Patrick Wilson, Ben Hardy and Vera Farmiga in “The Conjuring Last Rites.”
Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema
After playing Ed Warren for 12 years in five Conjuring Cinematic Universe films, has Patrick Wilson’s view of the paranormal changed in one way or another?
Wilson, of course, reteams with Vera Farmiga — who plays Ed’s wife and fellow demonologist Lorraine Warren — in The Conjuring: Last Rites, which got off to a blockbuster start in theaters over the weekend with an estimated $83 million in domestic ticket sales.
Wilson and Farmiga first played Ed and Lorraine Warren in the 2013 horror hit The Conjuring, which was followed by their turns in The Conjuring 2 in 2016 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in 2021. In between the second and third Conjuring films, Wilson and Farmiga played Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring Cinematic Universe spinoff, Annabelle Comes Home, in 2019.
During a Zoom conversation for his film Millers in Marriage in February, Wilson reflected on his work in The Conjuring movies and if it had changed his viewpoint on the paranormal before he first played Ed Warren in 2012.
“I feel like I’ve seen a lot, I’ve heard a lot and of course, you meet fans who go, ‘You know, this happened to me, too,’ and I can’t help but see it through the eyes of my Ed Warren — not Ed Warren — but my Ed Warren,” Wilson said. “I feel that if I’ve learned anything, it’s that nothing shocks me. Because of what I’ve read, whether it’s someone’s fact or their opinion, nothing in the supernatural world would shock me if someone said ‘I saw this’ or ‘I saw that.’”
As such, Wilson said, he’s not judgmental of anyone who claims to have experienced something involving the paranormal.
“I think that’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned is, I don’t judge any of [what people claim]
because I think whether someone’s going through something or whether they imagine it or whether it’s a mental illness or whether it’s a demon, it really doesn’t matter and the end result is the same,” Wilson explained. “Let’s try to get to a place of peace and comfort.
“Not that I was a very judgmental person before, but you could have gone the other way. You could have done the movies and go, ‘God, this is total crap and I don’t believe any of it,’ but I don’t go there,” Wilson added. “I’m still very open to [everything] and the end result is still the same in that nothing shocks me and ultimately it really doesn’t matter. There are so many things that are unexplained in the world.”
Something unexplained happened to Wilson, in fact, just before our Zoom conversation.
“I was thinking about my dentist this morning, thinking, ‘I haven’t been to the dentist in so long. I’ve been in the UK for months and months and months’ and suddenly, before I got on the Zoom with you, I literally got a text from my dentist,” Wilson said. “I haven’t texted my dentist in eight months and this morning I was like, ‘I’ve got to go!’ and I get a text. Is there something to that? I was like, ‘Why? Why today?’ I think there is another force in the world.”
Would Patrick Wilson Invite Annabelle For An Overnight Stay?
Directed by Michael Chaves, The Conjuring: Last Rites begins in 1964, where the young Ed and Lorraine Warren (Orion Smith and Madison Lawlor) have their first encounter with a demonic presence through a haunted mirror. When Lorraine, who is nine months pregnant, touches the mirror, she is shocked into labor and gives birth to their daughter, Judy, following a harrowing delivery.
The film then shifts to 1986, where the Warrens no longer do paranormal investigations because of Ed’s weak heart.
But when the mirror that the couple encountered 22 years earlier turns up in a Pennsylvania home and demonic spirits are tormenting the Smurl family, the Warrens have no choice but to get involved since the haunting has drawn their now adult daughter, Judy (Mia Tomlinson), to the residence and Lorraine senses she is in grave danger.
The Conjuring: Last Rites also stars Ben Hardy as Judy’s boyfriend Tony Spera, Steve Coulter as Father Gordon, Elliot Cowan as Jack Smurl and Rebecca Calder as Janet Smurl.
In addition, The Conjuring: Last Rites features callbacks to two of The Conjuring Cinematic Universe’s most famous haunted artifacts — the demonic nun Valak and the demonically possessed Annabelle doll.
Speaking of spooky objects, would Wilson invite Annabelle the doll from The Conjuring movies – not the real one – for an overnight stay? The answer might surprise you.
“Oh yeah, I would absolutely have Annabelle over. Yeah, none of that stuff scares me. I feel that’s probably it’s either ignorance or arrogance and it’s a very fine line between the two,” Wilson said, laughing. “I would basically have the artifact room in my house just because I’m either that stupid or that skilled, so yeah, I would totally have the doll in my house.”
Rated R, The Conjuring: Last Rites is new in theaters nationwide.