The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review

 THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: 

THIRD INSTALLMENT HAS SOME EFFECTIVE SCARES, BUT NEVER QUITE TAKES THE POPULAR HORROR FRANCHISE ANYWHERE NEW! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Vera Farmiga in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

 

            Real-life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren take on the literal Devil in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the third installment of the Conjuring trilogy and first to not be directed by James Wan. While Wan returns to write and produce, the film is helmed by Michael Chaves this time, who had previously directed a film in the Conjuring Universe with 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona. 

            The first film released in 2013, I thought was a very chilling and well-crafted throwback to classic haunted house and possession horror that had a lot of spine-tingling suspense as well as some very compelling characters and its critical and commercial success led to a pretty solid sequel in 2016 with The Conjuring 2. Anyway, now we have the third film and the first without Wan behind the camera, is Chaves capable of capturing the same sense of terror that Wan did with his previous installments or will it suffer the same fate as his La Llorona movie? Eh, it’s complicated! 

            The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has some effective scares and both Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Insidious 1 and 2, Aquaman) and Vera Farmiga (The Departed, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)) have strong chemistry as Ed and Lorraine Warren. Unfortunately, this third outing never quite takes the franchise anywhere new and instead stays in this mostly dull and standard horror movie narrative with not nearly as many chilling moments as its predecessors. 

            The film follows demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren starting what could be their most terrifying case ever, protecting a young man who was possessed by none other than the Devil after he murdered someone. This will mark the first time in U.S. history where a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense and only the Warrens can solve the case and break this supposed family curse. 

            The film also stars Ruairi O’Connor (Delicious, The Spanish Princess, Teen Spirit) as Arne Cheyanne Johnson, John Noble (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fringe, Sleepy Hollow (TV series)) as Father Kastner, Shannon Kook (Degrassi: The Next Generation, Carmilla, Shadowhunters) reprising his role from The Conjuring 1 and 2 as Drew Thomas, Ronnie Gene Blevins (A Beautiful Life, Joe, The Hunted) as Bruno Sauls, Ingrid Bisu (Toni Erdmann, Dracula: The Dark Prince, The Nun) as Jessica, Sterling Jerins (Deception, World War Z, Divorce) reprising her role from The Conjuring 1 and 2 as Judy Warren, and Charlene Amoia (How I Met Your Mother, American Reunion, Birds of Prey) as Judy Glatzel. 

            Overall, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It at best is a perfectly average horror film that may satisfy die-hard fans of the Conjuring franchise, but those looking for more substance in their scary movies probably won’t find much here. It isn’t bad, but it just feels uninspired and for a lack of better word, Dull! 

            The plot is very by the numbers even by Conjuring standards, but at least the previous two films offered something unique or interesting. This one just feels like a repeat of the plots from its predecessors that doesn’t add anything new to the formula and even when they do try to add something interesting to the story, the script feels very jumbled together and doesn’t really give the time needed to execute the idea properly. 

            The films always involve haunted houses, possessed children, and creepy demonic entities which is fine as long as you can do something unexpected or take it in a different approach that people weren’t expecting. This one plays like a Best Of the Warrens video with most of the really inventive and creepy scares removed. 

            With that said, there are a few scenes that are rather scary and suspenseful such as a little boy getting one bloody as hell shower, a handful of the jump scares are pretty effective, and a couple of the possession scenes blur the line between scary and unintentionally funny. 

            Wilson and Farmiga continue to work wonderfully together and even if I’m not fully invested in the story of this movie, I am fully invested by their performances. 

            This is probably one of the most mixed reviews I’ve ever done for a movie like this, if you’re a fan of the previous Conjuring films then you might like this movie, just don’t expect anything mind-blowing or new in this. But if you want something with a little more substance, then it may not be your flick, not bad but not great either.