The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a 2021 American supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves, with a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick from a story by Johnson-McGoldrick and James Wan. The film serves as a sequel to The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), the third installment of The Conjuring series and as the eighth installment in the Conjuring Universe franchise. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as paranormal investigators and authors Ed and Lorraine Warren, with Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Julian Hilliard also starring. Wan and Peter Safran return to produce the film, which is based on the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a murder trial that took place in 1981 Connecticut, in addition to The Devil in Connecticut, a book about the trial written by Gerald Brittle.
Originally slated for a September 2020 release, the film was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema in the United States on June 4, 2021, where it also has a simultaneous month-long release on the HBO Max streaming service.
Plot
In 1981, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren document the exorcism of 8-year-old David Glatzel, attended by his family, his sister Debbie, her boyfriend Arne Johnson, and Father Gordon in the town of Brookfield, Connecticut. During the exorcism, Arne invites the demon to enter his body instead of David's. Ed witnesses the demon transport itself from David's body to Arne's whilst he suffers from a heart attack, and is taken to a hospital in a comatose state.
The following month, Ed wakes up at the hospital and reveals to Lorraine that he witnessed the demon enter Arne's body. She sends the police to the kennel where Debbie and Arne's apartment is and where Debbie works, warning them that a tragedy will occur there. Arne and Debbie return to their apartment. After feeling unwell, Arne murders his landlord, Bruno Sauls, under the influence of demonic possession by stabbing him 22 times. With the support of the Warrens, his case becomes the first American murder trial to claim demonic possession as a defense, resulting in the beginning of an investigation into David's original possession. The Warrens later discover a satanic curse passed on through a witch’s totem, and meet with Kastner, a former priest who previously dealt with the Disciples of the Ram cult. He tells them that an occultist had intentionally left the totem, resulting in the creation of a curse on the Glatzels, causing the possession of David.
The Warrens travel to Danvers, Massachusetts, to investigate the death of Katie Lincoln, who was also stabbed 22 times. Detectives had found a totem at the home of Katie's girlfriend Jessica, who is missing. Lorraine initiates a vision to recreate the murder and discovers that Jessica had stabbed Katie under the influence of demonic possession, before jumping to her death off of a cliff, which allows detectives to recover her body. The Warrens travel to the funeral home where her body rests and Lorraine touches the hand of the corpse to help find the location of the occultist. Lorraine, in a vision, travels through a dark tunnel and witnesses the occultist attempting to have Arne kill himself but stops her just in time. Lorraine is threatened by the occultist and she tells Ed that the connection works both ways.
The Warrens return to their house in Connecticut to investigate further. Ed briefly loses consciousness and was later influenced by the occultist into killing Lorraine but was stopped by Drew in time. They later found the totem in their house, which was hidden inside a vase of black roses. Drew gives a book of Stregherian witchcraft he found to Ed, and states that in order for the curse to be lifted, the altar in which the occultist operates must be destroyed. When they realize Katie attended nearby Fairfield University, they begin to assume the occultist is operating in the area. Lorraine returns to Kastner for help, and he reveals that he had raised a daughter named Isla, in violation of the requirement of clerical celibacy in the Catholic Church. He tells Lorraine that during his research, her fascination for the occult grew, later becoming the occultist. Kastner gives Lorraine access to the tunnels where she locates the altar and is then found by the occultist, who then kills him. Ed soon arrives and finds his way into the tunnels through a locked drain hole with a sledgehammer. He is briefly possessed by the demon and attempts to kill Lorraine, but she retells him of the time they first met, reminding him of their love. Ed regains his consciousness and destroys the altar, saving himself, Lorraine and Arne. The occultist arrives at her broken altar, only to be killed by the demon she had summoned, after failing to complete the curse.
Ed places the cup from the altar in their room of artifacts, along with the Valak painting and the Annabelle doll. Arne is convicted of manslaughter but ends up serving only five years of his sentence, after marrying Debbie while in prison. Ed shows Lorraine a replica of the gazebo in which they first kissed.
Cast
- Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren
- Mitchell Hoog as young Ed Warren
- Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren
- Megan Ashley Brown as young Lorraine Warren
- Ruairi O'Connor as Arne Cheyenne Johnson
- Sarah Catherine Hook as Debbie Glatzel
- Julian Hilliard as David Glatzel
- John Noble as Father Kastner
- Eugenie Bondurant as Isla the Occultist
- Shannon Kook as Drew Thomas
- Ronnie Gene Blevins as Bruno Sauls
- Keith Arthur Bolden as Sergeant Clay
- Steve Coulter as Father Gordon
- Vince Pisani as Father Newman
- Ingrid Bisu as Jessica Louise Strong
- Andrea Andrade as Katie Lincoln
- Ashley LeConte Campbell as Meryl
- Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren
- Paul Wilson as Carl Glatzel
- Charlene Amoia as Judy Glatzel
- Davis Osborne as Infirmary Patient
- Mark Rowe as Sergeant Thomas
- Kaleka as Jury Foreman
- Stella Doyle as Kennel Customer
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Wilson and Farmiga, but noted it as weaker than the previous Conjuring installments. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 220 critic reviews for the film are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "The Devil Made Me Do It represents a comedown for the core Conjuring films, although Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson keep the audience invested." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 78% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 58% saying they would definitely recommend it.
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