Where snobs and scares meet

'Downton Abbey' and 'The Conjuring' come to a close with some striking similarities.

- MARY MCNAMARA CULTURE CRITIC

Warner Bros. Pictures RORY MULVEY Focus Features "DOWNTON Abbey," from left, and "The Conjuring" might take up opposite ends of the franchise universe, but dig deeper and the families' similarities leap out.

Two beloved cinematic franchises concluded in the last two weeks with "The Conjuring: Last Rites" and "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale." In terms of innovation or even surprise, neither came close to their original material but fans did not care.

They flocked to the cineplex to see each of these popular series, and their beloved characters, through to the end.

I was among them and I found myself comparing the two, from their titles — "Last Rites" versus "The Grand Finale" — to their final scenes. And while I'm not going to say they're the same movie — the Crawleys are never literally attacked by a possessed mirror, for example — the similarities are surprisingly striking.

A troublesome house

The fictionalized versions of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) have battled to save several homes over the course of the movies while the Crawleys have long been obsessed with saving only one. But the fear cast by the specters of taxation and modernization that continually threaten Downton, including in “The Grand Finale,” are just as terrifying to its residents as any ax-wielding ghost.

Generational conflict