Michael Chaves
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The Exorcist (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
Visuals
Chaves channels the spirit of genre classics like Poltergeist, The Exorcist, and The Amityville Horror, all while maintaining the heart and soul that made the Warrens so compelling in the first place.
This opening sequence runs the gamut of horror-movie references, borrowing visuals from The Exorcist , Psycho and The Shining, but the franchise certainly has its own horror signature which continues with each subsequent demonic encounter.
Its best pieces of visual imagery are borrowed from other, and better, motion pictures, including The Exorcist , and the filmmakers rarely do anything that comes across as being even moderately inventive or creatively inspired.
Chaves nods at his cohorts, with a shot that feels plucked from The Exorcist , another reminiscent of Evil Dead, and moments that feel like The Autopsy of Jane Doe .
An unsettling sequence involving a waterbed is rather terrifying (and perhaps a slight nod to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master ) and the film’s opening prologue, which features sly visual references to The Exorcist and The Shining , is genuinely unnerving.
The Warrens’ frequent consultant, Father Gordon (Steve Coulter), arrives to conduct an exorcism and his entrance allows director Michael Chaves ( The Curse of La Llorona ) the opportunity to pay homage to an iconic moment from The Exorcist .
The Bill Murray/Dan Aykroyd comedy blockbuster with that title had been released two years before and is still scarier that the tired fright clichés trotted out here with no shame.
…partly to skepticism in a post-Ghostbusters world…
…every teenager within shouting distance hollers “Who you gonna call?” just to remind us “Ghostbusters” exists.
Ed becomes increasingly annoyed at having to respond to jokes about Ghostbusters…
…a college kid asks “are you like the Ghostbusters?”
…apart from a Ghostbusters pull and a song to get us into the decade shift…
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Directed by Renny Harlin
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Visuals
An unsettling sequence involving a waterbed is rather terrifying (and perhaps a slight nod to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master ) and the film’s opening prologue, which features sly visual references to The Exorcist and The Shining , is genuinely unnerving.
Here, Chaves and writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick come up with a few fun horror situations and mimic quite a few more (including that waterbed scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), but their execution sorely misses Wan’s deliberate stage-setting and unfurling.
The Conjuring (2013)
Directed by James Wan
influenced The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025), The Curse of La Llorona (2019), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Themes Visuals
Conjuring fans will be pleased with how it evokes the first two films and how much love it shows its main characters.
…carecen de la intensidad visceral que se supo imprimir en El conjuro (Wan, 2013)…
Sadly, one final point I must levy at this film is something it shares with The Conjuring.
The first Conjuring was a foundational gateway in my exploration of horror and remains, to this day, one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.
The first two Conjuring films are great…
Our review of ‘The Conjuring‘ directed by James Wan and starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson…
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Directed by Scott Derrickson
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Plot Themes
Seek out 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose for a better example of a courtroom drama centred on an apparent possession that offers both sides of the story for the viewer to determine their own opinion.
While the demonic murder defense starts The Devil Made Me Do It , the film does not turn into a horror movie courtroom drama, a la The Exorcism of Emily Rose .
Given its courtroom-drama inclusion here, Chaves could have incorporated The Exorcism of Emily Rose-like narrative approach in this third Conjuring film.
So far, not bad, and it brings up some decent memories of the underrated The Exorcism of Emily Rose .
Annabelle (2014)
Directed by John R. Leonetti
influenced The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025), The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
…where Judy sees the mirror and names Annabelle…
“Do you like dolls?” asks one of the Smurl children. “Not really,” says Judy, whose interactions with cursed toy Annabelle were less than positive.
2014’s Annabelle (the spinoff of the evil doll) is quite horrid…
It also represents the ninth film set in the Conjuring Universe (comprising various spin-offs like the Annabelle movies)…
Last Rites has one of the best among the Conjuring series’ requisite Annabelle appearances…
(Not to point fingers at a particular doll by the name of Annabelle.)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Directed by Bob Clark
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Characters
Their efforts to shed the devil from Master David Glatzel (Julian Hillard), who sort of resembles Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) from “A Christmas Story” or Ray Boyd (Jonathan Lipnicki) in “Jerry Maguire” (1996), are successful but not entirely.
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Directed by Cameron Crowe
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Characters
Their efforts to shed the devil from Master David Glatzel (Julian Hillard), who sort of resembles Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) from “A Christmas Story” or Ray Boyd (Jonathan Lipnicki) in “Jerry Maguire” (1996), are successful but not entirely.
…framed pictures of John Wayne in The Searchers…
…to paraphrase another Exorcist knock-off, The Omen: It’s all for you, Ed and Lorraine.
…some of the film’s imagery feeling like homages to classics like Carrie, Ringu and The Shining…
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
influenced The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
Visuals
Chaves channels the spirit of genre classics like Poltergeist, The Exorcist, and The Amityville Horror, all while maintaining the heart and soul that made the Warrens so compelling in the first place.
…some of the film’s imagery feeling like homages to classics like Carrie, Ringu and The Shining…
Chaves channels the spirit of genre classics like Poltergeist, The Exorcist, and The Amityville Horror, all while maintaining the heart and soul that made the Warrens so compelling in the first place.
Evil Dead (2013)
Directed by Fede Álvarez
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Visuals
Chaves nods at his cohorts, with a shot that feels plucked from The Exorcist , another reminiscent of Evil Dead, and moments that feel like The Autopsy of Jane Doe .
…but don’t expect a The Descent level of carnage…
Tell Your Children (1938)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Filmmakers have used moral posturing to get prurient interests on screen since the days of Reefer Madness, and even if that wasn’t the filmmakers’ intention in this case, it’s the level I choose to take it on.
…desde las reinvenciones folclóricas de Robert Eggers hasta el realismo sucio de películas como Hereditary o Saint Maud…
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Directed by David F. Sandberg
influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
“Annabelle: Creation” costume designer Leah Butler steps in to style Lorraine’s prim dowdiness while its production designer Jennifer Spence excels in the same spots the film does.
A few years back, I was walked through the set of Annabelle: Creation , which turned out to be one of the weakest films in the series so far.
Fuera de una brillante escena que involucra un colchón de agua, el resto de la película recurre a elementos demasiado predecibles y familiares que no consiguen igualar o superar lo visto en Annabelle: Creation o en la primera cinta de la saga estrenada en el 2013, la cual aún sigue siendo nuestra favorita.
…could be argued has a has a fate-like arc in the vein of Sleeping Beauty…