The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a return to form for The Conjuring franchise after the underwhelming The Nun in 2018 and The Curse of La Llorona (also known as The Curse of the Weeping Woman in some countries including Australia) and Annabelle Comes Home in 2019.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It hits the ground running with a genuinely intense and frightening sequence depicting the paranormal investigators the Warrens (Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren and Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren) trying to exercise a demon from a young boy (Julian Hilliard). It goes horribly wrong when Ed suffers a serious heart attack during the exorcism and the demon leaves the body of the young boy and enters the body of his older sister’s boyfriend (Ruairi O’Connor), who then proceeds to murder his landlord.
The Devil Made Me Do It boasts some legitimately tense set pieces like the aforementioned exorcism and thankfully obnoxious jump scares are kept to a minimum.
And Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson continue to make the Warrens two of the most lovable, charming, and endearing characters in the whole of the horror genre. Despite the abundance of satanic terrors, the story of the Warrens is ultimately a love story about love defeating evil and it fleshes out this sweet and touching relationship further with beautiful scenes like one depicting how the couple met.
Director Michael Chaves delivers a far more visually dynamic film than his previous contribution to The Conjuring universe, The Curse of La Llorona, and the score by Joseph Bishara is genuinely unsettling.
Delivering on both the scares and heart that made the earlier films in the franchise so engaging, The Devil Made Me Do It will satisfy fans of the series.
Reviewed by Jordan Ellis
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It opens today.
spooky and heartfelt 3 stars
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