Why would a sprit with a weapon keep missing it’s target? The Conjuring: Last Rites storyline kind of confused us

The Conjuring: Last Rites had quite a lot of horror entities aimed at giving the audience a last scare before the franchise retires. A haunted mirror, a spooky baby toy, a murdered woman, and of course, the axeman. Most of the film's jump scares involved the axeman targeting someone from the family. But one thing that kept happening was that he missed all his targets and was not exactly able to harm anyone throughout the premise of the film.

It's a question most of us must have walked out of the theater asking: Why does a spirit with a weapon keep missing its target? Because on the surface, it feels almost silly, and it took out most of the horror as we see him being half as effective as any of his predecessors. Even when he's terrorizing Lorraine or Judy or any of the Smurls, his human-like appearance makes his presence less scary, and on top of that, he's constantly missing his aim. Well, it's both confusing and silly as a storyline.

The film does less to show more of the axeman. As Lorraine tells Ed in the film, his spirit is just a facade to hide something darker in the house, which is the demon that came with the mirror. With that being said, the axeman, the lady, and the old woman are simply plot ploys, leading up to big horror, which was whatever power the mirror wielded.

The reason why the axeman probably kept missing his targets in The Conjuring: Last Rites

The answer to why the axeman faltered with his terror is layered and actually reveals more about the film’s central theme than it does about the demon’s fighting skills.

First, the entity at the heart of The Conjuring: Last Rites isn’t really trying to kill anyone outright. The mirror demon introduced here is obsessed with control and possession, not carnage. Its real focus is Judy Warren, Ed and Lorraine’s daughter, which means its attacks are less about landing fatal blows and more about psychological manipulation. When it “misses,” it’s often because the point is to scare, torment, and destabilize, not to destroy.

Second, there’s also the filmmaking choice. A central focus in any horror film is how it works on tension and build-ups. An axe that misses is far more terrifying than an axe that lands and kills the victim. Throughout the movie, you might sit thinking of this attack as the one that is fatal. But by constantly missing his aims, the film manages to keep the anxiety intact among the audience.

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In the end, the weapon is more symbolic than literal. The demon isn’t aiming to end life in a single strike; it’s aiming to unravel sanity. And that’s much scarier than a perfect hit.

The Conjuring: Last Rites is now in theaters.

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