Rating of
2.5/4
Trading a Haunted House for a Haunted Person
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/18/21
I was hoping switching from a haunted house to a possessed person would help The Conjuring regain its footing, but The Devil Made Me Do It still felt like more of the same and still lacks the punch the original films managed to bring.
Once again based on an actual case, the Warrens (played once again by Vera Farmiga and Patrick WIlson) are called in when a young boy, David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) is possessed. This not only results in Ed Warren nearly dying from a heart condition - but also the demon jumping from one body to another. This plays out months later when David's sister, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) and boyfriend Arne (Ruairi O'Connor) are working at their own animal shelter and Arne winds up killing their shady landlord Bruno (Ronnie Gene Blevins). Arne, however, believes the demon was responsible and is backed up by Debbie and thus the Warrens are brought in to present his defense - it was the devil. That is the "reality" based portion of the film - the rest is the embellished portion.
The more outlandish portion of the film has the Warrens discovering that David's possession was not a random occurrence - in fact it appears the demon was summoned by a cult similar to the one featured in the Annabelle series. It's also not the first time something like this has happened, either as the Warrens encounter another case involving young women and also consult with a former priest (played by the excellent John Noble) who worked on such matters. With Lorraine's uncanny ability to project herself - they find it's not a cult, but a single person, who is responsible and work to track her down before she can mark her next target - the Warrens themselves.
The film has its moments - the scene in the morgue is particularly good - but for the most part it just kind of meanders along, throwing out a few jump scares here and there while trying to tie into the overarching Conjuring series while still being grounded in somewhat reality. While truly better than the likes of The Nun or La Llorana, it still feels like a shadow of where things started. I'm not giving up on the series, but I've resigned myself to the fact I don't think it's ever going to be as good as I want it to be.
