Ben Freiler

The Conjuring: Last Rites was a good film. It wasn’t their strongest installment, and I think the writers decided to sacrifice some screentime that should have been used to scare us in trade for talking about family dynamics and setting up the Warrens for their happy ending. The acting was strong, but I wish they would have discussed how the Warrens got in possession of the mirror and why it decided to target Judy and kill her. But I get why Judy was targeted after that. The demon could have been an entity that targets specifically children or babies, adding to its “extreme evil”. But the writers really wanted to base the movie off of the real Smurl family case. Having the demon control other spirits was fine, but the demon deserved its own physical reveal that should have been truly terrifying. How they defeated the demon was kinda dumb and cheesy, but it also made sense because they discussed with the Smurls how demons get stronger by directly feeding on peoples’ fears. The film had some good camera work (the wedding dress shop scene) that built suspense. The reviewers saying there was no suspense are lying, there were some tense moments in this film. All in all, I try not to take peoples’ opinions on horror films too seriously because people rave about Weapons and that was truly a horrible, horrible plot-hole ridden film. The Conjuring definitely beats Weapons as the better 2025 summer horror film.

My review has some spoilers, so don’t read this if you care about that. We’re all entitled to our opinions, but I really don’t understand how people are rating this movie 5 stars. The acting was good and so were the few instances of gore (if that’s what you want in a horror film), but the story is convoluted and really doesn’t make sense if you take ten seconds to think about it. The movie breaks itself into acts that focus on specific characters, but this model only ended up serving as a way to introduce the characters so we know why they’re in the house during the finale and that’s all. There’s drama between some of the characters, but it ended up serving no purpose (like why did Justine and Paul need to be having an affair? Why did they both need to be alcoholics? Why did Paul need to be an abusive cop and get stabbed with James’ syringes constantly, and potentially contract Aids? The plot could have worked without these details). I guess really it was just to make them more unlikeable as characters, and therefore we might think “oh maybe they took the kids?” due to those flaws, but those red herrings fell completely flat if that’s the case. There’s not much development of the characters, no real discussion of the villain’s motivations for capturing the students (the audience can infer it because the villain states they’re sick and “needs the children”, but it’s never explicitly stated that they need their youth, nor do we ever see the villain getting younger unless you notice they had grown a little bit of hair by the end). The background of the villain is never discussed; she just arrives in town and is a problem, oh and she’s a witch with a plant. There’s imagery in some of the characters’ dreams that never reappear (like the assault rifle above the house). Also, ring cameras serve an important purpose in tracking down the children. One of the characters used a couple ring cameras and a paper map to triangulate where the students went. But like… none of the people who lived near the house the students ran to had ring cameras? Or noticed 17 students arrive at a single location at the same time? Idk I just wasn’t impressed with this film.

A good start to the new DC theatric universe. Not a perfect film, but it’s a film that is colorful and has a true comic aesthetic, and breaks away from the muted colors and brooding of the Nolan and Snyder films. I agree with others that the film is a breath of fresh air in that regard. I also really liked that the story centers on an older, established Superman instead of a Superman origin story. The film has a lot heart, and has a good mixture of seriousness, comedy, and action. With fine-tuning, the DCU will be capable of pushing out very strong films.

This show feels like the CW-ification of Goosebumps. They decided to take kid’s horror books and make it something else. Yes, I grew up in the 90s watching the original series, but I am by no means under the illusion the 1995 series was perfect. I have rewatched a lot of the old series and it does feel tropey through adult eyes. But what the 90s series actually did, was exist to scare kids! And I think this is something tv needs atm. An actual modern kids horror show that gives them exposure to horror, while not being overly freaky or gorey. And I don’t mean like Hotel Transylvania or Owl House where it’s just a regular kids show which is built around a supernatural world. I can’t think of a “Goosebumps” or “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” out right now. The closest was Creeped Out which ended like 5-6 years ago and had 2 seasons, and many ppl thought it was too scary for kids. Kids can handle it!