Warning: Major spoilers ahead for The Conjuring: Last RitesThe Conjuring: Last Rites features a dramatized version of one of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s real-world haunting cases, but it departs from reality via an antique mirror and a mysterious new demon. Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the fictionalized iterations of real paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring: Last Rites chronicles their involvement with the famous Smurl family haunting.

As the fourth entry in The Conjuring series and ninth in the overall Conjuring universe, The Conjuring: Last Rites pays some homage to its predecessors, most notably in the form of Annabelle, the haunted doll that has evolved into a major motif of the expanded franchise. However, like each of The Conjuring movies, the Warrens were forced to contend with a brand new demonic enтιтy.

Unlike other memorable demons from the franchise, the primary paranormal antagonist of The Conjuring: Last Rites remains hidden throughout most of the movie. While there are plenty of scares and terrifying images littered across the narrative, the mysterious demon remains largely behind the scenes until the very end of the movie.

The Mirror Demon Was Behind The Entire Smurl Family Haunting

We don’t ever actually get a name for the demon that plagues the Smurl family as we did with Bathsheba Sherman and Valak the Nun, but we do know that the enтιтy is tied to the antique mirror that the elder Smurls bought for their granddaughter as a confirmation gift. Loosely referred to as the “mirror demon” by moviegoers, the enтιтy first attached itself to the Warrens on the night that Judy was born.

It first infected Lorraine when she touched a mᴀssive upright mirror while investigating a haunting in an antique shop. We saw the demon briefly, crawling along the corner of the delivery room as Lorraine was in labor. Judy being stillborn and unable to breathe is implied to be the demon’s fault, while Lorraine’s powerful prayer brought her back.

The demon was still bound to the mirror when it was brought into the Smurl house, and immediately made its presence known by knocking a light fixture down and injuring one of the Smurl daughters. After other occurrences, the two elder Smurl daughters attempt to discard the mirror, and the mirror demon’s power is truly revealed for the first time.

While the mirror demon’s powers are a bit scattersH๏τ and not well-explained, it’s apparently able to manipulate reality, placing glᴀss in the stomach/throat of the oldest Smurl sister once the mirror is “destroyed”. It proves its power again by making the destroyed mirror completely reappear, intact, in the Smurls’ attic.

In lieu of doing most of the dirty work itself, the mirror demon subjugates three seemingly human spirits into tormenting the Smurls and Warrens, in the smiling elderly woman, her volatile daughter, and her axe-wielding husband (who was responsible for their deaths on the land the house was built on). As terrifying as the three enтιтies are, its the mirror demon who’s actually pulling their strings.

It’s important to note that the mirror demon does appear in various forms throughout the movie, even if we never see its full stand-alone form. The mᴀssive, terrifying version of Annabelle and the enveloping darkness that overtakes Father Gordon are both manifestations of the mirror demon, for example.

The Mirror Demon’s Target Was Actually Judy Warren

While the mirror demon tormented the Smurls, what it really wanted the entire time was a soul that it had been denied more than 20 years earlier: Judy Warren. While never explicitly stated, it’s implied that the mirror demon may have been loosely attached to Judy since she was born, and may have been responsible for the awful visions she experienced her entire life that her mother taught her how to abate.

When the Warrens finally got involved with the Smurls after Judy sought them out, the mirror demon seized its opportunity to finally claim Judy’s soul at long last. It ratcheted up the horrifying appearances of the three enтιтies it controlled, along with the other visions that it tortured the Warrens with (like the kitchen sink full of blood).

It managed to fully possess her during the movie’s climax after coming close previously, and used the upright mirror as a weapon to ᴀssault the Warrens and Judy’s fiancé Tony. However, as powerful as the mirror demon seemed throughout the movie, Judy, Ed and Lorraine managed to banish it into the mirror and away from the Smurl family once and for all thanks to their combined psychic and prayer power.

It seems like a missed opportunity to never show the mirror demon’s full form, as each of the first two Conjuring movies did with their primary antagonists. However, having the demon manipulate the terrifying spirits of three others, just as Valak did with Bill Wilkins and the Crooked Man in The Conjuring 2, made its power seem much more significant.

The mirror demon may not be the scariest demon that the Warrens faced over the course of the four Conjuring movies. However, its ability to manipulate reality by recreating its own accursed mirror and placing it back in the Smurl house is one of the more potent powers that it’s a main villain worthy of The Conjuring: Last Rites as the apparent franchise finale.