend to see The Conjuring Last Rites. Yes, welcome to this late night edition of Amy and TJ. Certainly far past our bedtime. We decided to have a little date night, a little horror movie date night, in the middle of the week on a Thursday, and we got to be up in a few hours. Yeah, but this is worth talking.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: About it totally.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: You know what.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: We are prone to falling asleep sometimes as early as six pm, given our hours, and this week we actually traveled across I guess the Atlantic Ocean and almost ru up for a solid twenty two hours the night before. Only got five or six hours last night, and yet I am wide awake after having seen that delicious movie.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: This is the fourth in the franchise. We're told it is the final, but the Conjuring is, if you don't know, it is the most successful horror movie franchise in history. It is beloved. The two actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga who have headed this series are just magic on screen. This was the send off. It opened tonight. We couldn't wait, and we were there on night one. Your impression, Robes was.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: It was amazing. I want to purchase it as soon as I can and watch it many, many, many, many many more times.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: This is hard to say out loud because we don't want to be a victim of the moment. This might be the best in the franchise, and that's hard to say after their original Conjuring did what it did and still means what it means to us. This movie was just a good time start to finish.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: I felt like the way I described it, I felt my body was tense the entire time, and I felt like I was watching a Fourth of July fireworks finale for two hours and fifteen minutes. I just loved it. And look, I love the original Conjuring. It has a whole course a bunch of special meanings for me in so many ways. And then Countering two so good, that's probably my next favorite.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Oh yeah in phil England, that family and that little girl.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, God, I love that one. It's and then I love Conjuring three.
00:02:23
Speaker 3: Devil made me do it and I love that.
00:02:25
Speaker 2: One and a lot of creation.
00:02:27
Speaker 1: Oh Yeah, that's in the franchise as well. Anna Belle movies, the Nun movies, all of that is in the Conjuring universe. I'm sure everybody listening has seen at least one in probably several of those movies. And the cool thing about them as well, Ropes right, nobody died in the first Conjuring Do I have that right?
00:02:43
Speaker 2: Right? The whole family actually ended up surviving. Of course, it's based on people who have died before who are haunting them.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: But the point in so many horror movies, you think it's going to be a bloodbat slasher, and that's going to be nobody died in the first one, and they're not necessarily overwhelmingly violent movies. There is a storyline, there's always heart and family involved. This is probably the one, right Robes. It has the most heart with horror in the franchise for me.
00:03:11
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of these films are about good versus evil and about facing fears and finding hope and finding love and having that fright to actually bring you closer together. And this one had so much heart because it is the final movie that we will see that Powerhouse couple, I mean Patrick Wilson and via Formiga are just magic movie magic. Their chemistry is palpable. They talk about how they're such good friends off camera, and it makes so much sense because those two steal the show every single time. But they had it had extra heart and it look, if you don't love the movie, you might find it sappy, If you don't love the franchise, you might think it's corny when you're invested in this franchise way so many horror movie fans are, and certainly how we are. I loved every second of it. I loved being invested emotionally in the family that they were helping and in their family.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: I think that's where the heart comes in a little extra in this one is because Ed and Lorraine, the central characters, their own family finds itself in the middle of the demonic happenings, if you will, and the demon comes after their family, so it puts them dead center in that regard, and you know, having their daughter and it's became a family affair. At the end again, Ropes, I really have. We are hot out of the theater right now, and you know we came in here very excited and our energy was up. We couldn't wait to hit record and start talking. But then we got a little thrown off and a little annoyed because we went and read some reviews. Right, We googled some reviews, and we'll give you all the details in a second, but generally speaking, the reason we both just said, what the We almost got pissed.
00:05:00
Speaker 3: Some of the review headlines.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: Said, Yeah. I was like, did they watch the same movie that we just watched? And look, I love that we didn't read the reviews beforehand, because most of the time we do, and you go in with a certain level of expectation correct, and that can be helpful or hurtful. I'm so happy that we had no idea that so many critics did not feel the same way we did watching that movie. But you know what, to each their own. Our experience was incredible and to the point where I want to see if I could go see it again tomorrow, I would.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: And there are folks brogues at the beginning. I like this setup. At the beginning of the movie, We're not going to give it there will be no spoil Let's just said that at the beginning there will be no spoils here. But at the beginning of the movie, it took a few minutes, like a little bit before we saw Patrick Wilson and via Formika. There was a scene showing them in their younger years, and they had younger actors playing that role, so we didn't see them for a bit. Dude, there are some actors and sometimes you don't even know their names. There was just a piece a joy that came over me to see them show up on screen, like, ah, I mean good hands. And so when we this for us and horror movie fans and the conjuring fans, we love everything they do and we love these two characters. We almost took it personally to see somebody bashing.
00:06:25
Speaker 3: This movie, right.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, how dare you? That was movie magic. That was genius, the writing, the acting, the jump scares. I thought, they're talking. We'll get into the reviews, but I just couldn't disagree with them more. And I just had such a This may sound silly being in a horror movie, but I had a joyful experience. I've always described my experience with horror movies as safe fear, in a sense that you get the adrenaline rush and the thrill of feeling scared but knowing you're perfectly safe. And there's just this euphoria that I get when there is a good horror movie when they get me. When I mean, you saw me jump several times, you know what you.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: I've seen, oh god, one hundred horror movies. You were jumpier on this one that I'm used to. And there are times I was grabbing you and pulling your hand, like, don't do that, don't don't cover your eyes.
00:07:20
Speaker 2: Because I kind of well, I'm not fully covering your eyes. But when I know something's gonna happen, I just feel safer if I put my hands and look through my fingers and then and you're like stop, you're trying to pull my hands out. I was like, no, I feel unsafe right now.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: But that's the thing you do.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: You you feel like you're you always say it that way, unsafe, but feel it's safe.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: Thout like safe, danger like it's fear. You feel the fear and the rush of fear and the and the thrill of it, even but you're completely safe.
00:07:47
Speaker 1: There were some scenes in The Big Guy with the axe Oof. That guy is terrifying, and you do I felt like I was in danger, but I knew I wasn't gonna be harmed. There's a weird thing in a movie theater. Maybe we're certain people don't take, say, are wire to like horror movies? Yes, some are not. Yes, this is one I would recommend. If you think there's gonna be a lot of gore and whatnot, it's not overwhelming with that. But this has thrills that keep you on the edge of your seat and scare the hell out of you without even a jump scare. And that there are scenes that are just of dread, but nobody jumps. Nothing happens, no monster comes out, but the anticipation of it and you see something in the shadow in the background. This movie mastered, I'm telling you, two hours and fifteen minutes, flew it flew by bye and had almost all of it. You were tense, and that makes a funny. There were times where we were all scared to death and I had the biggest smile.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: On it in the theater. It's a blast.
00:08:52
Speaker 2: Oh, it was a blast. I loved it from start to finish. And yes, I'm always amazed at their ability to create scarier and scarier demons, but I thought they did such a good job of being creative with a scary demon and making it so creepy. I didn't want to see there are multiple demons in this one, or multiple ghost or hauntings within this house. But I was. I was like, please don't show that one again. And I love that they always give a nod to child toys dolls. There's always like something super creepy about some child toy that is familiar to all of us. Dolls that walk and talk. Oh, I love it too.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: In this one, that certainly had their moments and you cannot miss it. This movie also included the scariest mirror you're ever going to see in your life.
00:09:44
Speaker 3: This thing was it's.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: A floor mirror, floor link mirror, and it it was the central antagonists.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: Yes it was. It was the conduit right for the demons or the demon. But I look, if you're a horror movie fan, you know mirrors are never a good thing. That is where you see the ghosts, that is where you see yourself turn into a demon. That's where mirrors are not good. You know, think about all the scenes and horror movies and they mess with you. Sometimes when someone is looking in the medicine cabinet and then they close it, they close it is there gonna be a demon behind them, Candy Man. I mean, mirrors are always a huge part of horror movies, but it was just so brilliant, brilliantly used in this world, and.
00:10:26
Speaker 1: This one wasn't just the reflection like this mirror got physically involved. Oh it did at times. It is fan freaking fantastic, now a little bit. This is based on a true story. So these most of these conjuring movies are based on files from Ed and the Rain Warren who are considered pioneers in paranormal investigation. Some call them just Charlatan the Snake, a little salesman out there, but they are credited with bringing certainly paranormal activity and paranormal investigation into the mainstream. So this is based on one of the cases of Fan and West Pittston, Pennsylvania move into this house.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: It was eighty three, well they moved in seventy three, but they called the Warrens in nineteen eighty six, and they claimed from nineteen seventy three up until the Warrens came they were constantly abused by demon's ghosts in their.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: Home, terrorized and as their story goes, at least didn't. The dad even said he was sexually assaulted by yes, a demon in the house. So this was going on with his family. They to try to get help, actually called the media in and so they became kind of a media It was a media frenzy at their house. And this was one of the later cases for Ed and Lorraine. Their last they say mid eighties, So at that time, there's a lot more documentation, if you will, of this particular case because of the media. So you can google this one and find out a whole lot of information that this was a true story.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: So it's based on a true story, and the film the film's writers and directors who've been doing media tours when people started out asking questions about how much creative license they took, they said, yeah, we took a lot of theatrical choices because this isn't a documentary, this is a movie. So they have the basis of the story and then they fill in the fun parts with the family dynamics and what could have been going on in the home. They did have some of the They actually recreated some of the incidents that the family had described at the time, like the they say the demon threw their daughter down the stairs. You see that said they threw the dog against the wall. You actually see that in the movie too, So they did. Yeah, yeah, he's okay. He was okay in the end. But the point being is they took some of the stories, some of the accounts, but then they went to town on a lot of other things. Of course they did.
00:12:41
Speaker 1: Then there was the smirl family with their name. So it's based on this, this true story. Is there something you can point out that you didn't like, robes, that you had said I wish they hadn't done that, or just something you were a little.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Lukewarmal Hey, you know what, I'm sorry. I know some of the criticism is about the sappier moment, and they did have several of them, from the birth of their daughter, Judy, to Judy getting engaged to Judy's wedding. There was some barbecues and some family moments and some poignant mother to daughters. But guess what, I was there for it all. And I can see why people might criticize that as come on, stop it. I don't stop it with the sappy stuff. I just want to be scared. But I actually looked at it as an investment into the emotional story behind the haunting, and I loved it. I was there for it. So, yeah, is there anything I didn't like? I'm trying to think to.
00:13:32
Speaker 3: What you're saying.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: I appreciated the breaks sometime were they okay? They made me laugh, they made me smile, and Patrick Wilson had several good lines in there with the dynamic with his daughters, his boyfriend. So I appreciated the little breaks, and I like, you could let your shoulders down for a second.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: But it didn't last long.
00:13:51
Speaker 2: No, it didn't. I just thought they were so good at sprinkling in scary moments, creepy moments where you were anticipating things, and then you still have had loving moments and joyful moments all in between. I so, no, I actually don't think I have a criticism. And the one thing I thought I might have when I went into it was that it was going to be too long, because we're used to hour and a half hour and forty minutes, and especially later at night when we've been working all day and all week. I thought this might be a little too long, and this might drag on. I couldn't believe two hours and thirteen minutes had passed.
00:14:23
Speaker 1: Sorry, the horror movies don't last as long. You can't keep somebody's attention for that long. How many scares can you conjure up if you will? But so many of the scenes and the jump scares that did pay off started with a simple something. A lamp comes on at the little carousel was going, the little doll is the automatically doing something. They just built it up and up and up and up, and sometimes it did end with a jump scare, and sometimes it didn't, but when it didn't, you were still tense. It paid yes off.
00:14:54
Speaker 3: Yes, this movie was fantastic.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: I think I've burned a lot of calories during this movie because I was like on the edge of my seat literally.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: And the one thing we do want you folks out there who are conjuring franchise fans, they do us right in the end the end of this movie, Robes might have gotten to a point I was almost in tears, and it's hard to do that in the horror movie. But there was something beautiful about how they wrapped this movie up. They gave a nod to all of us fans. They gave a nod by putting in a couple familiar faces from previous movies, but they it.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: Was just sweet. It was so sweet.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: I turned to you and said, man, well, I talked about our future I've made. I'm really I'm walking out of a horror movie feeling sentimental and that absolutely happens, and certainly for you Conjuring franchise fans, They're gonna do it for us.
00:15:53
Speaker 3: In the end.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was amazing. No, I know, I felt the same way. I felt more in love with you at the end of the movie than I did when we walked into the theater.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: I know this sounds crazy to you all, but if you see the end of this movie, and certainly you Conjuring franchise fans, you will get it. I did mention you all that we were on a high when we walked into the house and then we saw some of the reviews and saw they bad mouth and our franchise in this movie, and our mood change will tell you what others say is the problem with this movie.
00:16:28
Speaker 4: Stay here, all right, folks.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: We are continuing now the most successful movie franchise horror movie franchise in history, the Conjuring franchise, wrapping up at least the Conjuring series, the final movie and the Conjuring franchise, the last Rites opening this weekend Tonight Thursday, opening night. Robes and I, as horror movie fans that we are, we could not wait. We had to go see it tonight. So we're coming in on a high, coming in hot recording late tonight and Robes to say, it's the most successful in MoU horror movie history. It's made somewhere around two and a half billion dollars as a franchise, and so far, so good. Even though it's opening night, this one is anticipated to have a good weekend, that's right.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: So some of the early numbers are already coming in from tonight. So tonight was the first night you could see it in certain cities. It's called previews because technically tomorrow, Friday, September fifth, is opening day. But there are already projections that it's going to make as much as potentially eight million just on Thursday, and the showings didn't start until three pm, and again they were few and far between. We saw the first one here that we saw in New York City, and so they believe that that could set a preview record for the Conjuring franchise. So that's remarkable, and they believe this is going to put the movie on track to be making forty million plus. Some people are saying eighty million globe even Monday Friday into Monday for this film, so it's expected to handily be number one at the box office and maybe even said its own record.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: Those are huge numbers for a horrib movie. That's huge and the reach. I mean this friend well, having twenty.
00:18:18
Speaker 3: Four when was the first one?
00:18:19
Speaker 2: Twenty thirteen?
00:18:20
Speaker 3: Third? Damn.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: I know this because I came home from the hospital after my double mistectomy and it had just started streaming, and my brother surprised me that night to hang with me and be there with me, and we sat down and we watched The Conjuring for the first time together. The night I came home, I was still bandaged up, and it was like my first moment of joy. Again. Sounds funny when you're thinking about a horror movie, but the Conjuring holds such a special place in my heart because it really brought me my first laugh, my first bit of joy, my first moment to escape everything that was happening to me. And I remember joking saying, hey, things could be worse. At least I'm not demonically possessed.
00:19:03
Speaker 3: I'm still not sure about that. On some days, Baby.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: Movie, I set you right up for that God that was ear welcome.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: You know, even this late at night with little sleep, I can still pick them up when you tell them, now, what was it how much they're expected to make this weekend?
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Anywhere between? It's a forty million, they say, plus deep into the forty million mark they believe for the weekend, and then globally maybe as much as eighty million plus.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: So numbers like that we try to put in some kind of context. Remember what would most people say the biggest horror movie of the year was. You might say Ciner Yeah, right, Centers. That one did sixty million globally in the opening weekend. I think forty eight domestically. So when you compare something that we saw as a wild success, yeah, this year again and this is just horror movies don't do this. Horror movies just don't do these types of numbers. This is fantastic. And we were so we were running. We could wait to get to these microphones and start talking. But you had to go look up reviews, didn't you rogues?
00:20:05
Speaker 2: I did, And you know what, I really hope that these don't discourage anyone from going to see this movie. And maybe I will say this, I have read a poor review of a movie gone in anyway with a low expectation and been blown away at how good it actually was. So this is obviously all subjective, but yes, I can read a few headlines the New York Times the Conjuring Last Rights review a disappointing send off. The ap wasn't as bad. The Conjuring Last Rights ends the franchise with a mix of scares and sentiment. I do think that that makes a lot of sense. But the Conjuring Last Rights review to to po faced. This is the Scotsman, so I don't know if that's a scott thing to say, but it didn't sound good, you know, it's it's I think people. From what I read again, the criticism was that the jump scares were lame, which totally disagree, and that the sentiment was just too much. It was too sappy. They didn't like it. They didn't like it, and they thought it was too slow of a start.
00:21:10
Speaker 1: Again, to each his own, that's fair right to each for her own.
00:21:15
Speaker 3: We just couldn't disagree in more.
00:21:21
Speaker 1: Certain terms with that because this will and we consider ourselves quite frankly, we're not We.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: Don't study film. No, we weren't trained.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: In school for what to look for and cinematic brilliance. All we are is viewers. All we are two people who love horror movies. We have seen enough horror movies that I would put our expertise up.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Against I actually would do.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: We are kind of qualified for this to a certain degree.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: How many times would you say, we have watched just the original contract? Oh Christ, don't say one hundred times exactly. I mean that might sound weird to some people, but dozens and dozens of times.
00:22:00
Speaker 3: It stays on.
00:22:01
Speaker 1: Sometimes we take a moment because I think when the girls were at the house this summer, it happened a few times where they're sleeping in the other room. You and I are working in the front. It's three four, five am, dark outside, and all you hear on the TV, ah, you scream, women screaming because they're being chased by a killer in the woods. Because we have a horror movie on in the background as we're working at three four in the morning. That's what we do. That's bizarre, but we love horror. What was the last movie we went to in the theater. You know what, out of a year, if we go to, oh, fifteen movies, how many of them are non horror movies? Out of ten we see maybe one, We own maybe one to theaters to see horror movies.
00:22:43
Speaker 2: We just get super excited about them because of all the things we mentioned, and when we see a good one, I feel like we know one at least. I just I would just urge anybody if you even and I like what you said because the Conjuring series, when people say, well, I don't really like Gore, and then watch the Conjuring because it really is not about the Gore. It isn't about torture, but if you are really really scared. I used to always joke because I love supernatural ones the most because they're the scariest because there's no lock for the devil. You know, you can't lock your doors, you can't set your alarm, not gonna help. You can't even call in a priest. I was like, you can't even call the Catholic like the Vatican, you still might be in trouble. So I have always appreciated the supernatural ones because they're just creepy and scary, and believe me, I have regretted my love of horror movies. When I'm alone in a hotel room, I feel like that is when I get scared the most. I'm like, why why do I watch these things? Why? And then I finally fall asleep and can't wait for the next horror movie.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: You all, but I guess what three categories of folks on this one. Look, if you're a horror movie fan, a horror movie buff, you're gonna go see this anyway. But if you are, this is a must see. If you're not a horror movie fan at all, like Robes just said, this is one that you should consider to take in because short of I can remember one scene that might qualify as gory, but that was that was a demon on demon crime, so it's not as bad. And the other category of folks are just kind of on the fence if you're just kind of on the fans.
00:24:24
Speaker 3: And it is worth it.
00:24:28
Speaker 1: It is worth it to every category, no matter if your love hate horrors are on the fence. About him, this is worth the time, absolutely.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: And you know what I wanted to rap with, I just actually saw a really positive review headline that I think would sum up exactly how we felt about the movie. The Conjuring Last, writes review Michael Chaves, balances genuinely terrifying moments with heart in a successful send off for the Warrens. That is exactly what I would have said as well.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: This was masterfully done. Thank you for this. As fans, we say thank you for what you all did to give the right kind of send off.
00:25:11
Speaker 3: Sweetart. That scene at the end, when.
00:25:13
Speaker 1: We saw those familiar faces, we both looked at each other and we just we had all the feels.
00:25:19
Speaker 2: We'll just say, there's a wedding and there are some very special familiar guests. If you're a fan of the franchise.
00:25:25
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we hopped on late night. We might not make this a habit, but this was fun when there's something to talk about. So please go see it. Support them because we love it and we want everybody to love Horror Booths. So for now, I guess we're going to be working here in a All right, folks, we're headed to bed y'all for the morning ride.
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is late on Thursday, September fourth, and we wanted to come on because we want to tell you to run them, don't walk to the theater this weekend to see The Conjuring Last Rites. Yes, welcome to this late night edition of Amy and TJ. Certainly far past our bedtime. We decided to have a little date night, a little horror movie date night, in the middle of the week on a Thursday, and we got to be up in a few hours. Yeah, but this is worth talking.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: About it totally.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: You know what.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: We are prone to falling asleep sometimes as early as six pm, given our hours, and this week we actually traveled across I guess the Atlantic Ocean and almost ru up for a solid twenty two hours the night before. Only got five or six hours last night, and yet I am wide awake after having seen that delicious movie.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: This is the fourth in the franchise. We're told it is the final, but the Conjuring is, if you don't know, it is the most successful horror movie franchise in history. It is beloved. The two actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga who have headed this series are just magic on screen. This was the send off. It opened tonight. We couldn't wait, and we were there on night one. Your impression, Robes was.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: It was amazing. I want to purchase it as soon as I can and watch it many, many, many, many many more times.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: This is hard to say out loud because we don't want to be a victim of the moment. This might be the best in the franchise, and that's hard to say after their original Conjuring did what it did and still means what it means to us. This movie was just a good time start to finish.
00:01:52
Speaker 2: I felt like the way I described it, I felt my body was tense the entire time, and I felt like I was watching a Fourth of July fireworks finale for two hours and fifteen minutes. I just loved it. And look, I love the original Conjuring. It has a whole course a bunch of special meanings for me in so many ways. And then Countering two so good, that's probably my next favorite.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Oh yeah in phil England, that family and that little girl.
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, God, I love that one. It's and then I love Conjuring three.
00:02:23
Speaker 3: Devil made me do it and I love that.
00:02:25
Speaker 2: One and a lot of creation.
00:02:27
Speaker 1: Oh Yeah, that's in the franchise as well. Anna Belle movies, the Nun movies, all of that is in the Conjuring universe. I'm sure everybody listening has seen at least one in probably several of those movies. And the cool thing about them as well, Ropes right, nobody died in the first Conjuring Do I have that right?
00:02:43
Speaker 2: Right? The whole family actually ended up surviving. Of course, it's based on people who have died before who are haunting them.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: But the point in so many horror movies, you think it's going to be a bloodbat slasher, and that's going to be nobody died in the first one, and they're not necessarily overwhelmingly violent movies. There is a storyline, there's always heart and family involved. This is probably the one, right Robes. It has the most heart with horror in the franchise for me.
00:03:11
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot of these films are about good versus evil and about facing fears and finding hope and finding love and having that fright to actually bring you closer together. And this one had so much heart because it is the final movie that we will see that Powerhouse couple, I mean Patrick Wilson and via Formiga are just magic movie magic. Their chemistry is palpable. They talk about how they're such good friends off camera, and it makes so much sense because those two steal the show every single time. But they had it had extra heart and it look, if you don't love the movie, you might find it sappy, If you don't love the franchise, you might think it's corny when you're invested in this franchise way so many horror movie fans are, and certainly how we are. I loved every second of it. I loved being invested emotionally in the family that they were helping and in their family.
00:04:11
Speaker 1: I think that's where the heart comes in a little extra in this one is because Ed and Lorraine, the central characters, their own family finds itself in the middle of the demonic happenings, if you will, and the demon comes after their family, so it puts them dead center in that regard, and you know, having their daughter and it's became a family affair. At the end again, Ropes, I really have. We are hot out of the theater right now, and you know we came in here very excited and our energy was up. We couldn't wait to hit record and start talking. But then we got a little thrown off and a little annoyed because we went and read some reviews. Right, We googled some reviews, and we'll give you all the details in a second, but generally speaking, the reason we both just said, what the We almost got pissed.
00:05:00
Speaker 3: Some of the review headlines.
00:05:01
Speaker 2: Said, Yeah. I was like, did they watch the same movie that we just watched? And look, I love that we didn't read the reviews beforehand, because most of the time we do, and you go in with a certain level of expectation correct, and that can be helpful or hurtful. I'm so happy that we had no idea that so many critics did not feel the same way we did watching that movie. But you know what, to each their own. Our experience was incredible and to the point where I want to see if I could go see it again tomorrow, I would.
00:05:34
Speaker 1: And there are folks brogues at the beginning. I like this setup. At the beginning of the movie, We're not going to give it there will be no spoil Let's just said that at the beginning there will be no spoils here. But at the beginning of the movie, it took a few minutes, like a little bit before we saw Patrick Wilson and via Formika. There was a scene showing them in their younger years, and they had younger actors playing that role, so we didn't see them for a bit. Dude, there are some actors and sometimes you don't even know their names. There was just a piece a joy that came over me to see them show up on screen, like, ah, I mean good hands. And so when we this for us and horror movie fans and the conjuring fans, we love everything they do and we love these two characters. We almost took it personally to see somebody bashing.
00:06:25
Speaker 3: This movie, right.
00:06:27
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, how dare you? That was movie magic. That was genius, the writing, the acting, the jump scares. I thought, they're talking. We'll get into the reviews, but I just couldn't disagree with them more. And I just had such a This may sound silly being in a horror movie, but I had a joyful experience. I've always described my experience with horror movies as safe fear, in a sense that you get the adrenaline rush and the thrill of feeling scared but knowing you're perfectly safe. And there's just this euphoria that I get when there is a good horror movie when they get me. When I mean, you saw me jump several times, you know what you.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: I've seen, oh god, one hundred horror movies. You were jumpier on this one that I'm used to. And there are times I was grabbing you and pulling your hand, like, don't do that, don't don't cover your eyes.
00:07:20
Speaker 2: Because I kind of well, I'm not fully covering your eyes. But when I know something's gonna happen, I just feel safer if I put my hands and look through my fingers and then and you're like stop, you're trying to pull my hands out. I was like, no, I feel unsafe right now.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: But that's the thing you do.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: You you feel like you're you always say it that way, unsafe, but feel it's safe.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: Thout like safe, danger like it's fear. You feel the fear and the rush of fear and the and the thrill of it, even but you're completely safe.
00:07:47
Speaker 1: There were some scenes in The Big Guy with the axe Oof. That guy is terrifying, and you do I felt like I was in danger, but I knew I wasn't gonna be harmed. There's a weird thing in a movie theater. Maybe we're certain people don't take, say, are wire to like horror movies? Yes, some are not. Yes, this is one I would recommend. If you think there's gonna be a lot of gore and whatnot, it's not overwhelming with that. But this has thrills that keep you on the edge of your seat and scare the hell out of you without even a jump scare. And that there are scenes that are just of dread, but nobody jumps. Nothing happens, no monster comes out, but the anticipation of it and you see something in the shadow in the background. This movie mastered, I'm telling you, two hours and fifteen minutes, flew it flew by bye and had almost all of it. You were tense, and that makes a funny. There were times where we were all scared to death and I had the biggest smile.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: On it in the theater. It's a blast.
00:08:52
Speaker 2: Oh, it was a blast. I loved it from start to finish. And yes, I'm always amazed at their ability to create scarier and scarier demons, but I thought they did such a good job of being creative with a scary demon and making it so creepy. I didn't want to see there are multiple demons in this one, or multiple ghost or hauntings within this house. But I was. I was like, please don't show that one again. And I love that they always give a nod to child toys dolls. There's always like something super creepy about some child toy that is familiar to all of us. Dolls that walk and talk. Oh, I love it too.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: In this one, that certainly had their moments and you cannot miss it. This movie also included the scariest mirror you're ever going to see in your life.
00:09:44
Speaker 3: This thing was it's.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: A floor mirror, floor link mirror, and it it was the central antagonists.
00:09:52
Speaker 2: Yes it was. It was the conduit right for the demons or the demon. But I look, if you're a horror movie fan, you know mirrors are never a good thing. That is where you see the ghosts, that is where you see yourself turn into a demon. That's where mirrors are not good. You know, think about all the scenes and horror movies and they mess with you. Sometimes when someone is looking in the medicine cabinet and then they close it, they close it is there gonna be a demon behind them, Candy Man. I mean, mirrors are always a huge part of horror movies, but it was just so brilliant, brilliantly used in this world, and.
00:10:26
Speaker 1: This one wasn't just the reflection like this mirror got physically involved. Oh it did at times. It is fan freaking fantastic, now a little bit. This is based on a true story. So these most of these conjuring movies are based on files from Ed and the Rain Warren who are considered pioneers in paranormal investigation. Some call them just Charlatan the Snake, a little salesman out there, but they are credited with bringing certainly paranormal activity and paranormal investigation into the mainstream. So this is based on one of the cases of Fan and West Pittston, Pennsylvania move into this house.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: It was eighty three, well they moved in seventy three, but they called the Warrens in nineteen eighty six, and they claimed from nineteen seventy three up until the Warrens came they were constantly abused by demon's ghosts in their.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: Home, terrorized and as their story goes, at least didn't. The dad even said he was sexually assaulted by yes, a demon in the house. So this was going on with his family. They to try to get help, actually called the media in and so they became kind of a media It was a media frenzy at their house. And this was one of the later cases for Ed and Lorraine. Their last they say mid eighties, So at that time, there's a lot more documentation, if you will, of this particular case because of the media. So you can google this one and find out a whole lot of information that this was a true story.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: So it's based on a true story, and the film the film's writers and directors who've been doing media tours when people started out asking questions about how much creative license they took, they said, yeah, we took a lot of theatrical choices because this isn't a documentary, this is a movie. So they have the basis of the story and then they fill in the fun parts with the family dynamics and what could have been going on in the home. They did have some of the They actually recreated some of the incidents that the family had described at the time, like the they say the demon threw their daughter down the stairs. You see that said they threw the dog against the wall. You actually see that in the movie too, So they did. Yeah, yeah, he's okay. He was okay in the end. But the point being is they took some of the stories, some of the accounts, but then they went to town on a lot of other things. Of course they did.
00:12:41
Speaker 1: Then there was the smirl family with their name. So it's based on this, this true story. Is there something you can point out that you didn't like, robes, that you had said I wish they hadn't done that, or just something you were a little.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Lukewarmal Hey, you know what, I'm sorry. I know some of the criticism is about the sappier moment, and they did have several of them, from the birth of their daughter, Judy, to Judy getting engaged to Judy's wedding. There was some barbecues and some family moments and some poignant mother to daughters. But guess what, I was there for it all. And I can see why people might criticize that as come on, stop it. I don't stop it with the sappy stuff. I just want to be scared. But I actually looked at it as an investment into the emotional story behind the haunting, and I loved it. I was there for it. So, yeah, is there anything I didn't like? I'm trying to think to.
00:13:32
Speaker 3: What you're saying.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: I appreciated the breaks sometime were they okay? They made me laugh, they made me smile, and Patrick Wilson had several good lines in there with the dynamic with his daughters, his boyfriend. So I appreciated the little breaks, and I like, you could let your shoulders down for a second.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: But it didn't last long.
00:13:51
Speaker 2: No, it didn't. I just thought they were so good at sprinkling in scary moments, creepy moments where you were anticipating things, and then you still have had loving moments and joyful moments all in between. I so, no, I actually don't think I have a criticism. And the one thing I thought I might have when I went into it was that it was going to be too long, because we're used to hour and a half hour and forty minutes, and especially later at night when we've been working all day and all week. I thought this might be a little too long, and this might drag on. I couldn't believe two hours and thirteen minutes had passed.
00:14:23
Speaker 1: Sorry, the horror movies don't last as long. You can't keep somebody's attention for that long. How many scares can you conjure up if you will? But so many of the scenes and the jump scares that did pay off started with a simple something. A lamp comes on at the little carousel was going, the little doll is the automatically doing something. They just built it up and up and up and up, and sometimes it did end with a jump scare, and sometimes it didn't, but when it didn't, you were still tense. It paid yes off.
00:14:54
Speaker 3: Yes, this movie was fantastic.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: I think I've burned a lot of calories during this movie because I was like on the edge of my seat literally.
00:15:02
Speaker 1: And the one thing we do want you folks out there who are conjuring franchise fans, they do us right in the end the end of this movie, Robes might have gotten to a point I was almost in tears, and it's hard to do that in the horror movie. But there was something beautiful about how they wrapped this movie up. They gave a nod to all of us fans. They gave a nod by putting in a couple familiar faces from previous movies, but they it.
00:15:33
Speaker 3: Was just sweet. It was so sweet.
00:15:37
Speaker 1: I turned to you and said, man, well, I talked about our future I've made. I'm really I'm walking out of a horror movie feeling sentimental and that absolutely happens, and certainly for you Conjuring franchise fans, They're gonna do it for us.
00:15:53
Speaker 3: In the end.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was amazing. No, I know, I felt the same way. I felt more in love with you at the end of the movie than I did when we walked into the theater.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: I know this sounds crazy to you all, but if you see the end of this movie, and certainly you Conjuring franchise fans, you will get it. I did mention you all that we were on a high when we walked into the house and then we saw some of the reviews and saw they bad mouth and our franchise in this movie, and our mood change will tell you what others say is the problem with this movie.
00:16:28
Speaker 4: Stay here, all right, folks.
00:16:38
Speaker 1: We are continuing now the most successful movie franchise horror movie franchise in history, the Conjuring franchise, wrapping up at least the Conjuring series, the final movie and the Conjuring franchise, the last Rites opening this weekend Tonight Thursday, opening night. Robes and I, as horror movie fans that we are, we could not wait. We had to go see it tonight. So we're coming in on a high, coming in hot recording late tonight and Robes to say, it's the most successful in MoU horror movie history. It's made somewhere around two and a half billion dollars as a franchise, and so far, so good. Even though it's opening night, this one is anticipated to have a good weekend, that's right.
00:17:18
Speaker 2: So some of the early numbers are already coming in from tonight. So tonight was the first night you could see it in certain cities. It's called previews because technically tomorrow, Friday, September fifth, is opening day. But there are already projections that it's going to make as much as potentially eight million just on Thursday, and the showings didn't start until three pm, and again they were few and far between. We saw the first one here that we saw in New York City, and so they believe that that could set a preview record for the Conjuring franchise. So that's remarkable, and they believe this is going to put the movie on track to be making forty million plus. Some people are saying eighty million globe even Monday Friday into Monday for this film, so it's expected to handily be number one at the box office and maybe even said its own record.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: Those are huge numbers for a horrib movie. That's huge and the reach. I mean this friend well, having twenty.
00:18:18
Speaker 3: Four when was the first one?
00:18:19
Speaker 2: Twenty thirteen?
00:18:20
Speaker 3: Third? Damn.
00:18:21
Speaker 2: I know this because I came home from the hospital after my double mistectomy and it had just started streaming, and my brother surprised me that night to hang with me and be there with me, and we sat down and we watched The Conjuring for the first time together. The night I came home, I was still bandaged up, and it was like my first moment of joy. Again. Sounds funny when you're thinking about a horror movie, but the Conjuring holds such a special place in my heart because it really brought me my first laugh, my first bit of joy, my first moment to escape everything that was happening to me. And I remember joking saying, hey, things could be worse. At least I'm not demonically possessed.
00:19:03
Speaker 3: I'm still not sure about that. On some days, Baby.
00:19:07
Speaker 2: Movie, I set you right up for that God that was ear welcome.
00:19:10
Speaker 1: You know, even this late at night with little sleep, I can still pick them up when you tell them, now, what was it how much they're expected to make this weekend?
00:19:17
Speaker 2: Anywhere between? It's a forty million, they say, plus deep into the forty million mark they believe for the weekend, and then globally maybe as much as eighty million plus.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: So numbers like that we try to put in some kind of context. Remember what would most people say the biggest horror movie of the year was. You might say Ciner Yeah, right, Centers. That one did sixty million globally in the opening weekend. I think forty eight domestically. So when you compare something that we saw as a wild success, yeah, this year again and this is just horror movies don't do this. Horror movies just don't do these types of numbers. This is fantastic. And we were so we were running. We could wait to get to these microphones and start talking. But you had to go look up reviews, didn't you rogues?
00:20:05
Speaker 2: I did, And you know what, I really hope that these don't discourage anyone from going to see this movie. And maybe I will say this, I have read a poor review of a movie gone in anyway with a low expectation and been blown away at how good it actually was. So this is obviously all subjective, but yes, I can read a few headlines the New York Times the Conjuring Last Rights review a disappointing send off. The ap wasn't as bad. The Conjuring Last Rights ends the franchise with a mix of scares and sentiment. I do think that that makes a lot of sense. But the Conjuring Last Rights review to to po faced. This is the Scotsman, so I don't know if that's a scott thing to say, but it didn't sound good, you know, it's it's I think people. From what I read again, the criticism was that the jump scares were lame, which totally disagree, and that the sentiment was just too much. It was too sappy. They didn't like it. They didn't like it, and they thought it was too slow of a start.
00:21:10
Speaker 1: Again, to each his own, that's fair right to each for her own.
00:21:15
Speaker 3: We just couldn't disagree in more.
00:21:21
Speaker 1: Certain terms with that because this will and we consider ourselves quite frankly, we're not We.
00:21:28
Speaker 3: Don't study film. No, we weren't trained.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: In school for what to look for and cinematic brilliance. All we are is viewers. All we are two people who love horror movies. We have seen enough horror movies that I would put our expertise up.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: Against I actually would do.
00:21:45
Speaker 1: We are kind of qualified for this to a certain degree.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: How many times would you say, we have watched just the original contract? Oh Christ, don't say one hundred times exactly. I mean that might sound weird to some people, but dozens and dozens of times.
00:22:00
Speaker 3: It stays on.
00:22:01
Speaker 1: Sometimes we take a moment because I think when the girls were at the house this summer, it happened a few times where they're sleeping in the other room. You and I are working in the front. It's three four, five am, dark outside, and all you hear on the TV, ah, you scream, women screaming because they're being chased by a killer in the woods. Because we have a horror movie on in the background as we're working at three four in the morning. That's what we do. That's bizarre, but we love horror. What was the last movie we went to in the theater. You know what, out of a year, if we go to, oh, fifteen movies, how many of them are non horror movies? Out of ten we see maybe one, We own maybe one to theaters to see horror movies.
00:22:43
Speaker 2: We just get super excited about them because of all the things we mentioned, and when we see a good one, I feel like we know one at least. I just I would just urge anybody if you even and I like what you said because the Conjuring series, when people say, well, I don't really like Gore, and then watch the Conjuring because it really is not about the Gore. It isn't about torture, but if you are really really scared. I used to always joke because I love supernatural ones the most because they're the scariest because there's no lock for the devil. You know, you can't lock your doors, you can't set your alarm, not gonna help. You can't even call in a priest. I was like, you can't even call the Catholic like the Vatican, you still might be in trouble. So I have always appreciated the supernatural ones because they're just creepy and scary, and believe me, I have regretted my love of horror movies. When I'm alone in a hotel room, I feel like that is when I get scared the most. I'm like, why why do I watch these things? Why? And then I finally fall asleep and can't wait for the next horror movie.
00:23:42
Speaker 1: You all, but I guess what three categories of folks on this one. Look, if you're a horror movie fan, a horror movie buff, you're gonna go see this anyway. But if you are, this is a must see. If you're not a horror movie fan at all, like Robes just said, this is one that you should consider to take in because short of I can remember one scene that might qualify as gory, but that was that was a demon on demon crime, so it's not as bad. And the other category of folks are just kind of on the fence if you're just kind of on the fans.
00:24:24
Speaker 3: And it is worth it.
00:24:28
Speaker 1: It is worth it to every category, no matter if your love hate horrors are on the fence. About him, this is worth the time, absolutely.
00:24:35
Speaker 2: And you know what I wanted to rap with, I just actually saw a really positive review headline that I think would sum up exactly how we felt about the movie. The Conjuring Last, writes review Michael Chaves, balances genuinely terrifying moments with heart in a successful send off for the Warrens. That is exactly what I would have said as well.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: This was masterfully done. Thank you for this. As fans, we say thank you for what you all did to give the right kind of send off.
00:25:11
Speaker 3: Sweetart. That scene at the end, when.
00:25:13
Speaker 1: We saw those familiar faces, we both looked at each other and we just we had all the feels.
00:25:19
Speaker 2: We'll just say, there's a wedding and there are some very special familiar guests. If you're a fan of the franchise.
00:25:25
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we hopped on late night. We might not make this a habit, but this was fun when there's something to talk about. So please go see it. Support them because we love it and we want everybody to love Horror Booths. So for now, I guess we're going to be working here in a All right, folks, we're headed to bed y'all for the morning ride.