Most horror movies are pretty straightforward. There’s usually a serial killer or evil entity on the loose, and it’s up to a group of regular people to bring them down. More often than not, they succeed after losing a friend or two, but there are some cases in which the monster comes out victorious. Allowing evil to win opens the door to many possibilities, including building an entire cinematic universe. The Conjuring franchise takes that angle and runs with it, pitting the Ed and Lorraine Warren, based on the real-life paranormal investigators, against a whole host of dark spirits that don’t know how to take no for an answer.
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One of the biggest motivators for Ed and Lorraine to continuously put their lives on the line is their daughter, Judy Warren, who deserves to grow up in a world that doesn’t require living in fear. The Conjuring movies and their spinoffs put Judy through the wringer, but life behind the scenes isn’t easy for the character, either. The franchise actually creates a strange continuity issue for her that’s pretty hard for me to look past.
Judy Warren Keeps the Same Face for Most of The Conjuring Franchise
The Warrens’ adventures on the big screen begin in 2013’s The Conjuring, when the Perron family moves into a house in Rhode Island that doesn’t stay quiet at night. Since Ed and Lorraine are famous, the Perrons reach out to them and ask them to investigate. It becomes clear quickly that an evil spirit is on the loose that wants to do the family harm. After learning the witch’s name, Bathsheba Sherman, the ghost-fighting duo gets close to sending it to where it belongs, but she doesn’t go out without a fight, going after Judy. Being attacked by Bathsheba sets Judy on the same path as her mother, where she discovers her own powers.
Since the first few Conjuring movies pick up not long after the previous one, the same actress, Sterling Jerins, is able to play Judy, showing her as she goes from a terrified child to a more capable teenager. However, she’s always playing second fiddle to her parents, who hog all the attention with their investigations. It isn’t until 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home that Judy gets to be the star of the show, but the movie’s place in the timeline complicates matters. Since the third Annabelle movie takes place only a year after the first Conjuring, Jerins doesn’t reprise her role, handing the reins over to Mckenna Grace. Watching another actress bring Judy to life is a tough pill to swallow, especially since Jerins returns in 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and 2023’s The Nun II. Unfortunately, despite extending an olive branch, the timeline screws Jerins over again.
The Final Conjuring Movie Casts Judy’s Original Actress Aside
After so many paranormal battles, Ed and Lorraine’s story comes to an end in The Conjuring: Last Rites. The movie focuses on the Warrens’ battle against the entity they encountered on their first case, all the way back in 1964. That nearly fateful night saw the couple fight a spirit that was trapped in a mirror, which caused Lorraine to go into labor. The baby nearly died, but Lorraine was able to revive her. Last Rites‘ present-day story takes place in 1986, 22 years after the case, with Judy being the only one still interested in fighting the good fight. However, once again, Jerins isn’t in the driver’s seat, with Mia Tomlinson taking over the role.
The goal of Last Rites is to portray a more mature Judy, positioning her as someone willing to take over the family business. That’s not a problem, as it’s about time that the character gets her due. What is hard to gloss over, though, is that the movie makes it clear that Judy is 22 years old, around the same age Jerins is in real life. If The Conjuring franchise really wants to do right by an underutilized character, one would think it would bring back the actress who made them relevant in the first place. That’s not to say Tomlinson delivers a bad performance because she does great with what she has. It’s just that all the flip-flopping makes it hard to get invested.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is in theaters now.
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
