Review of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) by Player2-Water — 11 Jul 2021

E-Value: 6.

Acting: 8.

Plot: 6.

The paranormal investigators and demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, returns for the eighth instalment of The Conjuring Universe which features the real life court case known as The Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (also known as “Devil Made Me Do It” case) where it is the first known court case where the defense seek to prove innocence based on the defendant’s claim of demonic possession.

In the year of 1981, the Warrens were conducting an exorcism of an 8 years old boy, David Glatzel, which were attended by his family including his sister’s boyfriend, Arne Johnson (O’Connor). During the exorcism, Arne invited the demon to enter his body in order to save David which was witnessed by Ed Warren (Wilson) before he passed out due to heart attack.

Months later, Ed woke up in the hospital and warned Lorraine Warren (Farmiga) that Arne is in danger and told her on what he witnessed before he passed out at that time. Unfortunately, it was too late because Arne murdered his landlord by stabbing under a demonic possession and he was arrested soon after. The case was then brought to the court. Arne’s attorney warned the Warrens that they must find evidence on his innocence before his trial or else he will received a death penalty.

The Warrens began their investigation starting with David’s possession. They discovered a witch’s totem being placed under David’s house. To learn more on the totem, they visited a former priest, Father Kastner (played by John Noble), who previously have dealt with a satanic cult. It’s now up to the Warrens to complete their investigation before the day of Arne’s court trial.

Unlike his previous movie he directed, The Curse of La Llorona, Michael Chaves did a great job in directing this movie. He managed to keep the movie with the same vibes as the previous two Conjuring movies previously directed by James Wan. It’s look like he did the right thing by choosing him to direct the movie. In addition, this movie does not filled up tons of jump scares for the sake of trying to be horror like 2018’s The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona which is good considering too much jump scares does not make the horror movie good.

Just like in the previous Conjuring movies excluding 2019’s Annabelle Comes Home (due to their minor roles), Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga gave their best performance and still never lose their touch. Their chemistry together on-screen is was really heartwarming to watch. Their performance made this movie a worthwhile to watch and none of their scenes are boring. The movie have also done well in making some connections and call-backs to the previous instalments of this franchise. It shows that the filmmakers are not forgetting those movies but they also cared for this franchise as well.

As for the story, it’s very a interesting concept to explore of a man committing a murder under an influence from the Devil. Despite that, it was not executed well due to some characters are not well developed. The worst one was the main antagonist of this movie. The movie did not do a good job in developing a backstory for the main antagonist. Because of that, the main antagonist is just a generic villain unlike the main antagonists in the previous instalments. As for John Noble, I felt that he was really underused in this movie because he only had few scenes. A real total of waste if you asked me. Unlike the previous two Conjuring movies, this movie is less scary and the jump scares are weaker this time around.

While I considered this movie to be weaker than the first two Conjuring movies, this movie is still at least better than 2014’s Annabelle, The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona. If you have watched all of the previous instalments or just the first two Conjuring movies, you may want to catch this one.