India, Sept. 5 -- Back in 2013, James Wan's The Conjuring gave audiences a welcome jolt by dressing up retro haunted-house tricks in a slick modern package. The series quickly grew into an extended universe of cursed dolls, haunted nuns and demon-plagued families, but at the centre of it all were Ed and Lorraine Warren, played with unshakable conviction by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. After more than a decade, Last Rites is pitched as their grand send-off. Unfortunately, what should have been a chilling farewell feels more like a laboured sermon - one that runs long, creaks often and barely musters a handful of effective scares.

The film opens in the mid-'60s, as the Warrens juggle a demonic encounter with the birth of their daughter...