I’m sure that when The Conjuring came out back in 2013, no-one guessed it would echo Marvel, launching a universe comprising nine movies (so far!) and birthing several modern horror icons in Annabelle and Valak. If you ask me about favourites, it has to be The Conjuring 2 (I still lament the loss of the planned Crooked Man film!). So when I had the opportunity to attend the immersive experience promoting the fourth entry in the mainline series, The Conjuring: Last Rites, I arrived with bells on.
Given the free promotional nature of the experience, it had a brief runtime of two scenes over fifteen-minutes. The premise is that attendees are visitors to the Warren’s infamous artifact room with a guide greeting us and pointing out some of the more interesting items. Naturally, something soon goes awry, and we’re tasked with scouring the room for something precious to the Warrens. Each time we got a little closer to completing our aim, the room reacted in all the expected ways. Lights cut out, objects disappeared, and things escalated to a point where we had to evacuate the room, accompanied by a priest. He herded us into the attic of all places! Here, the relative subtlety of the artifact room gave way to an all-out spectral assault where every corner harboured a new threat and a safe exit seemed like an unsure thing.
For a brief experience, this was great fun, dropping you into one of the most iconic locations of the franchise with the Annabelle doll being the obvious centrepiece. The two cast members we interacted with were great, although the tour guide had a much easier ride than the priest! The execution was effortless, using plenty of misdirection to make the spooks and other unwelcome entities appear out of thin air! I would say the only slight downside was that the second half of the experience made use of elements from the new movie. As The Conjuring: Last Rites hadn’t released until after this experience’s run, those moments would have been unfamiliar to guests. Luckily, I had attended a preview of the film a few days prior, so I could appreciate all the references. Obviously, given that the event existed to promote the new release, it makes total sense to feature pieces from it. However, it’s much more fun when you come face to face with characters you’re already familiar with.
After the show, goodie bags were handed out to us alongside a cocktail to help calm our nerves. I plumped for The Devil’s Breath, which had a nice lot of spice to it! All in all, the experience celebrated the release of the new movie fantastically, and thanks to Warner Brothers for putting it on!
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