The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It starts with a bang. The thrilling exorcism that begins the film makes for a terrific and pulse-pounding opening scene. It's properly spooky and chock full of all the disturbing imagery and contorting limbs that you'd expect in an exorcism sequence, and puts the audience in the right frame of mind for another journey through the fearsome frights of a Conjuring film. It's capably directed by Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona), with some truly great shots and sequences (one featuring Lorraine physically re-enacting a murder in a shadowed forest is particularly stunning), but the scares are a little light this go around. The film never quite reaches the tension and carefully crafted horrors of its beginning.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga turn in predictably wonderful and committed performances as Ed and Lorraine Warren, respectively, but the case that they're called to investigate this time around doesn't have as strong of an emotional tie to the Warrens' relationship or Lorraine's religious faith like in The Conjuring 2, leaving the proceedings feeling a little emotionally hollow. All the signature Conjuring imagery is there: spooky passages; ancient, Satanic artifacts; chilling rituals, and Lorrain's psychic visions, among others, that let the viewer slide easily back into the franchise. The story at the center of the film is a fascinating one, and it would have been a welcome addition to have the film place an even stronger focus on Ed and Lorraine building a deeper relationship with Arne. Regardless, it's always nice to see the pair back on-screen and their crackling chemistry is more than enough reason to give The Conjuring's third outing a watch.
This time around the film leaves the 70s behind in favor of a story set in 1981 that revolves around Ed and Lorraine assisting with the exorcism of 8-year-old David Glatzel in Connecticut. During the exorcism, in a last-ditch attempt to save David's life, his sister's boyfriend, Arne, invites the demon to enter his body instead. David is ultimately spared from the demon's grasp and all seems to be well and reverts back to normal...until a month later when Arne mysteriously blacks out and murders his landlord. Having no memory of the incident, Arne (and the Warrens) believe that David's demon actually did enter Arne's body during David's exorcism. This leads the Warrens to investigate the root cause of David's (and Arne's) possession in order to prove that Arne truly wasn't to blame and spare him from the legal ramifications that sprout from a murder charge.
The Conjuring universe is no stranger to taking the Warrens' real-life case files and adapting them for the screen. The Conjuring featured the true haunting of the Perron family in a Rhode Island farmhouse by the spirit of a woman, Bathsheba, who had been rumored to be a Satanist. It was a true story, albeit with some added Hollywood twists and flourishes. A few years later, The Conjuring 2 involved the case of the Hodgson family who were being tormented by poltergeist activity in Enfield, England. While there was no real-life exorcism like in the film, family and sworn witnesses did experience multiple instances of flying objects, moving furniture, and flickering lights before the haunting abruptly stopped. Even Conjuring spin-off Annabelle features part of the true story of a nursing student who was given the doll that switches positions and leaves her handwritten notes on old parchment paper. While these films were based on true stories and featured plotlines that were more or less based on the Warrens' actual case files, spin-off films like The Nun are not based on the Warrens' investigations or true hauntings.
Is The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It based on a true story?
Both Arne Johnson and David Glatzel are real people. According to the Glatzel family, then-11-year-old David Glatzel truly was possessed by a demon. After witnessing David hissing, speaking in strange voices, being choked by an invisible pair of hands, and sustaining mysterious bruises and marks on his body, they enlisted the help of the Warrens along with a handful of Catholic priests to participate in multiple exorcisms. The process continued for days until it concluded when, according to those present at the final exorcism, the alleged demon fled David's body and invaded Arne's.
Months later during lunch at Debbie's work, Arne and Debbie's landlord arrived drunk and began harrassing the women present. Arne eventually intervened, growling like an animal (according to his sister, Wanda) while he stabbed his landlord multiple times, killing him in the process. After Arne was apprehended, his defense lawyer attempted to use demonic possession as a defense (the first American murder trial to do so), but the judge stated that it was off the table due to lack of evidence to prove demonic interference. Arne and his legal team were left to argue that Arne acted in self-defense, making the jury unable to consider demonic possession as a reason for Arne's actions even if they believed it to be the truth. Ultimately, Arne was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison but only served five. Arne and Debbie got married while Arne was in prison and they later had two children. They remained married until Debbie's recent death from cancer.
While The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It takes severe artistic license with the story by adding details such as a sub-plot involving a former priest who's an expert in the occult, and a Satanist who has purposefully placed a curse upon the Glatzel family, the essential story elements such as David's exorcisms, Arne's killing of his landlord, his trial, and the Warrens' involvement with the case, are factual.
The Conjuring franchise is known to blend fact with fiction but this time around there's a real case with a true tragedy and life lost at the center, bringing an added reverence to the franchise that it never before had reason to display. There are dozens of the Warrens' case files that have not yet been given the Hollywood treatment but if the Arne Johnson case is any indication, sometimes truth is much stranger than fiction.