Happy Thursday Everyone! Here we are at the end of our journey of the Conjuring films. What an incredible journey it's been. 8 Films so far in this franchise. Soon, there'll be another entry with next year's The Nun 2. Personally, moving through this series the way that we have - it honestly goes to show me just how much this series has become the horror version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a bit of a gamble in the beginning as to whether it would work. But isn't that the case with every new IP for horror or any other genre these days? And honestly, I just realized that next year, we will have spent a decade with this franchise.
Last year, we saw the release of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. It was the third entry in the Conjuring line of this franchise. But it was eighth film released altogether and lands last on our timeline. I remember that it was originally to be released during October of 2020. But damn Covid managed to put a kabosh on that. Instead, it was released in June of 2021. Almost an entire year later. It's honestly extremely unfortunate. There was such a hype for the film during that lead-in to the original line of marketing. It was like something in the air. You couldn't help but be excited for it. But then with the delay due to COVID, it knocked the wind out of everything. COVID managed to knock the wind out of a lot of other films as well.
Finally when it officially gearing up to seeing release, it just felt like there wasn't as much talk about Conjuring 3. It felt like it was missing its mark. It felt like all the hype was dying down. I know I felt the same way about Candyman 2021 originally. I covered The Devil Made Me Do It when it was thrown onto HBO Max in August of 2021. I like many others wasn't as impressed with the film. It felt like something was missing and had missed the mark. But I wouldn't consider it to be completely abysmal. I had a lot of high expectations for it. And honestly, that was a bit unfair to it.
Now that we are here, I'm happy that have the chance to revisit The Devil Made Me Do It. It's been a year since I had seen it last. Would it hold up? I always thought about giving it a second watch. But I never did. However with the rewatch, I definitely have some thoughts on the film.
Going back to my comparison of this franchise to the Marvel Cinematic Films, I would say that this absolutely begins a new Phase. With the revisiting of the films in chronological order, it has a flow to it. It's very reminiscent of the Marvel films. In Chronological Order, Valak is an extremely prominent force in the series. So with the way that The Conjuring 2 ends with Lorraine confronting Valak, it now has an even larger impact than upon initial release. It felt like things were building towards that confrontation in a way.
With Valak seemingly gone for now, The Devil Made Me Do It feels like the beginning of a new chapter. It's definitely not feeling like the ending chapter that's for dang sure. So being a new beginning, it attempts to do things differently. It takes the typical formula that we have grown to be accustomed to and subverts it. Oh, you're expecting the story to follow in a bit of a linear fashion? Well, nah we're not doing that. With The Devil Made Me Do It's beginning, it takes what we usually see as the third act exorcism and throws it right into the opening with The Exorcism of David Glatzel. It's a very strong opening in terms of some shock value. But the sad thing is while it has impact, it takes away from us necessarily caring about the Glatzels. Or at the very least, it lessens that connection.
That's part of the problem with starting the film in a different act than a traditional linear story. You are throwing your audience to the wolves in terms of playing catch up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. However, it's a choice.
At this point, I'd like to say that this was the first Conjuring film itself to not be directed by James Wan. Michael Chaves had the pleasure of stepping into those big shoes of directing this endeavor. Chaves was responsible for directing The Curse of La Llorona (Don't worry, we will get there as that'll be our final entry). So, it's pretty clear that Chaves wanted to bring his own style to the table. I do wonder if Wan had directed it, would it have followed a more linear form of storytelling?
Also by this point, we are at the third entry in this series. By this point, you kind of have to shake things up and do things differently. I mean take a look at Elm Street, by Part 3 we had the Dream Warriors. I also would say that there's probably a good reason why it's not called The Conjuring 3, but The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. What would that reason be? I can't tell you.
While the previous two Conjuring films were of the typical haunted house/possession variety, this isn't that. No with this installment, we are given something different entirely. This is very much more in the form of a Procedural. There is more of a mystery to things. In the beginning, everything plays out like we have come to expect with this franchise. Possession happens and spooky things occur. But when things shift from David to Arnie, it takes a shift. On another watch, it's well known that this isn't necessarily about possession. It's about a curse. A human-made one at that.
This introduces The Occultist, Isla. She is the child of Father Kastner. It's supposed to be a bit of a big reveal. However when you cast John Noble as Father Kastner, there's extremely good reason for doing so. You don't use him as just a small throwaway character. At this point, we have seen so many different spirits, demons, and possessions. To see a villain that is human, it kind of subverts the expectations. In one sense, it opens the world more. Yeah, we have demons and spirits doing creepy shit. However, we also getting people doing creepy shit.
Why is the Occultist doing all this shit? Well, it's honestly something that's a little muddled. She was fascinated with the occult after reading through books her father had found. She took it upon herself to attempt to summon a demon and utilizing witch's totems to possess people. She promised it a soul. Thus attempting to create a curse, three murders would occur followed by three suicides. The child (Jessica), The Lover (Arnie), and Man of God (Ed) were all the targets of this curse. Unfortunately for Ed, he got thrown in once they began nosing around trying to clear Arnie.
One of the most fascinating things that was mentioned was that Father Kastner had helped stop a local cult. It's extremely clear that this cult would be The Disciples of Ram. Now, who are these Disciples of Ram? Well, none other than the local cult that Annabelle Higgins (Janice from Creation) had went and got herself involved in. Looking at that, it didn't necessarily feel as out of place as originally thought.
By this point, we had seen a lot of Patrick Wilson's Ed. He's been in the thick of things. He does whatever he needs to do to save someone. He's an extremely active member in these films. But within this story, we see him moved into the supporting role. This isn't Ed's film. We get to see Vera Farmiga's Lorraine be moved into the more active role. It definitely is an interesting shift. Both of these actors still are able to do some great work.
The rest of the cast are able to deliver good performances. However, it's the way that the story is set up that hinders them from delivering great performances. Once the curse is passed from David to Arnie, a lot of characters fall to the wayside. The Glatzel family outside of David and Debbie are nowhere to be seen. I get that these characters may think that Arnie did do it. However, instead of not showing them, let us see them have conflict with Debbie, whose decision is to stand by Arnie. Instead, we see them for maybe two scenes in the film before they are gone. John Noble is fantastic as Father Kastner. It didn't really feel like he phoned it in. I mean he absolutely could have used as a payday. Honestly that is one of the biggest drawbacks was we didn't necessarily get as much time with our supporting characters. It's like 1-2 scenes of interesting moments, but then the story pushes into overdrive already.
Overall, I would say that my experience with this film has changed. I appreciate the different things that it does. It attempted to switch things up and give us more of a procedural approach. It could have easily attempted to give us more of the same that we expected. So, I appreciate that it's different. Is the motives of the Occultist a little muddled? Yes. Do I think that things were wrapped a little too nicely? Absolutely. If I had a hand in writing this, I would have thought to have figured out a way for the Occultist to return later on. Build up the fact that there was this Anti-Lorraine out there doing the Devil's work. Kind of like how Valak was built up in previous films. Do I hope for more films? Absolutely. Would I like to see something more with the Disciples of Ram? Absolutely. Feels like there could be some untapped potential there. Do I think the film was overhyped and an absolute mess? No. I feel like it was a good turn out. There's definitely multiple different ways I could have seen it falling flat on its face completely as some other third film entries have done before. But with what we were given, it's not bad.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
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