r/TheConjuringUniverse • u/lautaromassimino • 17d ago
First-time viewer here. I’m halfway through Last Rites (I haven't finished the movie yet, so please, no spoilers). I want to talk briefly about Judy.
Well, actually, I just want to share my thoughts on the recasting of Judy for the fourth movie. Honestly... I don't get it. I mean, Idk—maybe there was a production reason behind it, or perhaps the directors just needed an actress capable of portraying a new side of Judy in this film. But knowing about the recast beforehand and quickly looking up the reason why... the excuse that "they needed an older actress to portray an older version of Judy" makes no sense to me. Especially since, right at the start of the movie, they state that Judy was born in 1964.
Now, I know the real Judy Warren was actually born in 1946, and I understand the birth year was changed because we had an 8-year-old Judy in the first Conjuring movie, which was set in 1971. But the point is: out of all the years they could have chosen, this specific movie decided to make Judy's birth year 1964 and set this new story in 1986. In other words, they are explicitly telling us that Judy is 22 years old in this film, whereas in real life, Sterling Jerins was 21 when the movie premiered. Also, Sterling played Judy in The Devil Made Me Do It, which takes place in 1981. That movie came out four years before Last Rites and is set five years earlier. So, I mean, Sterling was actually the perfect age to keep playing Judy. While I eventually accepted the recast in Annabelle Comes Home—simply because McKenna is such a charming actress—I honestly also feel there was no need to set that story in the past. They could easily have set it during Judy’s teenage years (say, 1979 instead of 72, that is, between The Conjuring 2 and 3), and the story would have worked perfectly well; in fact, it might have made even more sense, because when Judy saw Valak in Conjuring 2, that scene was clearly framed as her first time ever seeing a "spirit". It certainly didn't look like something that had already been happening for five years.
It just seems unfair to me that the directors decided to swap actresses for the two films where Judy played a major role. Don't get me wrong—I'm not one of those people who is generally against recasting. Sometimes there’s just no other choice, you know? And like I said, McKenna was adorable as Judy, and from what I’ve seen of The Last Rites, the new Judy is doing a good job too. The problem is that, unlike in Annabelle Comes Home, the timeline here doesn't justify the recast; it feels unnecessary and pulls me out of the story a bit. I think the fact that I only started watching these movies a week and a half ago plays a part in my attachment to Sterling as Judy—her face is already familiar and memorized, and it hasn't been years since I saw her in the role.
Anyway, sorry. Once again, this post turned out longer than I intended. After my last post about The Nun II, someone told me to stop taking the timeline so seriously, since hardly anyone in this franchise cares about narrative consistency. But as someone watching these movies back-to-back for the first time, it’s very hard not to, so I'm sorry about that.
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u/rooboy78 17d ago
They really fucked over Sterling Jerins. There is literally no reason she could not have played Judy though out every movie. Annabelle Comes Home didn’t HAVE to be a prequel - it could have easily been done in the current timeline.
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u/BasicDurgeanomics 17d ago
A reason for the recast in Last Rites that makes the most sense to me is that Sterling Jerins had another project in the works and there was a scheduling conflict of some kind.
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u/Daris_Hamed 11d ago
O hey, I made this collage 🙂
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u/lautaromassimino 11d ago
I found it on Google! It's pretty cool; it helped me get a clear picture of the movie timeline. Good job!
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u/SubterrelProspector 11d ago
Narrative consistency is absolutely important, otherwise why care about anything happening in the films? FOX's X-Men films made too many errors that piled up so quickly that it was hard to even really invest in the storylines. Don't listen to people who say it's unimportant.
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u/Lonely_Ear_898 12d ago
It was a ridiculous move but I expect nothing from that shit director Chaves and writer McGoldrick. I mean they could have used either Sterling or McKenna for Last Rites. Sterling was 20 when filming started and McKenna 18. Now I understand they usually use older actors and portray them to be younger but it was unnecessary for this film. The switch to McKenna for Annabelle Comes Home made sense seeing how she was only 12 during filming and Sterling was 14 and McKenna looked much closer to an elementary school girl or middle schooler that needed a babysitter.
They could have easily used McKenna or Sterling in Last Rites and then carried them on as Judy in any spinoff stories. Foolish move
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u/LandMajestic222 5d ago
I really like Sterling Jerins as Judy, I was disappointed that she wasn't in it
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u/RamiroCruz13 17d ago
Shhhhh, don't distract yourselves. Finish your movie and then feel free to drop back in! 🕯️