I am always rather surprised at the quality of the films in The Conjuring franchise, when I say that I of course refer solely to the chief trilogy and not the multiple spin-offs, and yet in every case I end up coming out with almost the exact same result – the overwhelming feeling that a very solid film of interesting themes and well directed scenes, filled with great performances and intriguing concepts of the beyond, seriously falls apart in the final act, falling prey to an abundance of over-the-top CGI effects and action beats. In the case of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, we are once more greeted with the “true story” of one of the Warren case files, naturally seriously blown out to major lengths in the intention of creating an intriguing horror feature. Here we also have lost James Wan as our director and instead have Michael Chaves, the director of the very average The Curse of La Llorona. The Devil Made Me Do It really is a case where a tried and tested formula has been utilised again reaping a perfectly fine film that begins far better than it ends, in regards to quality.

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Here we have the “true story” case of a murder based around demonic possession, here spun out to also include the Warrens investigating a demonic Satanist, who ends up being a seriously under-developed third act reveal. All in all the film itself is a fairly successful reiteration of what we can now refer to as The Conjuring formula – The Warrens investigate for the first half hour or so as the filmmakers relay to us what actually happened, before we then have to make the film feature length and expand the very thin plot into something feature length. A small but very effective choice in making this film work perhaps better than the previous films is in the choice to have the pre-credits sequence be central to the core plot of the film, whereas previously it has been an ‘opening of Raiders’ style previous short film investigation furthering the world of the Warrens. Of course at this point we are very well versed in this world and we can utilise out running time to really zone in and tighten up the plot that we have to deliver. The plot is delivered this time around by screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who as aforementioned doesn’t do anything major and more or less follows the well seeded formula that the series now works with. Beyond the returning Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, our supporting cast consist of an array of great performances really bringing us into a believable world that just so happens to have been infected by the devil, not unlike the methods William Friedkin went about with The Exorcist that this film knowingly (I hope) references in its prologue. The film itself for all its early successes, does just plunder as it goes on, having to come up with an outrageous plot to justify the real life case of the Arne Johnson (played very well here by Ruairir O’Connor, with Sarah Catherine Hook also excellent as Arne’s girlfriend). The film’s final reveals and villain introduction just feels like a hammy and forced way to wrap up what could have been a far more interesting film about law and the spirit world. With the lengths that this film does go to fictionalise a plot from the very thin real life story, one would seriously think a better tact would be to just write a wholly fictional feature getting into some real grit with this very interesting central plot concept.

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The greatest success of all of these films has always been the triumphant chemistry of the pairing of both the actors and characters of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Ed and Lorraine Warren, this film is no exception to that rule. The deep love of the Warrens is the sort of thing that could fuel a wonderful trilogy of romance films but instead here serves as a tremendous fuel for dramatic stakes. As always Wilson and Farmiga are on top form, with Wilson giving a sturdy old Hollywood-esque performance as a charismatic and trusting leading man, and Farmiga always bringing great depth and humanity to the character of Lorraine, without ever once winking or playing the possible ambiguity of her spiritual powers. The best stuff in the film is when these two are on screen and when we focus on their relationship. As stupid as it sounds I would love to see a relationship drama between the two of them without any of the horror, of course this could never be the case and the film we do get is filled aplenty with scares ranging between the well delivered and the very, very cheap jumping variety. Even the well-delivered ones are undermined by a dependence on CGI. Overall The Devil Made Me Do It is a return in many ways to a more streamlined horror film, removed from all the universe expanding trappings that plagued the series second entry. Chaves may not have made a horror masterpiece, but he has certainly made an interesting, thrilling and very watchable thitd entry into a series that seemingly shall continue for some time, with me rather happy to hear it.

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A 6/10 threequel that really does work far better than it has any right to do so for the majority of its running time. A clear focus on winning characters and intriguing dramatic plotting makes a major amount of this film a very successful horror feature. However an over reliance on CGI and a focus seemingly more so upon action set-pieces than horror ones, leaves one pondering whether the quality of the first 30 minutes was as successful as one first thought it to be.

P.S. I really can’t reiterate enough how refreshing so many elements of these Conjuring movies are. The lack of a shoddy final jump scare, the focus on human believable characters, the emphasis on plot (not that this is a too great one) – I really could watch many more of these films, just as long as they stay in the state of their first hours, rather than their closings.

-        -   Thomas Carruthers