We don’t have too long to wait for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which returns to Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal investigations. There’s already been a lot of buzz for the picture as it’s said to push the horror and hauntings further than previous entries in The Conjuring universe, and now director Michael Chaves has remarked on how it’ll explore the darkest Warren case to date.
Speaking about the production this week, he had this to say:
“When I first got the script, of course, I was thrilled. It’s Conjuring 3. I’m such a Conjuring fan. I was also nervous because if you look at the other cases, you look into the other Warren case files, there’s no real victims. You can’t actually point to someone who lost their life. And so I think with this there’s always the marketing spin, like, ‘This is the darkest Conjuring case ever.’ But I think in all honesty it really is, because you are talking about a real murder and a real victim. And so going into it, even though I was really excited to deliver as a fan that same Conjuring experience, I think it also needed to be throttled with the reality.”
For those not aware, The Conjuring 3 is bringing in the real-life story of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a man who explained he was possessed when on trial for murdering his landlord during the 1980s. Johnson claimed that he was taken over by a spirit while attending an exorcism for his girlfriend’s brother, something that Ed and Lorraine were involved with. Given that this will be the incident that kicks off The Devil Made Me Do It, it’ll be intriguing to see whether the film follows through on the murder actually being the result of a demon, or due to more complex circumstances.
Based on Chaves’ comments, combining these events with the supernatural mythology of The Conjuring was a difficult act to pull off, especially when dealing with actual victims and criminal actions. Although it doesn’t seem that the intention was to temporarily relocate series into true crime territory, the stronger blurring of the lines between fiction and reality than usual will be fascinating to see.
From the trailer and the images we’ve seen so far of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, this instalment will have some of the most ambitious effects to date for the long-running property. And with at least three more movies reportedly in development, Warner Bros. will be hoping that the threequel will sustain the recent success of Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat in both its limited theatrical release and on HBO Max this June 4th.