The Conjuring: The Producers Made Them Do It
Even if a movie in Hollywood is universally panned but is a hit at the box office there's a 99% chance it gets a sequel, and if the case is reversed it definitely doesn't get one. In the case of the first 2 The Conjuring movies they were both box office hits and critically acclaimed, but keep the former factor in mind, as that is what led to the spawning of a franchise containing multiple spin-offs, and finally this third outing released more than 4 years after The Conjuring 2.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) lives up to it titles as making Satanism the centerpiece of the storyline. Whereas, in the previous part, it was established that the demon was self-motivated all along, here the twist or mid-film reveal is that a satanic cult might be behind everything going on.
But there's more to the story that meets the eye. The story really starts going when Arne is about to get the death penalty for brutally slaying a co-worker. However, his case is the first in America where he pleads not guilty by virtue of demonic possession. It's kind of laughable but, for a movie set in this universe, highly plausible as well.
I think in the hands of a better director, say James Wan (though he did co-write the story), this horror film would have been better focused on the trial. I might have seen this scenario before in a film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, I think. Ultimately, the movie does have its highs and lows.
THE GOOD
- The direction by Michael Chavez is not as profound as James Wan's but he does his best with a screenplay written by The Conjuring 2 co-screenwriter, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.
- The jump scares are effectively timed, and though the movie is not as scary as the initial 2 instalments, it is still horrific enough for a sequel.
- Even though the cult element is cliched given how the cult subgenre in both horror and non-horror media ventures is trending in Hollywood, I still liked how the creative team handled it. The reason for being non-guilty due to demonic possession was also an interesting subplot. Plus, those scenes involving the Lorraines trying to prove their talents to a detective were very thought-provoking and also reminded me of the previous 2 movies where they also have to prove their worth to doubters.
THE BAD
- Compared to The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, this movie was very predictable rendering the plot twists as not being twists at all.
- There was something about this movie's atmosphere which seemed straight-to-DVD like despite having a $39 million budget.
- The movie was simply not as scary as The Conjuring 2 which itself isn't the scariest of horror movies is overall one of the best modern horror movies in existence.
Moreover, if you have read the plus points above you'll know that despite being of lower quality, this 3rd part does stay true to its roots by featuring traditional plot elements from its predecessors. For a director like Chavez who directed The Conjuring spin-off The Curse of La Llorna, which was a passable flick, this movie itself passed a good sequel which overall did not add anything new to the supernatural genre.
To end with, there are movie trilogies which suffer a drop in quality in descending order: For example, The Matrix trilogy. There are some movie trilogies whose sophomore attempts outshine the original like the original X-Men trilogy where X2 was the best one followed by X1 and rounded off by X3. The Conjuring trilogy follows the latter formula.
The Rating: 3 out of 4.
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