Score: 3.5 / 5
It's 1981 in Brookfield, Connecticut, and the Warrens are helping a family in need. This time, 8-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) has been possessed by a demon, and we're introduced to his family in the middle of an exorcism. Or, rather, a pre-exorcism, as Ed and Lorraine Warren are preparing to cast out the evil and help David. The house is a wreck, to say nothing of the state of David's poor parents and sister. Thankfully, his sister's boyfriend Arne Johnson is there; the exact history of their relationship is unclear, but Arne is a wonderful older brother to David, and seems uncommonly protective. Even when the priest shows up (delivered by taxi under a streetlamp, in an introductory image straight out of The Exorcist), Arne is a primary actor in the ritual about to commence. He's just a great guy, and so when it appears the demon will claim David's life, Arne invites it into himself to save the little boy.
This riveting and shockingly violent opening scene ranks among the best of the franchise, and reminds us what's at stake in these movies. Sure, haunted houses and dolls are scary, and even when the demons materialize we hide behind our fingers. But the ungodly horror of a loved one suffering before viciously lashing out at other loved ones is the stuff of nightmares. Thankfully, this movie -- more than its previous installments, I'd say -- really leans into that, becoming more of a character drama focused on the victims than on their saviors. Sure, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are the main characters of this movie, with the most screen time and plenty of heartwarming interactions to satiate even those viewers nonplussed with the story and scares, but this time they aren't the dynamic characters. Then again, Arne is pretty much the only dynamic character here. And he should be, as his real-life trial marked the first time in U.S. history a defendant claimed innocence by means of demonic possession.
The first half of the movie is really quite solid, and writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Aquaman, Red Riding Hood, The Walking Dead) weaves an interesting story that establishes a lot of new characters efficiently while shifting our expectations away from a haunted house and toward a haunted person. The now-possessed Arne (played by a really, really great Ruairi O'Connor) doesn't seem to have many problems until he does, and the sequence that culminates in him murdering his landlord is nothing short of brilliant. We're allowed insight into his skewed perceptions, and in a feverish frenzy, he imagines his landlord as a lecherous monster; we're not totally sure what's real in this sequence -- is his girlfriend laughing or screaming? -- and by the time he stabs at the beast, we're made to worry if Arne himself will survive this ordeal.
I wish the actual murder was featured in the movie; it cuts out as it's about to happen, and we have to learn later through dialogue that he stabbed his landlord over 20 times. It's already rated R, and more violence would surely have helped the fans who want gonzo horror; plus, it would have made the subsequent murder trial more emotionally fraught for us as witnesses. At this point the film began to move downhill for me, and it's for two reasons. First, director Michael Chaves, who previously directed the lamentably dull The Curse of La Llorona doesn't seem to know what to do with the material. The possessions and exorcisms are beautiful and fascinating, generally, but when the villain arrives -- more on that later -- his style goes all over the place with no clear aesthetic justification. Second, the abysmal editing cuts to lengthy blackouts right when most scenes get to their most interesting moments, annoyingly jolting us out of the meat of the meal and leaving us craving more, but not in a good way.
And then there's the plot of the second half, which is about as bizarre as it could be. Right when I excitedly thought this movie would go whole-hog The Exorcism of Emily Rose -- a personal favorite of the entire genre -- and let us into the psychological and emotional mess of the famed courtroom case that gives this movie its title, it went completely the other way. Instead of demons manipulating justice, we are forced into a manhunt for a secret mysterious occultist. The Warrens investigate another similar case and discover a link through a macabre totem that apparently was used by a "Satanist witch" to conjure a demon and wreak chaos, claiming the lives of innocents.
By the climax, it's abundantly clear what's going to happen, and it's all a little too contrived for my taste. I think the movie would have been better served had the story focused on the real-life court case instead of a wild fantasy involving an admittedly scary woman in dark tunnels casting curses on young people. Then again, that gives the movie some of its more memorable scenes and lines, delivered by John Noble as Father Kastner, whose exposition deliciously places him among the investigators of the Disciples of the Ram cult about a decade before the events of this movie. It is this inclusion that ties The Devil Made Me Do It to the franchise, and arguably rationalizes the shoehorning of Satanic panic into an otherwise whodunit courtroom thriller.
Thematically, my favorite line in the film is delivered by Kastner, when, upon revealing the identity of the occultist, he says in his gravelly, demoniac voice, "We must be careful how our obsessions are passed to our children." Considering that the final Annabelle movie features the Warrens' daughter getting into significant supernatural trouble, I hope the next Conjuring installment heads a bit further into that direction. I also hope the studio does not hire Chaves to direct any more lackluster entries. Gorgeous cinematography and lighting by Michael Burgess and the solid work of the cast make this movie lovely to watch. A general lack of scares, or even a cohesive (or believable) plot, won't make it any new fans. And if they don't bring some ballsier work -- like in The Conjuring 2 -- I fear the franchise will meet an untimely end.
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