The Conjuring: Last Rites Features An Unexpected Nod To A Comedy Classic (And Its Sequel)

This article contains spoilers for "The Conjuring: Last Rites."

The study of the paranormal and parapsychology is a tricky business. Not only does it require a fervent belief in unnatural phenomena on your behalf, but it also requires others to believe in you, too. When it comes to the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren, the nagging doubt and suspicion one might have about their motives, their behavior, and other aspects can be pretty tough to get around. However, when we're talking about the Ed and Lorraine Warren of the "Conjuring" films, one is already expecting — nay, hoping — to see some paranormal activity, so they're more than willing to give the screen characters the benefit of the doubt.

One technique that the "Conjuring" films use is allowing Ed and Lorraine (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) to be narratively coded as underdogs. The movies don't eschew skepticism, in other words, but rather invite it, as seen with the character of Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) in "The Conjuring 2." With a secular, non-believer viewpoint accounted for and represented as derogatory or closed-minded, the films make Ed and Lorraine's belief not just more possible, but laudable. Given that "The Conjuring: Last Rites" is the fourth film in the main series (and ninth overall in the Conjuring universe), one might think that the movie wouldn't need to re-establish the Warrens' veracity. Yet the films, while heavily fictionalized, are not just horror flicks, but are about the Warrens as people, and something the couple experienced during the late '80s, when "Last Rites" is set, is a diminishment of belief in their field.

Ironically, it was a big-budget studio horror comedy classic which helped contribute to this renewed skepticism: 1984's "Ghostbusters." Early in "Last Rites," Ed and Lorraine are seen continuing to tour and lecture at college campuses as they have in the past, only this time they're speaking to just a handful of people. One student acts as a heckler, comparing the demonologist and medium to the Ghostbusters and referencing the Ray Parker Jr. song's refrain of "Who ya gonna call?" On the surface, this reference is a way of making Ed and Lorraine the underdogs of their story yet again, while commenting on how pop culture normalizes and desensitizes people to the unknown. Yet the filmmakers have pulled off a neat trick, as the "Ghostbusters" reference in "Last Rites" isn't just to the 1984 original, but also recalls the 1989 sequel, "Ghostbusters II," in which the Ghostbusters themselves are subjected to highly similar treatment.

"Ghostbusters II" tends to get a lot of flak for its plot essentially repeating the original "Ghostbusters," and some folks single out the concept of the city of New York rejecting and disbelieving the Ghostbusters over the course of five years as being implausible. Yet the concept of the Ghostbusters being underdogs again doesn't just make for better comedy, but it also speaks to how fickle the public can be, especially when skepticism enters the picture. At the beginning of the film, Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) have been reduced to taking side gigs as hired birthday party entertainers as they coast on the Ghostbusters' clearly diminished popularity. One tween heckler boy at the party they appear at insists that his father says they're "full of crap." Soon after, the throng of children disrupted a reprise of the Ghostbusters theme song by answering its refrain of "Who ya gonna call?" with "He-Man" instead.

Thus, the scene in "Last Rites" is essentially a double reference, one which sees the Warrens and the Ghostbusters suffer the same ordeal. For both the Warrens and the Ghostbusters, the fact that they're dealing with yet more skepticism isn't the thing that makes them weary in the moment. Instead, it's being faced with the reality that their popularity and influence have waned, meaning that the world is passing them by, for good or for ill. It's a sensation all of us feel at one point or another, and as such, it lets our sympathies go out to these characters that much more easily.

Adding another layer of irony to the moment in "Last Rites" is how Lorraine tries to undercut the heckler's "Ghostbusters" barbs by saying that she and Ed genuinely loved the movie. This probably isn't her just being polite, either. Dan Aykroyd is an avowed Spiritualist, and as such, he poured a great deal of his family's research into the paranormal (as well as his own) into the "Ghostbusters" script. Thus, the film popularized a ton of concepts and terminology that had heretofore been known mostly to parapsychologists. It's honestly pretty remarkable that general audiences have a working knowledge of things like ectoplasm thanks to "Ghostbusters," and it tracks that Ed and Lorraine Warren would consider the resulting popularization of their field encouraging.

While the "Conjuring" movies are not comedies by any measure, Ed and Lorraine absolutely function as characters in the same way that the Ghostbusters do (the '80s, 2010s, and 2020s versions, too). They're true believers in the paranormal who can weather the storm of skepticism, as their ultimate goal isn't to be popular but to help others in need. They're the rare heroes within the horror film, characters who aren't just survivors, but crusaders. You may not believe what they believe in, but that's not important for the films. All you need to do is — to borrow a phrase from another paranormal hero, Fox Mulder — want to believe.