The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Directed by Michael Chaves
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
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What critics say influenced The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
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 .
This is where director Michael Chaves begins the story and there are homages to the 1973 film, The Exorcist.
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.
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 .
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.
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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.
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 .
Nobody will knock the practical effects of “The Devil Made Me Do It” - which is a direct sequel in “The Conjuring'' bloodline after spinoffs ranging from “Annabelle” to “The Nun” - but it’d be tough for any follow-up (let alone a third outing) to maintain the momentum and legacy of James Wan’s utterly terrifying 2013 original, which was was a low-budget haunted house trifecta built on a minimalist approach.
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.
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“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.
Eugine Bondurant gets mileage playing the tall and ghoulish antagonist, though her journey feels twice removed from “The Evil Dead.”