It's 1981, Brookfield, Connecticut, and the Warrens - Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) - are attending the violent exorcism of eight-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), who has seemingly been possessed by a demonic waterbed (I kid you not).
In the process, Ed suffers a heart attack as he sees the entity jump into Arne Johnson (Ruairi O'Connor), the boyfriend of David's older sister, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook).
A month later, Ed wakes up in hospital, croaking out to Lorraine that he saw Arne get taken over.
Unfortunately, just as this is going on, Arne is in the process of stabbing to death his drunk landlord Bruno Sauls (Ronnie Gene Blevins) then wandering off in a trance.
Arne is arrested and charged with murder, however Ed and Lorraine are determined to prove to the court, in his defence, that Arne was "demonically possessed".
This sets in motion a supernatural procedural, where Ed and Lorraine head round the country, following clues to prove their claims.
Having found a "Satanic totem" under the Glatzel's house, Ed and Lorraine are directed to a retired priest, Kastner (Fringe's ever-wonderful John Noble), who believes the totem was deliberately placed there by the Disciples of The Ram cult (which also has connections to the Annabelle doll, although sadly this wasn't explored) to sow chaos.
The Warrens also note similarities between their "case" and that of a murdered girl and her missing friend in Danvers, Massachusetts. Lorraine manages to crack the case wide open for the sceptical police with her "mystical abilities", earning the trust of Sergeant Clay (Keith Arthur Bolden), who grants them access to the official files on the murder.
This sends them deeper into supernatural territory and the couple's first encounter with the all-too-human, chaotic evil Satanist called The Occultist (Eugenie Bondurant).
I like that scriptwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was trying something different with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, rather than the expected haunted house horror of the previous two chapters in this franchise.
However, I don't feel it worked as well. While overall the film was a fun horror flick, the trail of mystical clues seemed a bit preposterous and Lorraine's supernatural abilities rather fortuitous and fool proof.
Part of my problem with this movie, unfortunately, comes down to my continued distain for the fact that real-life snake oil salesmen are being sold to a gullible public as genuine paranormal superheroes.
The first act of The Devil Made Me Do It appears to stick closest to the reality of events (with added demons and magic, of course), but the rest is just Hollywood bullshit.
In the real world the judge very promptly threw out the whole "the devil made me do it" defence by Arne's lawyer, as it had no grounding in law and was unprovable.
As acknowledged briefly at the end of the film, Arne was sentenced to 10–20 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter (of which he served about five years).
It's a pity more of the movie didn't focus on the proceedings of the case - but then facts would have got in the way of a good story.
Of course, that didn't stop a certain pair of publicity hounds cashing in on all this nationwide news coverage, eventually writing a book about the case.
I'm sure that's what put me off watching this most recent entry in the Warren strand of The Conjuring Universe for so long.
Just because a film says it's "based on true events" doesn't mean it's true. For instance, just because it depicts an exorcism that really took place doesn't mean demons, ghosts, black magic et al actually exist.
As charismatic as Wilson and Farmiga are as the Warrens, I can't help but feel, personally, that I'd enjoy these particular tales with wholly fictional participants, so the clash of crass reality and glossy fantasy wasn't so distracting.
All that aside, like other entries in the Conjuring Universe, The Devil Made Me Do It is really well-made and, under the steady hand of director Michael Chaves, it rattles through its 112-minute runtime without any bloat.
The unsung hero, though, of The Devil Made Me Do It is the incredible contortionist Emerald Gordon Wulf, who doubled for David Glatzel during the exorcism scene and pulled off some unbelievably terrifying physical twists and turns that should have won her an Oscar for those moments alone.
These physical portrayals of the horrors of demonic possession - rather than using elastic CGI - make those scenes so much more impactful and were certainly the stand-out action beats of the movie.
By the look of things, the next - and final - Warren-centric Conjuring film (Last Rites) is reverting to the more traditional haunted house format, as the self-proclaimed "demonologists" take on the Smurl haunting.
So, that's good news.
It's a pity more of the movie didn't focus on the proceedings of the case - but then facts would have got in the way of a good story.
Of course, that didn't stop a certain pair of publicity hounds cashing in on all this nationwide news coverage, eventually writing a book about the case.
I'm sure that's what put me off watching this most recent entry in the Warren strand of The Conjuring Universe for so long.
Just because a film says it's "based on true events" doesn't mean it's true. For instance, just because it depicts an exorcism that really took place doesn't mean demons, ghosts, black magic et al actually exist.
As charismatic as Wilson and Farmiga are as the Warrens, I can't help but feel, personally, that I'd enjoy these particular tales with wholly fictional participants, so the clash of crass reality and glossy fantasy wasn't so distracting.
All that aside, like other entries in the Conjuring Universe, The Devil Made Me Do It is really well-made and, under the steady hand of director Michael Chaves, it rattles through its 112-minute runtime without any bloat.
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| Emerald Gordon Wulf: Now this is real! |
The unsung hero, though, of The Devil Made Me Do It is the incredible contortionist Emerald Gordon Wulf, who doubled for David Glatzel during the exorcism scene and pulled off some unbelievably terrifying physical twists and turns that should have won her an Oscar for those moments alone.
These physical portrayals of the horrors of demonic possession - rather than using elastic CGI - make those scenes so much more impactful and were certainly the stand-out action beats of the movie.
By the look of things, the next - and final - Warren-centric Conjuring film (Last Rites) is reverting to the more traditional haunted house format, as the self-proclaimed "demonologists" take on the Smurl haunting.
So, that's good news.
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