Director: Michael Chaves
Writers: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (screenplay by), James Wan (story by)
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” reveals a chilling story of terror and unknown evil that shocked even experienced real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. This is take from one of their most sensational cases, it starts with a fight for the soul of a young boy, then takes them beyond anything they’d ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
What has always intrigued me so much about the Conjuring films is that they’re based on true events. For non-believers out there it definitely makes you believe or at the very least makes you think about the possibilities. When I watched this movie at the films premiere, courtesy of Warner Bros’ Pictures Australia, I felt as though this was another episode of a series rather than a movie sequel that builds or expands The Conjuring universe. For those looking for jump scares you won’t find those tactics here, instead the story focuses more on Ed and Lorraine trying to help this family defend a murder trial.
In 1981, Ed and Lorraine oversee an exorcism of a little boy named David Glatzel. Arne Johnson is the boyfriend of David’s older sister Debbie, and wants to protect young David, so during the exorcism, he demands that the demon take him instead, and the demon obliges. Ed witnesses the transference but suffers a heart attack and loses consciousness before he can tell anyone what’s happened. Arne also tells no one of this transference, and ends up stabbing Debbie’s boss to death. Ed recovers from his heart attack, and the Warrens set out to prove that Arne was under a demonic possession at the time of the murder.
The strong core of these movies still remains the relationship between Ed and Lorraine. The Devil Made Me Do It this time isn’t directed by Wan, but by The Curse of La Llorona’s Michael Chaves, who doesn’t seem to bring the horror and the shock we got from the second installment. But that’s not entirely Chaves fault that this new film felt like it came off the tracks a bit; it’s the choice to shift focus from a haunting to a murder. ‘The Conjuring 2’ I thought was so eerie, the way Wan brought the story of the Enfield Haunting to the big screen, and seeing the evidence at the end of the film gives you goosebumps. In ‘The Conjuring 3’ they try to do the same thing, but because there was no real horror felt during the film, it makes the evidence at the end a lot less impactful.
Wilson and Farmiga are a good, solid duo here. Their characters feel comfortable with each other, as if they have an unspoken connection that exists outside this world. I think heading into films like these we expect horror to elicit some kind of fear or anxiety, and The Devil Made Me Do It avoids any deeper conflict than having the Warrens fight some new kind of evil. The Conjurings have always been best when they’ve been about terrible things finding their way into the sanctity of a home, when they’ve played on paranoia about domestic spaces that are meant to be safe for a family actually being poisoned. Hopefully Wan will bring back the fear we’ve been longing for from a horror movie.
neillfrazer@hotmail.com
