The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do it

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Movie Review : Chilling horror conjured into a thrilling murder mystery

Critic’s Rating: 4.0/5

STORY: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are up against one of the most evil and demonic forces, who will stop at nothing to accomplish its unholy mission. Fighting this evil entity could take everything they have.

REVIEW: It’s 1981 and what starts as yet another routine exorcism for the demonologist couple Ed and Lorraine, quickly turns into a nasty surprise. A powerful demon, out to claim the soul of the 12-year-old David (Julian Hilliard) is a formidable force that can do the unthinkable. When a young man Arne (Ruairi O’Connor) challenges it to leave David and enter him, things quickly start spiraling out of control. Now, it’s up to Ed and Lorraine to save Arne and themselves from this unhallowed possession.

This is the third and overall eighth installment of the ‘Conjuring’ universe. Based on a real incident, which became a landmark case in the history of the American judiciary, this installment delves deep into the dark and crime-infested world of a sinister spirit, like never before.

Of course, all good things from the Conjuring hall of fame are firmly in place and there’s a lot more. Like, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, the driving forces of this powerful franchise are once again, in their element. Wilson is incredible as Ed Warren and delivers a familiarly restrained performance. But Farmiga gets to go the extra mile here, giving us an emotional peek into Lorraine’s strength and vulnerability. This lends so much relatability and heft to the overall narrative, despite all the cinematic liberties. It’s driven from Ed and more so from Lorraine’s perspective rather than the possessed.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that this is by far the best ‘Conjuring’ installment. It’s not just scary but full of unpredictable twists and turns. Once again, Conjuring is breaking new grounds by mixing two genres – horror and crime, so seamlessly.

Taking off from a real-life incident, writers David Leslie Johnson and James Wan smartly turn it into a thrilling murder mystery. A gripping screenplay, unravelling a deeply disturbing trend in a sleepy town, is as eerie as it gets. And as the Warrens venture into the unknown, they take the audience along. Johnson and Wan’s incredible quality of writing as seen in hits like ‘Orphan’ and ‘SAW,’ is quite evident.

The film’s direction by Michael Chaves is surreal and exquisite that brings alive scene after scene, building tension and thrill along the way. He ditches the typical horror-like jumpscares for legit storytelling. It’s a huge improvement from Michael Chaves’s last direction ‘The Curse of La Llorona.’ While it’s a first for a ‘Conjuring’ franchise film to not be directed by James Wan, Michael Chaves’ ensures he won’t be missed. The cinematography and the background score are immersive, just like the plot. The edit is sharp and fast-paced.

There’s hardly a dull moment in ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.’ This one takes the franchise to newer highs revealing a chilling story of terror, murders and the unknown evil.
Tomris Laffly 

There is a point in Michael Chaves’ frustrating and only sparsely scary “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” when you realize something: if you abandon your desire to watch a terrifying haunted house movie in the vein of James Wan’s “The Conjuring” and settle for the investigative thriller that you have in front of you instead, you might have a decent time. Don’t worry, there’s no way for you to miss that utterly pronounced scene, especially if you’ve watched a David Fincher movie or two. There is a creaky basement. A creepy old man leads the way to it. He might be the Zodiac killer (okay, not exactly, but something along those lines), and yet, someone who barely knows him follows him down all the same, just to gather some evidence around a series of murders.

 

Had that point never arrived, I could have more easily dismissed the third “The Conjuring” installment—a straight sequel chapter after a number of spin-offs like “Annabelle” and “The Nun” with varying degrees of smarts, skill and scares—as a horror movie that can’t be bothered to live up to its breathtaking origins. Again, this outing manages to operate as a mediocre police thriller to some degree; but one with too many suspects and incidents-within-harrowing incidents. A mysterious serial murder case emerges amid the film’s confusing tone and someone obsessed enough with its puzzling details has to voluntarily go down the rabbit hole in order to crack it.

But who the hell actually wants the new “The Conjuring” to be downgraded to a mere whodunit anyway, when its original predecessor is still one of the most brilliant and frightening horror movies of the 21st century? If you’re not that person, this film’s array of hollow jump-scares and uninteresting secrets that culminate in short-lived thrills is unlikely to impress you, despite some successful effects and elegant camerawork by cinematographer Michael Burgess. Still, “The Curse of La Llorona” filmmaker Chaves gives it a shot, directing Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as they once again portray paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren wrapped up in a based-on-a-true-story case. The prologue here takes place in 1981, when the exorcism of the adolescent David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) leaves Arne Johnson, a good-spirited young man in a loving relationship with David’s sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), haunted by the grip of an evil force. When Arne commits a horrific murder in the aftermath of the events that use one too many recognizable visual nods to “The Exorcist” (including a laughably obvious shot of a priest standing by a soft street lamp with a suitcase in hand), the Warrens slowly uncover similar crimes that took place in the area. So they embark on a quest to prove to Arne’s apprehensive lawyer that Arne was actually possessed while committing the crime. (His real-life case apparently marks the first time in the US where demonic possession was used as defense in a court case.)

Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick throws in plenty of “The Conjuring” universe references into his script, including an inspired joke with Ed suggesting to introduce Arne’s skeptical lawyer to the cursed doll Annabelle to clear a few of her questions up. But ultimately, the story struggles in the hands of a strange on-and-off rhythm that almost feels episodic as the Warrens team up with the local police, knock on doors, venture out into the forest, crawl around basements, and collaborate with customary religious figures to follow the devil’s tracks. The basic idea gets overstuffed and overstretched, ultimately losing its clutch on the audience, especially when the plot ventures out to another similar murder case between two girlfriends and distances itself from the main event for long and dull stretches of time. So much that when Ed and Lorraine come to understand the witchcraft-y nature of their case, you might run out of reasons to care for their mission, or worse, forget what they were out there chasing to begin with. Things don’t improve much even after Eugenie Bondurant’s chillingly witchy Occultist shows up.

 

There is no denying that Wilson and Farmiga have come to portray two of the most iconic figures of contemporary horror. That familiarity, down to the Warrens’ customary sculpted hairdos and old-fashioned, thoughtfully costume-designed clothes, is both comforting and transfixing—we somehow came to want to spend time with this duo and perhaps even to feel safe in their presence. But our goodwill and sense of nostalgia for the Warrens goes only so far in this third film. One almost wishes Chaves and Johnson-McGoldrick had not tried to reinvent the wheel, and instead just stuck with the franchise’s sophisticated simplicity and tried-and-true paranormal formula. Without a focal haunted house, this one just doesn’t feel like a film that belongs in “The Conjuring” universe.

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