I kept thinking the subtitle was "Final Rites" and kept thinking that was stupid. Turns out, that was stupid, because that isn't the subtitle!
The Smarls are a family, eight of them, living in one house, when a dark spirit enters via a mirror. A mirror, as it happens, that has a connection to the Warrens. So who is the demon really after?
I vaguely recall the Smarls, but can't recall any specifics. Not that it matters, because the Warrens simply got story rights to whatever events happened and then got ghost writers to write it up and add in whatever random spooky stuff they could come up with. Charlatans supreme.
Aside from that, this movie takes a long time to get going. Compare the first movie in which we are "bam, ghosts, Warrens!", to this in which it is over an hour before the Warrens are even aware of the problem! The focus here in on their daughter, Judy, and how Judy sees bad things so Lorraine taught her to keep those bad things out... and already I could tell "hey you know what sticking your head in the sand leads to? Being overwhelmed when the bad things actually come for you!" and I was right, that was one of the lessons of the movie!
The acting is fine. The ghosts are... just people in makeup. Someone in white makeup smiling is scary? I'd say someone is channeling their clown fear here. There are a few jump scares, but the movie doesn't lean on that, but rather more slow building atmosphere that doesn't at all get undercut when the CGI effects take over (note: they totally do).
This is the last one? We can only hope so. The Warrens may have brought prominence to the paranormal (and there were plenty of others doing that at the time), but Lorraine is as much a medium as I am a small...
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