When going into any ofThe Conjuringmovies, you first have to make some major concessions. You first have to accept that these are highly fictionalized versions of Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). The real Warrens wereallegedly scumbags. You have to believe that the supernatural stuff they’re fighting is totally real and that any skepticism will be obliterated even though that raises tricky questions about those who would fake supernatural abilities or argue for the existence of demons. You basically have to embraceThe Conjuringmovies as a ride, and you’re happy to go along with this loving couple who fights evil to restore domestic bliss to those they meet. But by the time you’ve come toThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, there’s not much life left in this franchise between the Warrens’ love and devotion to each other. And yet even here, you have a film that constantly refuses to question any of its tenets, so it simply feels like another episode of a series rather than a sequel that builds or expandsThe Conjuringuniverse is any way. For those looking for the brand of horror these movies provide, they’ll probably be sated, but you’re able to’t shake the feeling that this franchise has become too staid to be scary.
In 1981, Ed and Lorraine are overseeing an exorcism of a little boy, David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard). Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) is the boyfriend of David’s older sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) and wants to protect young David, so during the exorcism, he demands that the demon take him instead, and the demon obliges Arne. Ed witnesses the transference but suffers a heart attack and loses consciousness before he can tell anyone what’s happened. Arne, for some reason, also tells no one of this transference, which becomes a problem when he ends up stabbing Debbie’s boss to death. With Ed recovering from his heart attack, the Warrens set out to prove that Arne was under a demonic possession at the time of the murder, but it’s a race against time as there’s a Satanist out to destroy not only Arne but Ed as well.
The strong core of these movies is and remains the relationship between Ed and Lorraine. Not only do Wilson and Farmiga have excellent chemistry together, but it’s ultimately the argument for everything they do. The Warrens, through the strength of their marriage, represent a domestic tranquility that they seek to restore wherever they go. The random evil coming for a family can be picked out of a hat (the villain forThe Conjuring 2was changed in post-production to give you a sense of how little the specifics of the antagonist mean to these movies), but it’s up to the Warrens and their inherent, unquestionable goodness, that comes to restore peace to families. In the case of Arne Johnson, he both mirrors the Warrens in his love for Debbie as well as risking his personal safety to protect a family when he takes the demon from David.The Devil Made Me Do Itseeks to test the marriage of the Warrens, but as always, these tests are external and demonic rather than internal and complicated.
Obviously, there’s a fun escapism at work here that’s contributed to the franchise’s success. It’s comforting to believe that there’s an external evil that can be defeated if you simply know the right way to do it, and that you can depend on morally uncompromised characters like the Warrens to save the day. But the simplicity of the text shows that the series is basically running on fumes. Sure, you can keep spinning off new monster movies likeAnnabelleandThe Nun, but the core story about the Warrens doesn’t have anywhere to go becauseThe Devil Made Me Do Itshows the filmmakers have clearly settled into a formula whether it’sJames Wan, or in the case ofThe Devil Made Me Do It,Michael Chavesat the helm. And there’s certainly something to be said about horror cinema that’s also oddly comforting, andThe Conjuringseries manages to slide right into that odd niche.
But at some point, we expect horror to elicit some kind of fear or anxiety, andThe Devil Made Me Do Itstudiously avoids any deeper conflict than having the Warrens fight some new kind of evil. For instance, the film’s 1981 setting coincides with theSatanic Panic, and yetThe Devil Made Me Do It’s world argues that Satanists are very real and very here to ruin your life. How does this story fit into a framework that argues for an evil that, in reality, came from paranoia and moral panic?The Conjuringmovies rarely question the validity of any claim. Ed and Lorraine have their beliefs, but their beliefs always tend to reinforce the investigation, so it’s like two Fox Mulders on the case and sometimes you really need a Dana Scully to hold the dramatic tension. Instead,The Conjuringmovies always work from a premise that supernatural evil is real and must be combatted. This evil typically manifests as something that jumps out and makes a loud noise.
We’ve seen that story twice already and hinting at a court case inThe Devil Made Me Do Itis pretty much a dead end since we never really see any trial here. This is a new case to solve with the trial of Arne Johnson providing a framework rather than a plotline. It’s the reason to send the Warrens off on a new investigation rather than trying to make the argument that what they do is admissible in a court of law. Of course, putting the Warrens’ beliefs on trial would in effect be putting them on trial, and that brings us back to the central problem that these movies simply do not want to challenge their heroes with anything that isn’t supernatural.
What makesThe Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do Itso bewildering is that it offers up fresh avenues to take the series and challenge both the characters and the audiences, and it simply opts for more of the same even with a new director. The filmmakers have settled on “This is what aConjuringmovie is,” and while that may be comforting for fans and profitable for the studio, it’s not horrifying or thoughtful in any meaningful way.
Rating: C-
