THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
Charged with possession
RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 112 minutes
Director Michael Chaves
Cast Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga,
Ruairi O’connor, Sarah Catherine Hook
With James Wan these days immersed in the Aquaman movies, he here settles for producer and “Story by” credits while handing the directorial reins to Michael Chaves, whose The Curse Of La Llorona was one of the weaker efforts in the Conjuring universe. Thankfully, this is a step up after that misfire, though the tension dissipates after a strong opening.
Unlike its superior predecessors, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is not an every-trick-in-the-book haunted house movie. It’s instead inspired by the true-life case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson (Ruairi O’connor), who killed his landlord in 1981 and pleaded demonic possession as his defence in court. It’s up to the trusty Warrens, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), to sift through the case and present enough evidence to turn the heads of rightly sceptical jurors.
Starting and ending with exorcisms of such intensity they make it look like Regan Macneil suffered from little more than a common cold, Chaves’s chiller becomes a flat, leaden affair for much of its midsection. Wilson and Farmiga are terrific as always, and the visual language (muted palette, sinuous camera moves) places the film firmly within the franchise despite the narrative leap it takes.
But Chaves rarely conjures a scare like Wan. Both filmmakers like to mix-and-match elegant suspense techniques with blunt, blaring jump scares, but Wan does it better. Maybe the next instalment will be titled The Conjuring: The Devil Made James Wan Return To The Director’s Chair. Jamie Graham
The Johnson case previously informed NBC movie The Demon Murder Case and the book The Devil In Connecticut.