The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Write This Review

Platform: HBOMax, Theaters

Release Date: June 4, 2021

There is not a single horror movie that I could create in my wildest dreams that would outweigh the anticipation I had for the third installment of The Conjuring series. Ok, maybe I could come up with a few things, but seriously, after being disappointed in the follow-up to my favorite horror movie of all time, I have been awaiting for this next chance at horror redemption. James Wan spun a horror masterpiece with 2013's "The Conjuring" that brought together such raw aspects of the horror genre with basic and innocent tension: children's games gone wrong, fear of the dark, haunting imagery, a creepy atmosphere, and minimal special effects. Going back to the roots of the genre in an intelligent and carefully constructed manner shot this movie up my horror rankings just behind John Carpenter's "Halloween" and, occasionally, surpasses the classic depending on my mood. I felt that "The Conjuring 2" lost a lot of the effective atmosphere/tone setting that helped elevate the fear in the first film, as well as falling down the well of becoming too plot heavy. Ultimately, it felt like it was a bit too concerned with building interest for the spin-off "The Nun" film. Nevertheless, while I hoped James Wan would give one last stab at the franchise, I am excited to see if Michael Chaves can shake off the failures of "The Curse of La Llorona" and bring The Conjuring series back to its haunting glory.

As has been with the past two Conjuring films, the events portrayed are based on true events, this time surrounding the first case in American history in which the defendant claimed innocence by reason of demonic possession. During the very difficult, and failed, exorcism of 11-year old David Glatzel, his sister's 19-year old boyfriend Arne Johnson attempted to save the boy by inviting the demonic presence to take him instead. Ed Warren, having been the only one to witness Arne's invitation, suffers a medical tragedy and is unconscious for a time, allowing the possession to brew in Arne and results in Arne's murder of his landlord. With Arne now facing the death penalty, Ed and Lorraine's have limited time to gather enough evidence to present to the court to satiate the proof that he was possessed. Their research leads them to discover the unprecedented extent of this possession, a satanic curse, and the stakes are taken even higher as the occultist who cast the curse turns their eyes on the Warrens as well.

Unlike the previous installments, this film bypasses the family-focused formula of the first two films and attempts to balance the horror of the demonic with the procedurals of a crime drama. Rather than spending extensive time with the victims and experiencing their tensions and terrors, the third film mostly follows the Warrens as they become victims themselves. Now, in their cases, the Warrens have always ended up on the receiving end of ominous occurrences as a hazard of the job, but never had they been directly targeted (not even by Valak in "The Conjuring 2") in such a way as in this story. While I appreciated the amping of stakes for the Warrens, it was hard to ever feel as though they were truly in that much danger, considering their expertise and abilities in battling the supernatural. It was a good way of rounding out the plot thread of ever increasing danger that has built form the first film, but results in too much attention taken away from this court case the audience is supposed to care about.

The opening act with the Glatzel family and David's possession felt the most like what had put this franchise on the map. The visceral thrill of the attempted exorcism, the body distortions, the crackling bones, and the high stakes threat of losing a child met for a great horror experience. What follows, though, borderlines more on the line of a thriller with a “will they or won't they” solve the mystery of who is behind the curse and prove Arne's innocence, rather than the tense atmospheres and slow-building, natural tension that proved successful in the past. That is not to say that there was not a few heart-pounding moments, but they amounted much more to the typical jump scare that you'd find in any run-of-the-mill horror movie. Rewatch “The Conjuring” and look at how darkness and sound was used in that entry to build a haunting presence when compared to how this movie simply just made things quickly jump out of the darkness. There is an intelligent way of constructing horror so that you don't just get the 5 seconds of shock but a long-standing feeling of dread, fear, and tension.

There was story here, and it was a pretty good story that did hold family roots, but it never felt very personal. We did not get to know these characters that well because the crime procedural nature of the movie took the Warrens all over the place to the build evidence. Quickly changing locations threw walls in the way of momentum building, which is usually not favorable for a horror film. It should not matter as much, but I don't think it helped that this movie had a human as the main antagonist. Sure, there was still a demon involved, but having the story broken into so many plot lines really diluted the occultist's reveal because, again, there was never enough time spent with the people that mattered most to build any weight. I appreciated the change in pace and the decision to go with the satanic curse angle, but how they executed it watered-down the impact of a climax .

The same goes for Arne's court trial, which was the main premise pushed through the trailers. We get the conclusion of the trial in a text format at the end of the movie, rather than actually seeing what the Warren's accumulated regarding the case. This may have more to do with the changes the movie from the real life trial and not finding an effective way to bridge the two on-screen. Still, all of this effort to prove the curse and nothing to visually show for it made me feel short-changed. I was genuinely interested in how evidence based in the supernatural/demonic gets presented in a court of law, regardless of whether it happened in real life or not.

Assuming this is the end of the main Conjuring franchise, Michael Chaves was not up to the task of closing it out strong. The lack of cohesion on whether to dive into the procedural aspect or bathe in the horror left this an unbalanced film that did not do either particularly great in a franchise that comes with high expectations. I think the movie played with a lot of interesting toys that were new and brought a new dimension to the franchise, such as a deeper dive into the faults of Lorraine's abilities and the explicit summoning of evil as opposed to the typical haunting. But, the scariest part of this movie may have been the real life recordings played at the start of the end credits. This was an ever so slightly above-average horror movie at best and, at times, fun to watch, but unlike the first two, not a movie that I think will get much of a rewatch. It may not be a weak movie, but it is weak in scares and the clear weakest of the franchise.

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RATING: 💀 💀 💀.5 / 5