The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

This review may contain spoilers!

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the third Conjuring film and the eighth instalment in the Conjuring universe. Here we loosely follow the real life events surrounding the possession of David Glatzel and Arne Johnson; the latter whom is arrested for murder and pleads defence by possession in a court of law. As far as this particular film goes it opens really strongly, featuring an exorcism that not only goes badly but sees Arne offer himself to the demon possessing David. It's a very harrowing moment in which our heroes, the Warrens, are rendered powerless in the face of darkness and for a fleeting moment the Satanic forces of the occult seem like the most powerful tey have ever been. Yet beyond that moment the real strength of the film is the depiction of Ed and Lorraine's relationship, the love and strength they find in one another coupled with the trust that comes with is right at the core of what makes these films and these characters worth coming back for. The cinematography also looks great, framing key settings richly and setting the stage strongly for some of the spine-tingling moments.

 

Ruairi O'Connor, who played Arne Cheyenne Johnson, is very good at playing this kind and self-sacrificing role; O'Connor's character goes from a rather happy figure to a young man who seems tortured by the evil he has taken on.

However, the best performance came from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who played Ed and Lorraine Warren respectively. As the films have gone along the work these two do together can't simply be described as roles performed by individuals; this is the extraordinary work of a brilliant acting duo. That has never been more evident than in this feature, the fourth time we see the pair in a major starring role. Patrick Wilson plays the most physically vulnerable take on Ed Warren we've seen yet. In this film we see Ed's heart damaged in an exorcism gone wrong, leaving him permanently debilitated for a large section of the film. Wilson does a great job of showing his protagonist struggling to keep up with his on-screen wife and hurting over his inability to truly be of service in the investigation. Farmiga on the other side takes on more of an active investigator role in this feature. She blends her role's otherworldly visions with an active drive for the truth at the heart of their investigation. Watching Lorraine extend herself deeper into the urgency of their mystery while Ed struggles to keep up and is plagued as a victim of the antagonist. The relationship this pair has constructed is very tender and they bounce off one another with such a loving effortless display that you can't help but be drawn in by this leading duo.

A problem I've noticed about these Conjuring films as they've gone along is that they have really departed from the horror genre while still trying desperately to make you believe they're scary. Films like The Conjuring 2 and The Nun lost their credibility as scary features the moment they pivoted away from horror and into cross-genre pieces is where quality was sacrificed. The Conjuring 3 is exactly the same, opting to be more of a supernatural crime-thriller than a genuine horror film. In fact when the film does pretend to go back to its horror roots the elements are very generic; you have the usual jump scares, levitating possessed people and litany of props being yanked around by invisible forces. The plot itself is really badly constructed, the possession of Arne feels quite sudden and he is really propped up to be this overly sympathetic figure. Then as the film decides to delve into a sort of criminal investigation there is only so far it can go until it has to relate things back to a mystery antagonist. The Warrens are pitted against a Satanic female antagonist who has been crafted as a sort of evil Lorraine Warren. This very basic rivalry and the fact the threat becomes significantly more human takes a lot of the high stakes right out of the film. The editing used throughout is rather predictable and doesn't do anything fresh from previous films; while the effects often seem crude in their design. The score for the film is barely present and the soundtrack might ground the audience in the 80s but it never suits the type of film this is.

Sarah Catherine Hook, who played Debbie Glatzel, falls right into the heartbroken family member who doesn't know how to deal with the supernatural evil; Hook's work at being the lovelorn partner of O'Connor's Arne isn't very convincing either. Julian Hilliard, who played David Glatzel, is a prett stereotpical kid being possessed b demon role; if anything Hilliard never manages to get quite scary enough for those key possession scenes. John Noble, who played Kastner, was both a bizarre performance and a bizarre role; Noble really grated out the delivery of his lines and never seemed to scrounge up any emotion even for his character's big parental reveal scene. Eugenie Bondurant, who played The Occultist, is the antagonist who essentially lessened the quality and scare factor of the film; by introducing a human as the true threat while also giving Bondurant next to no character motivation to work with it is no surprise this was an underwhelming villain. Steve Coulter, who played Father Gordon, is constantly in these films but never manages to make much of an impact; his attempts at portraying the on-screen acquaintance and friend of the Warrens is stiff and devoid of meaningful emotion.

The Conjuring series has really lost itself at this point, I could barely recognise this as a horror film most of the time. I would give The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It a 3.5/10.