The Conjuring films have two signature strengths that set them apart from other horror movies centred on hauntings and demonic possession.
Unlike the majority of entries in these sub-genres, which centre on disposable teens and unaware young families, The Conjuring franchise spotlights a lesser-seen middle-aged couple as its protagonists. Not only are Ed and Lorraine Warren older than most horror leads, but this pair of Catholic Church-sanctioned paranormal investigators are good hearted and happily married. As unusual as their age is the Warrens’ deep devotion to each other, and selfless desire to help others, which emotionally invests the audience in their dangerous exploits.
It doesn’t hurt that the Warrens are played with sincerity by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Both actors have dabbled in horror before – Wilson in the Insidious films (also kickstarted by The Conjuring 1 and 2’s James Wan), and Farmiga in Orphan, and the Bates Motel TV series – but both performers come with pedigree not immediately associated with low-budget scarefests.
At the same time as the Conjuring films are anchored by their likeable heroes, the series benefits from a loose basis in reality. The Warrens are/were real-life figures, and so too are the cases they investigated. Just two examples, Amityville and the Enfield haunting, are infamous paranormal incidents that captured the public imagination.
Even with the expected Hollywood-isation of the tales, the fact that they’re based on “true” stories brings the franchise’s horror closer to home. Skeptics may snort, but if these terrifying unexplained events affected ordinary people, they could happen to us too – which makes the Conjuring movies that bit more check-under-the-bed chilling.
Which brings us to the third Conjuring film, and eighth in the greater Conjuring cinematic universe. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It focuses on a 1981 murder that made history as the first time demonic possession was used as a defence in an American court of law. Of course, Lorraine and Ed stepped forward to back the possession claims.
Based on real-life events, check. The Warrens taking centre stage, check.
Except, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – now directed by The Curse of La Llorona’s Michael Chaves instead of Wan – has abandoned one of the franchise’s key strengths. And the film suffers for it.
Fortunately, the anchoring function of Ed and Lorraine remains as strong as ever. The couple’s onscreen warmth and appealing dynamic carry the film. In fact, The Devil Made Me Do It does an excellent (and again unusual) job of depicting the Warrens’ relationship as evolving. Just as it would in reality.
Set a decade after the events of The Conjuring, the couple are visibly advancing in age, and when Ed is struck by heart disease, there’s a forced role reversal. After years of being the fragile one of the pair, psychic Lorraine suddenly has to lead the physically demanding investigation into what possessed mild-mannered Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), and why.
On that note, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It makes the bold move not to re-tread the haunted house narrative of the first two Conjuring films. The latest movie opens with its paranormal attacks already dialled up to the max, in the form of a disturbing, visceral exorcism of an eight year old boy. After that, the action mostly assumes the form of an FBI-style serial killer pursuit, with occult flavour of course.
It’s here where The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It starts to stumble. Instead of using the real-life trial as its backdrop, like The Exorcism of Emily Rose for example, the film veers into the same formulaic territory as late 90s TV thrillers such as Millennium and Profiler. Arne’s possession was triggered by someone, and Lorraine has a psychic link with the culprit.
Viewers have seen this supernatural detective trope a hundred times, and when characters enter a morgue with a convenient timer-based system for its lights, you know that scares are more important to the filmmakers than credibility. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It becomes less engaging, and less frightening as a result.
In fact – one small spoiler – there is so little interest in tethering the movie to reality that you don’t even find out how the possession defence really played out forty years ago.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It isn’t without its moments, and it’s always a pleasure to share in the Warrens’ dark adventures thanks to Wilson and Farmiga’s emotionally convincing work. However, by veering into genre cliché, and feeling completely divorced from reality by the end, the film is easiest the weakest of the Conjurings.
| The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review | |
As before, Wilson and Farmiga carry The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It with their warm, convincing performances. That’s enough reason to give the film a watch. However, after a strong opening, the movie slides further and further into the territory of trashy police profiler series and, with mounting clichés, loses much of its scare factor. The weakest of the main Conjuring series. |
6.5 |
| The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was reviewed on Google Play Rentals | |