The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the sequel to the films The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 and the seventh film in the Conjuring Universe, which also contains the Annabelle (a demonically possessed doll) series, and The Nun (a demonically possessed nun) series. In these movies, there is usually a direct or indirect correlation between the demonic possessions and Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). The Warrens were real people who would go around visiting victims experiencing strange events (usually in their houses and usually around some “cursed” item), then convince these people to look for a book or movie deal to see if they could turn a profit. The Conjuring Universe is smarter than to present the Warrens as they actually were; instead, in the movies, they are a loving couple bringing up a young daughter who not only believes the strange occurrences they come across, but believes they are making the world a better place.
Buy The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Blu-rayIt is 1981, and the Warrens are assisting and documenting an exorcism for eight-year-old victim David Glatzel (Julian HIlliard). Also in attendance are David’s older sister (Sarah Catherine Hook); her boyfriend, Arne (Ruairi O’Connor); and a priest, Father Gordon (Steve Coulter). The exorcism does not go well: Arne begs the demon to enter him and leave David alone, and the demon obliges. The only witness to this is Ed, who suffers a massive heart attack when the demon attacks him physically. Weirdly, Ed doesn’t wake up for an entire month and has lost his chance to warn Arne that he has been possessed by a demon. Arne has been seeing paranormal events around the house, and before you know it, he has stabbed his landlord 22 times.
The Warrens are able to convince Arne’s lawyer of paranormal events by showing her videos from their personal collection, and Ed says, “We will introduce you to Annabelle.” The lawyer meets Annabelle off-screen and is quick to change her beliefs and creates the first case in the United States to use “the devil made me do it” excuse. In other words, their argument will be that the murder was caused by demonic possession. In the real world, where this was a real case, the judge flat-out said, “No” to the possibility of proving the paranormal in a courtroom. It is surprising, because anybody in the Conjuring Universe who is introduced to Annabelle appears to become an instant believer: just not the judge. In the real world, even though Arne stabbed his landlord 22 times, something worked in Arne’s favor, as he only spent five years in prison on a ten- to twenty-year sentence.
The Devil Made Me Do It begins to fall apart during that second half in court. The Warrens have more than enough evidence to prove their cases but are limited to giving short presentations at libraries and colleges. The stories rely too much on the idea that only the Catholic Church believes the Warrens, and that they somehow don’t have enough pull to convince others. The Warrens have videos of people contorting into impossible positions, speaking languages they shouldn’t know, and floating in the air. But the rest of the world is just like, eh, whatever.
