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From " Saw " to " Insidious ," indie horror filmmaker James Wan's films have always been confrontational in their guileless grand-standing. So it's not surprising that watching "The Conjuring" is like getting a tour of a haunted house attraction from someone that pushes, and pulls you through every room.

There's nothing really scary about Wan's latest because there's nothing particularly mysterious, or inviting about its proceedings. The film's relentlessly lame expository dialogue and tedious parade of jump scares are overwhelming in the worst way possible. Only one in five scares hit home because, while Wan sometimes proves that he can reel viewers in, he usually prefers to strong-arm his audience into submission. Then again, the film's scenario, scripted by Carey and Chad Hayes (the 2005 " House of Wax " remake), is so thunderously stupid that you probably wouldn't want to wander around Wan's film-shaped carnival ride if you could.

"The Conjuring" is as toothless as it is because it's two different kinds of boring. The film's plot is explained exhaustively whenever loud noises aren't blaring, and random objects aren't teasingly leaping out at you from the corner of your eye. In fact, the Hayes' brothers are so anxious to explain their "Amityville Horror"-knockoff's convoluted backstory that they dump information in viewers' laps three different ways before the film's opening credits.

First, there's a dramatization of the 1968 Annabelle Higgins case, a real-life "haunting" that apparently involved a creepy doll, and two dimwitted nubile nurses. Next, Ed and Lorraine Warren ( Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga ) explain to a rapt collegiate audience that they're demonologists who specialize in exorcisms. It's never explicitly explained in the film, but in real life, the Warrens "investigated" the Amityville Horror hoax. Finally, a ream of text assaults your eyeballs with even more useless information. This movie is set in the early '70s, is "based on the true story," and follows the most serious exorcism case in the Warrens' history. And if you don't believe the filmmakers, too bad, braaaahm, here's the movie's title in huge, bigger-than-Kubrick yellow font; don't choke on it.

That kind of incessant throat-clearing continues after we're introduced to the Perrons, a family with five young daughters who just moved into a big house on the edge of a small Massachusetts town. We learn something new about the Perrons and the Warrens in every other scene because they never stop describing themselves to each other. The girls are rambunctious, and miss their old home: "Well, first cute boy she meets, she'll forget about Jersey."

The Perrons' house needs cleaning up: "Whoa! That's gonna take a lot of elbow grease!" The Warrens are God-fearing, and happily married: "You said that God brought us together for a reason." And while there are three stages to a haunting ("Infestation, Oppression, Possession"), the Perrons' new house isn't haunted—they are ("It's like stepping on gum: sometimes you take it with you").

Don't let the Hayes' diarrhetic explanations put you off: you can ignore much of what's being said and understand "The Conjuring" just fine. But a key reason that the film's barrage of jump scares is as dissatisfying as it is is because the Hayes' scenario is distressingly light on intelligent characterizations, memorable dialogue, logic. One might argue that there wouldn't be much of a movie if characters didn't make stupid decisions. But it takes a special kind of rocket scientist to enter a room after seeing a ghost with slit wrists whisper (loudly), "Look what she made me do," then disappear around a corner.

This is a movie where two characters, after experiencing a major traumatic event, express affection for each other by saying, "You did good," and, "No, you did." Hokey period details, like Wilson's Elvis-like flip haircut and sideburns, or Farmiga's Liberace-style collar ruffles, are meant to lull viewers into complacency. But that kind of bait-and-switch tactic is just annoying in a horror film whose monsters are only as scary as they are fitfully unnerving.

The fact that so many pseudo-spooky scenes in "The Conjuring" involve jump scares is telling. Wan and the Hayes want their film to be judged as a theme park attraction. But they fail to deliver bargain-basement cheap thrills. Even if you ignored the parts of "The Conjuring" that require more than shock-deep emotional involvement, the film's scares are too monotonous and schematic to be really scary. Wan and the Hayes only plumbed their ids so much, and consequently only have to offer a creepy doll, a screaming old crone, and dead kids in period dress. These things aren't that much scarier when they're flying into your face. There's nothing holding "The Conjuring" together beyond its creators' desperate need to needle you.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

The Conjuring (2013)

112 minutes

Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren

Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren

Ron Livingston as Roger Perron

Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron

Mackenzie Foy as Cindy

Joey King as Christine Perron

Hayley McFarland as Nancy

Shanley Caswell as Andrea Perron

Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren

Carey Hayes
Peter Safran

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The conjuring, common sense media reviewers.

Terrifying paranormal horror movie based on a true story.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The characters take on terrifying challenges, work

The Warrens selflessly put themselves in harm's wa

Not much visible death or gore, but what is shown

A married couple is shown to be comfortable with o

Infrequent language includes one "s--t," plus the

A man is shown to be asleep at his desk with an un

Positive Messages

The characters take on terrifying challenges, work together, solve problems, and triumph over the odds. They also show empathy for stressed characters in tense situations.

Positive Role Models

The Warrens selflessly put themselves in harm's way to help a family in need. Lorraine, in particular, is in physical danger, but doesn't hesitate to help. They're based on real-life paranormal investigators who apparently helped many people.

Violence & Scariness

Not much visible death or gore, but what is shown is terrifying, life-altering, and not for the faint of heart. The movie's most intense imagery comes from pure terror. The most disturbing sequences occur during the demon possession sequence. There's a great deal of screaming and fighting and some minor gore, such as a woman vomiting blood while wearing a sheet over her head (a red stain suddenly appears on the sheet). A demon scratches a cop's face, with some blood shown. One character (a dog) dies, and characters are sometimes battered around the room by demons.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A married couple is shown to be comfortable with one another in the bedroom. There's some innuendo around their sex life, such as "christening the new house" and "do it again."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes one "s--t," plus the occasional "goddamn," "damn," "oh my God," and "hell." A character says, "son of a --- " but doesn't finish the phrase.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A man is shown to be asleep at his desk with an unfinished glass of whisky nearby.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Conjuring is a truly scary horror movie that's based on a true story about a haunted house, a demon possession, and an exorcism. It's more frightening than gory; no characters die (except a dog), and not much blood is shown, except during an intense demon-possession scene at the climax. But even though it's mostly based on suggestion, the scary stuff is terrifying. Language includes one "s--t" and a few other words but is infrequent. Sex isn't an issue, other than that a married couple is shown to be comfortable with each other in the bedroom (with a little mild innuendo). One character is shown to have drunk some whisky and fallen asleep at his desk. The main characters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were real-life paranormal investigators. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (60)
Kids say (320)

Based on 60 parent reviews

Terrifying theme

What's the story.

In THE CONJURING, in the early 1970s, the Perron family -- Roger ( Ron Livingston ), Carolyn ( Lili Taylor ), and their five daughters -- move into a new home in the Rhode Island countryside. Before long, they start encountering strange noises and smells, stopped clocks, slamming doors, and figures lurking in dark corners. So the Perrons approach paranormal investigators Lorraine ( Vera Farmiga ) and Ed Warren ( Patrick Wilson ) for help. The Warrens believe a demon is causing the trouble, and when Carolyn becomes possessed, they must get approval from the church for an exorcism. Unfortunately, Lorraine's clairvoyant abilities have taken quite a toll on her physical strength, and Ed worries that she might not survive their latest adventure.

Is It Any Good?

This horror film provides a treasure trove of typical haunting tricks that seems fresh and terrifying once again. Best known for co-creating Saw , expert horror director James Wan has happily advanced into more sophisticated tales with Insidious and now The Conjuring . Rather than gore, Wan goes for a more old-fashioned, character-based movie here. What's more, Wan plays with the "based on a true story" motif in interesting ways. Rather than remaining stuck on facts, he uses the story in more metaphysical ways, suggesting that both demons (and angels) could actually exist.

The movie's inspired music score is key: it's a collection of edgy, discordant tones that works beautifully with the images. Wan's choice of actors also adds a level of class. Taylor and Farmiga in particular are two of our finest current actresses, and they bring an intense sense of empathy to the screen. Wilson matches them, making it hard not to hope that a series of true-story horror movies based on the Warrens is in horror fans' future.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Conjuring 's violence and how it's presented. How much is actually shown? What's scarier -- lots of gore and blood, or "suggested" scares? Why?

What makes this movie scarier or less scary than other horror movies you've seen?

What do you think about the real-life aspects of the movie? Does the movie make you believe in ghosts and demons? Does it make you want to learn more about the Warrens?

Are the Warrens role models? How do they help out the Perron family?

What's the appeal of demon possession/exorcism movies? What do they have to say about the world?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 19, 2013
On DVD or streaming : October 22, 2013
Cast : Lili Taylor , Patrick Wilson , Vera Farmiga
Director : James Wan
Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Female actors
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Horror
Run time : 112 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : sequences of disturbing violence and terror
Last updated : April 25, 2024

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Entertainment
Movie Review

'The Conjuring' review: the return of true horror

The director of 'insidious' and 'saw' ups the ante in his latest ghost story.

By Bryan Bishop on July 18, 2013 09:01 am 72 Comments

In 2004 director James Wan helped launch an entire subgenre of horror with Saw . Dubbed “torture porn” — a derisive label used by cultural critics that confused catharsis with titillation — it became the gory norm for years, with the Saw franchise creaking out sequel after sequel. Starting with 2010’s Insidious , however, Wan himself has been exploring different, more nuanced ground: bringing the classic ghost story back in terrifying fashion.

His latest effort is The Conjuring , based on a case from Ed and Lorraine Warren — the real-life ghost hunters behind The Amityville Horror investigation. While the “true story” premise adds an additional layer of allure, the film goes far beyond that sort of one-note trickery, providing Wan the opportunity to take the techniques he’s learned in his previous outings and turn them up to 11. It’s a movie that doesn’t quite leap into the pantheon of genre classics it’s riffing on, but it proves James Wan is able to do one thing better than almost any filmmaker working today: scare the hell out of you.

It's the early 1970s, and Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) are moving into an old Rhode Island farmhouse along with their five daughters. Right off the bat things seem a little off: the family dog refuses to enter the home, and the Perrons discover a cobwebbed basement behind a false wall in the closet. At night things only get worse. Clocks mysteriously stop, strange knocking echoes down the halls, and one of the Perron’s daughters starts sleepwalking — with a particular fixation on the creepy wardrobe they found abandoned in the home.

Carolyn eventually contacts renowned demonologist Ed Warren (a chilly Patrick Wilson) and his clairvoyant wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), begging them to investigate. And once the Warrens arrive, they realize there’s something very, very wrong.

It’s all standard-issue setup, but it’s clear Wan knows that just as much as the audience. The film is littered with references to genre classics — Poltergeist , The Changeling , Robert Wise’s The Haunting — but they’re never foregrounded. They’re passing nods; a filmmaker acknowledging what excites him, and letting the audience know he’s a fan, too. Instead, Wan uses the familiar plot as a canvas for his own bravura performance in genre filmmaking.

From his cinematographer (longtime collaborator John Leonetti) to his editor and sound designer, Wan uses every creative ally and cinematic tool at his disposal to maximize tension. The look of the film and its affinity for slow zooms places it squarely in a lived-in, realistic 1971. Clever composition misdirects the eye like an expert magician, setting up scares from the most unexpected places.

The film has its share of classic jumps, but in a refreshing departure few actually rely on the cheap gag of music stings (one particularly unsettling jump scare uses nothing but framing alone). In fact, during the first half of the film Wan is content to let long passages play with almost no sound or score. The longer he holds on to the silence, the more the audience squirms, knowing that something is coming. It makes every creak of the house a shriek; every groan a demonic howl.

The Conjuring is the kind of movie that knows exactly when it has you — and then decides to push you even further. It gets inside your head. So much so that I was instinctively sinking down in my chair in the theater. Enough that the empty back seat in my car had me rattled on the drive home. That may sound extreme, but if you like horror movies and being scared these are very good things.

Despite its effectiveness, the film does fall short of some of the greats it’s so clearly inspired by. Part of it is simply the way the film resolves. When you get into the realm of the supernatural, it’s hard to wrap things up in a way that feels both dramatically satisfying and realistic — even within the expanded boundaries of a supernatural world. The Exorcist arguably did it best, but the reason that film was able to pull it off was because it spent half its running time focusing on Father Karras; the film was about his journey, not Regan MacNeil’s.

Screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes try to do something similar in The Conjuring . The horrible haunting happens to the Perron family, but the emotional spine of the movie belongs to the Warrens. Unfortunately, that aspect of the film fails to click the way it needs to. Wilson’s Ed comes off strangely detached, never blending into the period landscape, and when the film requires Ed and Lorraine’s relationship to bring things home it can’t quite follow through.

Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor, on the other hand, both shine. Livingston expertly draws Roger as a straightforward man who suddenly finds himself in a world that’s anything but, while Taylor keeps Carolyn grounded and real — no matter how crazy her circumstances get.

Of course, in a world of found-footage retreads, not besting some of the best horror films of all time is hardly a crime. Leaving slashers behind for the murky uncertainties of the supernatural, Wan has found a way to expand his talents while driving yet another modern genre shift — and he’s still got a sequel to Insidious coming this September. It’s all the more notable given that so many of his torture porn brethren have since stalled out or otherwise failed to deliver on the promise of their early films. James Wan has made one of the scariest movies of 2013 — the only question is, will he top himself with Insidious: Chapter 2 ?

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‘the conjuring: the devil made me do it’: film review.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, wrestling once again with demonic possession and satanic curses in the seventh film in the 'Conjuring' universe.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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James Wan ’s 2013 haunted house spine-tingler The Conjuring kick-started a $1 billion horror franchise — one of the most lucrative and popular series in recent history. Digging into the sensational case files of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the director dialed up the dread with a thrilling command of atmosphere, a bewitching bag of ‘70s-style practical effects, a balance of familiar tropes with the power of suggestion and an attention to character that’s too often lacking in the genre. His sequel jumped from New England to working-class North London and remained mostly effective by making us care about the family in peril and share the anxieties of the compassionate couple who come to their aid.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Release date : Friday, June 4 Cast : Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble Director : Michael Chaves Screenwriter : David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by James Wan, Johnson-McGoldrick, based on characters created by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the seventh film in the “Conjuring Universe,” and regrettably, it takes its cue not from the predecessors with which it shares a title but from the less sophisticated spinoffs — the three Annabelle movies and The Nun . Like those films, this one offers plenty of lurid fun and some genuine scares. But the grounding in dark spirituality that made the previous entries focused on the Warrens so compelling gets diluted, despite the reliably dignifying double-act of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson .

Part of that seems due to Wan handing off directing reins to Michael Chaves, whose feature debut, The Curse of La Llorona , was tenuously connected to the Conjuring world though with none of the nuance. An even bigger issue is the work of solo screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who collaborated with Wan on The Conjuring 2 and Aquaman . While Wan shares a story credit, the absence of original scripters Chad and Carey W. Hayes is felt in the failure to build out the plot from a solid center.

The powerful emotional bond between Ed and Lorraine, and the united integrity they bring to their fight against evil have always been the heart of the Conjuring movies. Here, that element is spelled out in a sentimental flashback to the origins of their romance, echoed later in syrupy dialogue about dark forces believing love is their weakness when it’s their strength. Johnson-McGoldrick keeps hurrying Ed and Lorraine off on increasingly murky supernatural tangents, resulting in too many busy elements fighting for attention. By the time they pin down the source of all the evil — think the farmer’s wife from Grant Wood’s American Gothic with a hint of Geraldine Chaplin — the movie has spiraled into silly excess.

That’s too bad, because the opening sequence is a ripper. It’s 1981 and the Warrens have been called to document the exorcism of 8-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard). The officiating priest (Steve Coulter) arrives just in time to witness the kid going full-tilt Regan, calling for an urgent intervention on the kitchen table. Accompanied by the nerve-shredding roar of Joseph Bishara’s score and some tasty visual homages to the William Friedkin classic, the scene is an assault on the senses that induces a major heart attack in Ed as the inhuman spirit jumps from David to his older sister’s boyfriend, Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor).

Oddly, only Ed seems to have noticed that transference and by the time he regains consciousness in hospital, it’s too late to warn anyone about Arne, whose sleep has been troubled and his waking hours plagued by startling visions. At the boarding kennels where Arne’s girlfriend Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) works, Blondie’s “Call Me” blasts from the stereo and the dogs are barking like hellhounds as Arne loses control. Soon after, he’s found by a cop wandering along the road drenched in blood, muttering, “I think I hurt someone.” With the support of the Warrens, his case becomes the first American murder trial to claim demonic possession as a defense.

So far so blood-curdlingly good. But the deeper the Warrens delve into the history of David Glatzel’s possession and similar mysteries connecting back to a satanic curse passed on through macabre totems and the home-furnishing felony of the waterbed, the more contrived Johnson-McGoldrick’s screenplay becomes. While the fictional developments reportedly are composites of actual interactions Lorraine Warren had over the years, the pile-up of supernatural mayhem becomes numbingly preposterous.

Ed’s medical condition sidelines Wilson from the physical action for much of the running time, making Lorraine’s clairvoyant gifts the investigative key, more so than in earlier installments. Watching Farmiga front and center is always rewarding, though as Lorraine drifts in and out of all-too-real visions of evil in her matronly blouses and headmistress hairdo, she starts to seem like a psychic Miss Marple. (It’s admirable that costumer Leah Butler honors the real Lorraine’s personal style, but it seems unfair to mortify Farmiga with flouncy frills while Wilson’s Ed gets groovy retro polo shirts and flattering dad suits.)

The movie starts seriously going over the edge when Ed and Lorraine break into a morgue at night and find themselves in reanimated company. Revelations concerning a retired priest known for his occult research (John Noble) tip it even further into overwrought genre bunkum. Are we really still doing horror movies where someone flips through a Renaissance witchcraft text and says something dumb like, “My Latin is rusty?”

Through all this, Arne seems frequently forgotten — a shame, since lean and haunted O’Connor has a striking screen presence. Arne languishes in a prison right out of the Ryan Murphy school of stylistic overstatement, ravaged from within and regularly rattled as the originator of the curse gets closer to claiming his life. I did chuckle at one ghoulish manifestation sitting up in the medical ward droning Blondie lyrics at him. But Arne’s big levitation finale competes with The Ed and Lorraine Show across town, sapping the tension from both. It doesn’t enhance the gravity to have confused Debbie ask, Scary Movie -style, “Honey, what are you doing?” as Arne spider-walks off the bed in rubber-limbed contortions amid a storm of flying debris.

In terms of craftsmanship, The Devil Made Me Do It is certainly slick. DP Michael Burgess’ camera adopts unnerving angles and prowls insidiously through one sepulchral-looking space after another, and the groaning soundscape works in tandem with Bishara’s big scary-ass score to creep under the audience’s skin. But the palpitating storytelling loses its way while trying to do the same.

Full credits

Distributor: Warner Bros./HBO Max Production companies: New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, The Safran Company Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Shannon Kook, Keith Arthur Bolden, Steve Coulter, Vince Pisani, Sterling Jerins, Paul Wilson, Charlene Amoia, Paul Wilson, Ingrid Bisu, Andrea Andrade, Ronnie Gene Blevins Director: Michael Chaves Screenwriter: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by James Wan, Johnson-McGoldrick, based on characters created by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes Producers: James Wan, Peter Safran Executive producers: Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Michelle Morrissey Director of photography: Michael Burgess Production designer: Jennifer Spence Costume designer: Leah Butler Music: Joseph Bishara Editors: Peter Gvozdas, Christian Wagner Sound designers: Jon Title, D. Chris Smith, Doobie White Visual effects producer: Eric Bruneau Visual effects supervisor: Robert Nederhorst Casting: Anne McCarthy, Kellie Roy

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Cast & crew
User reviews

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence. Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence. Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence.

Michael Chaves
David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Patrick Wilson
Vera Farmiga
Ruairi O'Connor
1.3K User reviews
291 Critic reviews
53 Metascore

Lorraine Warren

Arne Cheyenne Johnson

Debbie Glatzel

David Glatzel

The Occultist

Sergeant Clay

Father Gordon

Father Newman

Judy Warren

Carl Glatzel

Judy Glatzel
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

Trivia Lorraine Warren , played by Vera Farmiga in the The Conjuring movies, died a natural death aged 92 on April 18 2019. She had been a head consultant on all of The Conjuring projects, and an avid follower of the series.
Goofs When Ed had his heart attack the doctor told then they have to put a stent into the artery. Doctors were not placing stents, much less balloon angiography in 1981. The treatment would've been major open heart by-pass surgery.

Arne Cheyenne Johnson : Being brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you are scared but you hang in there.

Crazy credits During the closing credits, there is a news interview with the real Ed & Lorraine Warren from during the trial, along with photos of scenes from the movie and dialog from an audio recording of David Glatzel's exorcism.
Alternate versions The UK release was cut, the distributor chose to reduce bloody injury detail in a suicide scene in order to obtain a 15 classification. An uncut 18 classification was available.
Connections Featured in Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe (2020)
Soundtracks Baby Hold On Written by Jimmy Lyon (as James Lyon) and Eddie Money Performed by Eddie Money Courtesy of Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 1.3K

May 28, 2021
How long is The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It? Powered by Alexa
June 4, 2021 (United States)
United States
Official site
The Conjuring 3
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
New Line Cinema
Atomic Monster
The Safran Company
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$39,000,000 (estimated)
$65,631,050
$24,104,332
Jun 6, 2021
$206,431,050

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 52 minutes
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Digital
IMAX 6-Track
12-Track Digital Sound
Dolby Surround 7.1

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

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Watch The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

The Devil Made Me Do It represents a comedown for the core Conjuring films, although Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson keep the audience invested.

It may not contain many surprises for fans of the franchise, but this threequel more than makes up for it with another scary, tense adventure for the ghostbusting Warrens.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Michael Chaves

Patrick Wilson

Vera Farmiga

Lorraine Warren

Ruairi O'Connor

Arne Cheyenne Johnson

Sarah Catherine Hook

Debbie Glatzel

Julian Hilliard

David Glatzel

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Should Have Stuck to the Haunted Houses

There are no moral panics in the Conjuring universe. Bathsheba Sherman, the infant-sacrificing ghoul who torments the Perron family in the first movie, is a descendant of a woman who was hanged during the Salem witch trials — the implication being that the executioners were onto something. The Conjuring 2 gives Ouija board burners their due by showing that playing around with a homemade version is all it takes to allow infernal elements into the Enfield council house in which the London-based sequel takes place. And the new The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It takes paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) into the ’80s, where Satanists lurk in quiet communities, targeting children for dark rituals — an idea lifted directly out of alarmist news reports from the era. It’s not mass hysteria if you’re right, and in these films, the Warrens inevitably are, while their doubters and skeptics are soon cowed into submission by psychic displays or evidence of the supernatural. Thankfully for audiences as well as for the franchise, the real-life Warrens passed away before having a chance to get into QAnon.

It’s part of the appeal of the Conjuring films, that their vision of the world is so straightforward, disinterested in how reality’s complications can lead people to experience terrible things. They’re anti-psychological horror films, ones in which terrible things happen because of evil, which is not just present in everyday life, but tangible, spread like an infection by devil-worshippers, cursed locales, and occult objects into the homes of the unsuspecting. Then in come the Warrens, demonologists by way of sitcom parents (Ed brave and blustery, Lorraine delicate and determined, Wilson and Farmiga imbuing their relationship with an easy affection) who exude a reassuring certainty that there are external forces at work that can be diagnosed and defeated. This format has been effective enough to spawn a multi-tendriled, eight-films-strong franchise whose installments don’t all directly involve the Warrens, though none of the subsequent titles have lived up to the heady thrills of the 2013 original from James Wan, which was (to use the technical term) scary as all fuck.

The Devil Made Me Do It isn’t directed by Wan (who did return for the 2016 sequel), but by The Curse of La Llorona ’s Michael Chaves, who cribs capably from Wan’s approach to timing and misdirection without coming up with anything good enough to rival Lili Taylor being lured into the basement to play hide-and-clap with a ghost. It’s not Chaves’s takeover that makes this new film feel like it runs off the rails — it’s the choice to shift focus from a haunting to a murder. Possession has always been a part of the Conjuring films, with demon-controlled characters attempting to kill their children or themselves in climactic moments before the Warrens intervene. But in The Devil Made Me Do It , Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) actually manages to murder the landlord of the apartment he and his girlfriend, Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), rent — though, as the film would have it, it’s all due to the demon he absorbed during the exorcism of Debbie’s younger brother, David (Julian Hilliard). The Warrens are too late to stop the killing, but they do approach Arne’s lawyer and offer to help her prove that he’s not guilty by reason of demonic possession.

Like its predecessors, The Devil Made Me Do It begins with a note about how it’s based on a true story, and ends with photos of the actual people involved. The franchise’s relationship with the truth has always bordered on camp: The real Warrens were publicity-seeking charlatans whose marriage allegedly included a longtime relationship Ed cultivated with an underage girl ; in the real Arne Johnson case, the demonic-possession plea was immediately rejected by the judge. But the way this new film uses and excuses the actual killing of Alan Bono breaches the boundaries of what’s in good fun, not to mention good taste. Arne, who in real life was convicted of manslaughter, is blameless onscreen, having begged the demon possessing David, Father Karras style, to enter his body instead. He’s made into a martyr who battles for his soul while being left exposed to nefarious powers behind bars, while Debbie remains steadfastly by his side and the Warrens work to get to the bottom of what happened. The trial isn’t given much screen time, but it’s implied that the couple’s efforts played a key part in the defense, saving Arne from the death penalty as well as from a mysterious occultist played by Eugenie Bondurant.

And for all this, the scenes of Arne in jail are a suspense-less bore, interrupting the momentum of the film whenever it sees fit to cut to him. The Devil Made Me Do It has enough to figure out already without asking the audience to invest in a character who’s an empty vessel. It has to figure out what a Conjuring film looks like when it’s not about a particular location — though the film’s highlights, aside from an appearance by John Noble as a retired priest, remain the parts that stick closest to what’s familiar, when we see in flashback how David became possessed in the first place. It involves a wonderfully period-appropriate sequence with something lurking in the water bed that was left behind by the previous owners of the place that David’s family moves into. Staring at the space where the bed used to be, the Warrens discover stains on the floor — evil as a literal rot, eating away at the floorboards thanks to something foul underneath.

The Conjuring s have always been best when they’ve been nightmares about terrible things finding their way into the sanctity of a home, when they’ve played on paranoia about domestic spaces that are meant to be safe for a family actually being poisoned. The Devil Made Me Do It trains its gaze instead on the boy next door, and insists that it’s equally unimaginable that such a figure would do something as unimaginable as murder — that something else must be pulling the string. But the truth is, it’s not hard to imagine at all.

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Movie Review

‘The Conjuring’ Review: Homeownership Has Its Perils

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By Manohla Dargis

July 18, 2013

The dread gathers and surges while the blood scarcely trickles in “The Conjuring,” a fantastically effective haunted-house movie. Set largely in 1971, it purports to tell a story based on “true case files” about a family of seven whose pastoral dream became a nightmare soon after they moved into a Rhode Island farmhouse. One day, Mom, Dad and the girls are settling into their conveniently sprawling, creaking, squeaking two-story house — the rooms quickly become a disorienting maze — and the next, they’re playing hide and creep with a mysterious, increasingly malevolent force.

The director James Wan plays much the same game with you. Written by the brothers Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes, the movie opens with a jittery, funny prologue involving a couple of pretty nurses right out of a Roger Corman quickie, a devil doll named Annabelle (shades of Rod Serling and Chucky) and a pair of married paranormal experts, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). The Warrens quickly take care of business, and Mr. Wan does the same. With shock cuts, gliding camera movements, muted colors that evoke David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and tricks learned from “The Twilight Zone,” Mr. Wan — whose first sly shot is of a cracked, smiling face — sets a relentlessly uneasy tone that imperceptively shifts between intense seriousness and lightly mocking.

The real Ed and Lorraine Warren, lifelong investigators of the paranormal — their Web site calls him a demonologist and her a trance medium — established the grandly named New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 but are most famous for their exploits in another house, in Amityville, on Long Island. (Mr. Warren died in 2006 ; Ms. Warren was a consultant on “The Conjuring.”) The Warrens declared that Dutch Colonial demonic, a diagnosis that led to more than a dozen “Amityville” movies and stoked the market for haunted-house tales. What happened when the Warrens entered the Rhode Island home in “The Conjuring” hasn’t received the same attention, although one of the daughters, Andrea Perron, has published a memoir.

The movie takes off with Carolyn (an excellent Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston, very good), moving their family into their new home. He’s a truck driver, while she runs the house and five girls ranging from preschool age to high school. They’re appealingly real, with an easy intimacy that’s strikingly different from the canned version briefly seen in a clip from “The Brady Bunch.” The only perceptible crack in the facade is that they’re struggling financially, a fissure suggested by Carolyn’s quietly tense demeanor, Roger’s knotted forehead and the house’s smudged, unpainted walls. Once they move in, they can’t move out, a bad situation that speaks as much to today as to the story’s inflation-plagued period . Things are rocky even before they go bump in the night.

When Mr. Wan lingers on Carolyn’s crumbling smile it’s obvious that it isn’t only the Perron house that’s troubled. It’s been estimated that 75 percent of Americans believe in the paranormal, while only 54 percent believe global warming has begun. Evidently it’s easier to believe in the terrors that can’t hurt us than to believe in those that can, which may partly account for why so many vampires, zombies and their paranormal ilk are running amok in the popular imagination. Each era brings its own allegorical terrors, and in the 1970s, a golden age of horror cinema, the aftershocks of the 1960s found expression in stories about diabolically terrifying spawn who, with their swiveling heads and annihilating violence, were grotesque embodiments of a generational anxiety.

“The Conjuring” isn’t just primarily set in the 1970s, it also taps into the paranoia that is both an evergreen American trait and a crucial characteristic of films of that era, horror and otherwise. With amusing self-awareness, Mr. Wan (his earlier movies include “Saw” and “Insidious”) leans on the usual genre tricks throughout, making you jump with hard edits and doors being squeaked open by unseen hands. But he also makes intelligent use of narrative delay and ellipses that help build suspense and suspicion. The script generally doesn’t overexplain, and neither does he. When things start going wrong at the Perrons’ — a bird crashes into the house, bruises bloom on Carolyn’s body — the family knows something’s amiss but can’t read the signs. The deeply religious Warrens (Lorraine wraps rosary beads around one hand) think that they can, and do.

Mr. Wilson makes Ed an appealing, somewhat ridiculous square, which fits nicely with Ms. Farmiga’s unsmiling intensity and undercurrents of fragility. Their characters are as appealing as the Perrons, but Mr. Wan smartly keeps enough distance from the Warrens that you can see that these true believers are also hovering at the edge of dangerous fanaticism. That gives the movie a shiver of political currency even if a greater, more sustaining pleasure of this particular haunted-house fantasy is how it works as a metaphor for moviegoing itself. When the Perrons first settle into their house, they’re facing the future with bright, anxious smiles that aren’t much different from those of the horror-film faithful who are waiting nervously, hopefully, to be jolted by the next great shocker. It’s here.

“The Conjuring” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Haunted-house terror.

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DVD & Streaming

The Conjuring

Drama , Horror

Content Caution

In Theaters

July 19, 2013
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren; Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren; Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron; Ron Livingston as Roger Perron; Shanley Caswell as Andrea; Hayley McFarland as Nancy; Joey King as Christine; Mackenzie Foy as Cindy; Kyla Deaver as April; Shannon Kook as Drew; John Brotherton as Brad; Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren

Home Release Date

October 22, 2013

Distributor

Warner Bros.

Movie Review

In 1971, the Perron family—husband, wife and five precious, precocious daughters—move into an ancient Rhode Island farmhouse. It’s a risky move: They sink their life’s savings into the place and Roger’s earnings as a truck driver barely cover the mortgage. But still it’s theirs , and that makes it special. Sure, the house has seen better days, but it’s got lots of space for a lively family and is full of rustic charm. The woodwork is exquisite. The surroundings are beautiful. And the former owners were kind enough to leave a few antiques behind: a massive wardrobe, a creepy jack-in-the-box, various pieces of furniture kept in a boarded-up cellar.

It’s not perfect, but it feels like it could be home someday. Maybe that’s why no one seemed too alarmed when Sadie, the family dog, refuses to go inside. It’s sad when they find the pooch dead the next morning, but hardly reason to call a priest. And when daughter Cindy starts sleepwalking again—bumping her forehead over and over into the doors of that massive wardrobe—they just think the big move has stirred up her old habits. And, yeah, some rooms smell like rotting meat in the middle of the night, but a good cleaning can take care of that.

But time goes on and the girls begin to see things that whisper and leer. When unseen hands clap in wardrobes and throw balls in cellars … when all the clocks stop at 3:07 a.m. … when no one can sleep because of all the screaming, that’s when you have to call in the experts.

And if the folks from PBS’ This Old House aren’t available to pound some nails into all those loose boards, why not bring in the demon-hunting Warrens?

Positive Elements

Who knew that living in a demon’s house could be a catalyst for family bonding time?

The Perrons seem like a pretty close-knit clan anyway. Most of the kids are initially pumped about their new abode, and rather than wasting time watching television, these girls like playing games together. A particular favorite: hide and clap (a game that feels very much like hide and seek, only the kids hiding have to clap three times if asked, giving the seeker a better chance to find them). Granted, the whole clapping shtick proves to be an effective scare tactic for the home’s wraithful resident, but how were the Perrons supposed to know? And when the demon really starts making life difficult, the family takes to spending the night all together, in one communal room. Clearly, this is a family that cares deeply for its members.

The Warrens care pretty deeply too. When Carolyn Perron asks the couple for their help, they come—despite the fact that psychic Lorraine Warren had a horrible experience at her last exorcism. Ed at first wants to keep Lorraine at a healthy distance from whatever’s going on in the Perron household, but Lorraine refuses. God brought them together for a reason, she says—and this could well be it.

“I don’t want to lose you,” Ed says.

“You won’t,” Lorraine answers. “Let’s finish this together.”

Spiritual Elements

At the end of the movie, a quote from Ed Warren pops up onscreen:

“The fairy tale is true. The devil does exist. God indeed exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow.”

And that’s from the real Ed Warren. He and his wife, Lorraine, are indeed real people—devout Catholic demon hunters who’ve earned a measure of notoriety for their work. (They were also called in on a certain widely publicized case in Amityville, N.Y.) They practice their craft because of their faith, and the movie embraces their worldview from the get-go. As steeped in the occult as it is and as questionable as the overarching theology might be, The Conjuring is, essentially, a Christian story—shoving aside the spiritual waffling that we’ve seen in other recent exorcism flicks (like The Possession ). It insists that demons are real, and that the only protection we have from them is God.

When the Warrens agree to help the Perrons, Ed asks Roger if the kids have been baptized. “We’re not really a churchgoing family,” Roger admits.

“You might want to rethink that,” Ed says.

We’re told in the beginning that the Warrens work in unison with the Catholic Church, and that Lorraine is the only non-ordained exorcist out there. She’s also psychic, seeing spirits of the long-dead, images of the haunting demons and visions of things that might yet come to pass. The Warrens keep a room filled with knickknacks from their previous cases, most of which are said to contain demons or evil spirits (including a crucifix). When a reporter ask why not just destroy them, Ed says that it’s often better to keep an evil entity bottled up than release it into the world; he adds that they have a priest come to bless the place once a month. We see a video recording of an earlier exorcism, in which we hear a barely literate man speak fluent Latin; an inverted cross presses outward against the inside of his belly.

In the case of the Perrons, the Warrens supposedly discover that their place is haunted by Bathsheeba Sherman, a mortal-turned-demon whose mother was accused of witchcraft in Salem and who, in 1863, sacrificed her son to Satan shortly after he was born. (Lorraine says the sacrifice is the final perversion of God’s ultimate gift to women, that of childbirth). She then hanged herself and cursed the land, and in the 110 years since, a number of mysterious murders and suicides have happened in the area. Now, Bathsheeba’s modus operandi is to possess a mother and force her to kill her own kids. (Not good news for the Perrons.) One more perversion of note: When the demon knocks on the wall in a pattern of three, Ed says it’s mocking the Trinity.

Ed and Lorraine set a number of holy symbols around the house, hoping to trigger a reaction. When the demon does possess someone, Ed reads religious passages from a book and demands obedience from the evil spirit in the name of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The demon, eventually, obeys. Holy water is sprinkled, and the vial in which it’s in shatters.

Sexual Content

Carolyn asks Roger if he’s too tired to “christen” the new house. He’s not. (The camera cuts away before we see anything but cuddling.) The next morning, Carolyn finds a bruise on her leg and coyly asks what Roger did to her.

Lorraine asks Ed if he remembers what he said to her on their wedding night. “Can we do it again?” guesses Ed.

Violent Content

A participant in the exorcism has part of his cheek and throat ripped open, and it bleeds significantly. Birds smash into windows, killing themselves. A specter shows her slashed wrists to someone. Another seems about to stab her own boy. Children are threatened with knives and scissors. A girl is yanked around by her hair. Others are pulled by their feet. A possessed character spits blood (her face is covered with a sheet) and burns (her skin sizzles and mottles on her arms and face) when anyone tries to drag her outside. Someone weeps blood. Lorraine sees a vision of her own daughter, dead, floating in water. A corpse hangs from a tree.

By the standard of most R-rated scarefests, the content here is lighter than you might expect. There are no dismemberings, no beheadings, no truly graphic deaths. Though director James Wan presided over the outrageous content found in the first Saw movie, he shows some restraint here … which still doesn’t mean the film’s A-OK for the faint of heart. “When we sent it [to MPAA], they gave us the R rating,” says producer Walter Hamada, as quoted by worstpreviews.com . “When we asked them why, they basically said, ‘It’s just so scary. [There are] no specific scenes or tone you could take out to get it PG-13.'”

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word. Six uses of “d‑‑n” (half the time paired with God’s name), one “h‑‑‑” and one “p‑‑‑.” God’s name is misused by itself another half-dozen times, and someone says “jeez.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Characters drink wine and whiskey.

Other Negative Elements

Possession here carries with it the side effect of vomiting blood. Bathsheeba throws up in someone’s mouth. A demon-filled doll commits acts of vandalism.

The Conjuring is a very effective fright flick—maybe the scariest movie I’ve ever reviewed, quite frankly. It’s also quite disturbing. We see parents threaten to murder their children here—and if you’re a parent yourself, that’s a hard thing to rub from your mind.

So perhaps that’s the thing we must land on with The Conjuring .

Many Christians will have issues with the film’s theology and how that theology is portrayed. Others may embrace the heart of the thing—its sincere declaration that there are forces beyond our real understanding and that no matter how fearsome those forces are, our faith in God can triumph over all.

But however one sees this movie spiritually, most moviegoers will be scared by what they see. Images of Bathsheeba clutching a knife or vomiting blood haunt long after the credits roll. The sounds of terrified girls screaming echo beyond the theater parking lot. This is dark stuff that leaves a darkness in the mind. And as we see in the movie’s message itself, darkness tends to cling.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

112 Minutes • Rated R

Starring Patrick Wilson • Vera Farmiga • Ruairi O’Connor

Story by James Wan and David Leslie Johnson – McGoldrick

Screenplay by David Leslie Johnson – McGoldrick

Directed by Michael Chaves

Review by D. S. Ullery

Before I get to the actual review, I’m going to address something that’s been hovering over the entire The Conjuring franchise since James Wan’s brilliant original was released in 2013: The actual history of Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren.

For every statement of praise these movies receive on social media, there’s always some retort posted informing everyone the Warrens are con artists and these movies are an exercise in shame for painting a pair of frauds in a positive light.

I can’t offer any insight into that aspect of this cinematic universe. I know of the Warrens and I’ve read about their work, but I wasn’t there and I don’t know them personally. Any opinions in their favor or against them are based on experiences I wasn’t personally a witness to, so as an objective, critical observer, I approach the films the same way I would the Amityville Horror flicks: Perhaps they began with a grain of real-world inspiration, but it’s pretty obvious they used that to create a mostly fictitious, heavily dramatized series of motion pictures meant for entertainment value.

So my approach when evaluating these movies isn’t to go into them ready to shred them apart because I have contempt for the real Ed and Lorraine Warren. I don’t. I’m apathetic towards them. Consequently, I view these strictly through the prism of their quality as horror cinema.

One final observation on this topic before I get on with it: I find it ludicrous there are people who shamed The Conjuring and its first sequel for depicting the lives of the Warrens, then jumped online and demanded Jeepers Creepers 3 be made/released, despite the director of that film having been convicted of paedophilia. If people are so willing to separate the art from the artist in that capacity, it seems reasonable to afford this franchise the same regard. Just some food for thought.

On with the review.

As horror movies, The Conjuring films are, in my opinion, the best of the best in the subgenre of paranormal/haunting stories. The original was the movie that finally knocked Tobe Hooper’s superb Poltergeist out of the number one spot on my list of all-time greats of this type. I was more than a little surprised to discover that I found the sequel to be an even better film a few years later.

Much of that has to do with the skilful direction of James Wan, who guided both films with an assured sense of purpose, delivering strong storytelling while providing memorable scares. The films also enjoyed a tremendous boost from the perfectly cast Patrick Wilson ( one of my favorite actors working today) and Vera Farmiga as, respectively, Ed and Lorraine Warren. It’s these two characters who provide these movies with their soul as we follow their love affair through the terrifying experiences they face while helping people besieged by evil, otherworldly forces.

Adversely, I am not a fan of the Conjuring spin-off universe. I‘ve found the spin-off films lacking in the grace, style and wit of the two core movies about the Warrens.

When I learned James Wan wouldn’t be returning to direct the third film in the original series (which dropped the standard “3” in the title for the far more compelling The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ) and would be replaced by The Curse of La Llorona helmsman Michael Chaves, I was disheartened. Second sequels ( or threequels, if you prefer) often have a history of being the moment when a franchise starts its downward slide in quality.

To learn a talent as gifted as James Wan would be replaced by a man whose only existing feature credit up to that point was my least favorite film in the entire Conjuring cinematic universe did not instill in me a great amount of confidence. After researching the response to this news by other fans online, I knew I wasn’t alone in my apprehension.

Well, you can put your mind at ease, horror fans. Chaves apparently learned a lot between projects, because he’s delivered a solid sequel that stands on its own as a commendable, worthy addition to the franchise.

The film opens in 1981, with Ed and Lorraine Warren performing an exorcism on an eight-year-old boy named David Glatzel in his family home. It’s an electrifying opening sequence that’s equal parts absorbing and scary as hell. Things go sideways fast and spiral out of control, resulting in Ed suffering a nearly fatal heart attack in the middle of the chaos. This leads to witness Arne Johnson (an outstanding Ruairi O’Connor) – the boyfriend of David’s older sister Debbie- interceding and demanding the demonic force leave the boy and enter him.

It seems to work. Ed is transported to the hospital and life for the Glatzels returns to normal for a few days.

Then Arne begins to experience strange phenomena, such as shadows skittering across otherwise empty rooms and objects moving by themselves in his presence. This culminates in a confrontation with a dark force, resulting in something evil taking up residence inside of him.

Not long after, Johnson and Debbie Glatzel (an immensely likeable Sarah Katherine Hook) find themselves at the boarding house where they live and she works, helping the landlord/her boss fix his stereo. The malevolent force begins to twist Arne’s perception and, before long, the landlord is dead, having been stabbed by Johnson 22 times.

The police arrest Johnson and a frightened Debbie approaches the Warrens for help. Vera is initially reluctant, as Ed is still recovering from his heart attack, but they eventually decide they can’t turn someone in need away. They conduct a test on the accused and quickly realize that whatever force may have compelled him to commit murder is gone. However, Ed witnessed Johnson inviting the demon in to save David while his heart was failing during the earlier exorcism, so he knows something was inside of the young man at some point.

Thus begins the Warrens’ involvement in what would come to be known in very real headlines across America as “The Demon Murder Case” – the first court trial where the plea of the defendant was not guilty by reason of demonic possession.

If you think I’ve given away too much, believe me, I haven’t. Everything I just described is merely the set-up for the true meat of the story, which is the investigation into the case and the terrifying discoveries the Warrens make regarding its direct connection to a local cult.

The cast is excellent across the board. Wilson and Farmiga have never been better and the story this time around allows us a glimpse into how they first met. Their devotion to one another is front and center and their amazing chemistry sells it. In many ways, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is as much a love story as it is a horror thriller.

O’Connor is excellent as Arne Johnson, as is Hook as Debbie. It’s a strength of the film that we’re allowed to empathize with what this young couple are going through. There’s a moment late in the movie where Johnson is in his cell and he’s attempting to defend himself from what he knows is an impending demonic onslaught. It struck me during this scene the film had done such a terrific job of establishing him as a relatable character that what was going on had emotional stakes.

Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson – McGoldrick delivers what turned out to be my personal favorite narrative of the three films, working from a story credited to himself and James Wan (Wan is also on hand as a producer, so he was still involved creatively with the project on some level). I loved the writing in this is the way Johnson – McGoldrick slips moments of genuine wit into the movie. A terrific example of this is a scene wherein Ed, Lorraine and Debbie are staring down into a dark, creepy storm cellar, knowing someone has to go down to investigate. Ed doesn’t want his wife going in, but Lorraine refuses to allow her recovering husband to do it, so she tells Ed to hold her purse as she takes the initiative. It’s a funny, unexpectedly warm moment that grows naturally out of what we know about the characters and it works. There a number of moments like that (a conversation about Elvis springs to mind). These movies may not be comedies, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be humor. Johnson – McGoldrick understands that.

Joseph Bisharsa – who composed the music for the first two – returns, utilizing familiar thematic motifs from the previous films while adding a unique, eerie ambience to the proceedings. Bishara always delivers top-notch scores for his projects and this is no exception.

Huge kudos as well to cinematographer Michael Burgess, who uses the visual pallette to create a persistently spooky, ominous atmosphere. From showers full of blood, to the cold indifference of a morgue and into some creepy underground tunnels, his camera masterfully paints each scene with colorful layers of dread.

But the revelation here has to be Michael Chaves, who surprised me with his solid handling of this material. I really didn’t like The Curse of La Llorona and, as I watched this film, I was astonished they share a director.

Chaves has a real eye for knowing how to set up a scare, and as the film progresses, he mounts some of the best-sustained sequences of the trilogy to date, including my favorite, a late-night visit by Ed and Lorraine to a county morgue that blurs the line between reality and Lorraine’s visions with a degree of skill I haven’t seen onscreen since Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street. If Wan chooses not to return again and they want to tap Chaves for the next outing, I’m all in. I feel he redeemed himself here and proved he has the chops for the job.

Having made those observations, I will say there are two factors that work against The Devil Made Me Do It . They’re the reason that – while I genuinely enjoyed the film and think it’s definitely better than most other paranormal flicks out there- I think it falls just shy of the high bar set by its predecessors.

One is the heavy reliance on jump scares in the first half of the film.

Look, I love jump scares. I don’t agree with the acrimony towards them that seems to have developed in the horror community. Some of the most memorable moments in horror film history are jump scares. When they’re executed properly (and, for the most part, the ones in this film are) they can be brilliant.

But for a little while there, it seemed as if this movie was going for the jump shock every few scenes, including one eye-rolling moment where they even set up Debbie entering the frame as a jump scare. That can only go on so long before it begins to be a distraction and, yeah, that kind of happens here. The film is fortunate both the story and characters are so compelling as to make it worth staying with. If it had failed on either of those levels, this would have been downright irritating.

Wisely, this is balanced out as the investigation begins to deepen and they learn what’s happening with the Glatzels and Johnson may be connected to other crimes. At this point, the film slides back into the style of the first two, moving away from the jump scares into longer, more sustained sequences designed to further immerse us in the story and cultivate tension, maintaining this approach until the final credit roll.

The other thing I have an issue with is the “based on a true story” line. They need to just stop this. It worked with the first film because that one was still relatively grounded in its approach to the Perron haunting, one of the most well-documented, real-world paranormal cases on record (ironically, the actual case involved purported events even more intense than what made it into the film).

But right around the time the Crooked Man showed up in The Conjuring 2, it became blatantly obvious we’re a long, long way from any chance these events actually took place. This new entry takes us even further away from the possibility these stories are anything but the creation of the screenwriter.

The Demon Murder Case did happen. Arne Johnson did kill his landlord. The Warrens did investigate it. A plea of not guilty by reason of demonic possession was entered. That’s about as much reality as this film can lay claim to. I have absolutely no doubt that, in all other regards, this is a work of complete fiction. Moving forward, the studio should just go with “This film is a work of fiction inspired by an actual case.” These are terrific horror films, so just let them work as terrific horror films. Stop trying to sell them as something they’re not.

Despite a reliance on jump scares in the first half and a bewildering determination to keep selling these films as true stories, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It acquits itself as an effective entry in what I consider the best paranormal horror series out there. It does suffer a bit in comparison to the pair of outstanding motion pictures that came before it, but I’d still put it a cut above just about any other film of it is type. I had a lot of fun with this one and I think most fans of the series will as well.

Smart, scary and given a strong emotional boost by the ongoing love affair between the two still extremely lovable protagonists at the center of it all, The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It rates a well-deserved **** out of ***** stars.

Highly recommended.

D.S. Ullery

D. S. Ullery is a cartoonist and an author of short Horror fiction. He’s published two single-author collections and his ongoing comic panel Goulash can be found on Webtoons Canvas. An Affiliate Member of the Horror Writers Association, D.S. resides in South Florida, where he shares an apartment with a reasonably unstable feline named Jason, a black cat born on Friday the 13th.

You can read D.S’s ongoing comedy/horror comic series Goulash HERE

You can buy Highway 181 , Duane’s most recent horror collection HERE

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The 10 Most Rewatchable Horror Movies Of The 2010s, Ranked

“Now, you’re in the sunken place.”

If there's one thing horror fans love, it's going back to films they've already watched to see what they missed the first time around. Crafting a re-watchable scary movie is a tough feat to pull off for an incredibly competitive and often predictable genre, but year after year, certain writers, directors, and actors prove that it is possible to bring audiences back for more of the same scares.

The 2010s acted as a rebirth for horror, bringing audiences films that not only broke box office records, but earned Academy Awards, an extreme rarity for an often overlooked genre. Not only are scary movies a chance for stellar acting performances, but also for bringing important messages to the big screen. From Get Out to The Conjuring , here are the most rewatchable horror films of the 2010s.

10 'Us' (2019)

Directed by jordan peele.

2019's Us follows a woman named Adelaide and her family of four as they head out for a nice beach vacation in California. Little does this family know, they are about to meet their evil doppelgängers who have come to kill them. The mystery deepens as viewers learn more about Adelaide's mysterious disappearance from that same beach when she was a child. Will Adelaide and her family be able to figure out what these intruders want with them, and stay alive in the process?

Us was writer and director Jordan Peele 's highly anticipated follow-up to his Academy Award-winning film, Get Out . The film is a visual treat, with incredible cinematography by Mike Gioulakis and a fun score by Michael Abels . With terrific acting performances by its entire cast, Us is a fantastic visual representation that people are their own worst enemies.

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9 'A Quiet Place' (2018)

Directed by john krasinski.

When audiences meet the Abbott family, they are already living in a post-apocalyptic world caused by aliens that, although they are blind, will kill any living being that makes the smallest sound. The Abbotts have managed to survive through their use of sign language, a skill they've learned due to their daughter, Regan, being deaf. A Quiet Place brings viewers along with the struggling family as they must deal with a new obstacle: mother Evelyn Abbott's pregnancy.

While many scary flicks attempt to use silence as a tool, A Quiet Place takes this to new level. Written, directed, and starring John Krasinski , the film was a triumph at the box office, grossing $340 million worldwide , and earning an Academy Award nomination for its achievement in sound editing. The acting performances by Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmons, Noah Jupe, and Cade Woodard are fantastic, and are what make spending time with the Abbott family, even in these life-or-death circumstances, such an enjoyable time.

A Quiet Place

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8 'Halloween' (2018)

Directed by david gordon green.

40 years after the events of the original Halloween film, Laurie Strode is forced to face her mortal enemy once again, as Michael Myers escapes from jail during a routine prison transfer. What the masked murderer might not realize, however, is how much Laurie has grown since his arrest, and how now, she might just be more dangerous to him than he is to her.

Director David Gordon Green breathed new life into the Halloween franchise with his 2018 reboot, with fans flocking to theaters to see what was considered the only real sequel to the original film. With John Carpenter reprising his role as composer, Halloween is an inventive, and insanely fun, ride from start to finish.

Halloween (2018)

7 'get out' (2017).

Get Out takes the often nerve-wracking idea of meeting a significant other's parents and turns the volume up to eleven. The film follows Chris as he goes to meet his girlfriend Rose Armitage's family, and slowly begins to realize that everything within the tight-knit Armitages might not be what it seems. When the family throws a party and Chris has an eerie interaction with one of the guests, it becomes clear that Chris really does need to Get Out .

Jordan Peele shocked audiences with his directorial debut, Get Out , as fans knew Peele from his sketch comedy show, Key and Peele . The film is an incredible feat for the horror genre, not only because of its important underlying message , but also through its critical reception and for winning an Academy Award for "Best Screenplay." Additionally, its wild plot twist has audiences revisiting the flick to see what they missed the first, second, or hundred time around.

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6 'The Babadook' (2014)

Directed by jennifer kent.

Scary stories mix with children's literature in The Babadook , a film that follows a grieving single mother named Amelia and her son Samuel after they receive a mysterious picture book. The book, which tells the story of "Mr. Babadook," begins to wreak havoc on their lives, and it's not long before the sleep-deprived Amelia struggles to figure out what is real, and what is a nightmare.

The Babadook has a clear message for audiences, as it tackles the difficult topic of grief and single parenting. Because fighting inner demons is a universal struggle, even if the audience isn't viewing it with the same life experiences as Amelia, they can still connect to her experience. This sense of relatability is rare in a genre where audiences are most likely not ever going to experience what the main character is going through, but The Babadook manages to bring this emotion through in its storytelling.

The Babadook

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5 'The Conjuring' (2013)

Directed by james wan.

The Conjuring brings horror fans the wonderful paranormal investigator couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren, as they are called to help the Perron family, who have recently moved into a home with evil spirits inside. While the Warrens are used to dealing with paranormal activity, this particular haunting wears heavily on Lorraine, who is unsure if she has the strength to save this suffering family.

The likability of Ed and Lorraine Warren is the secret sauce of The Conjuring franchise, which has gone on to consist of three films and five spin-offs. More than that, a "based on a true story" horror is always enticing, as audiences leave not only spooked, but wondering if these supernatural happenings could happen to them. The Conjuring does what many horrors fail to do: give audiences heroes in Ed and Lorraine that viewers spend more time with after the final credits' roll.

The Conjuring

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4 'Insidious' (2010)

Insidious follows the Lambert family after their son, Dalton, falls into a coma and is subsequently taken over by a demonic force. The Lamberts call in psychic Elise Rainer, alongside her paranormal investigators, Specs and Tucker. It's not long before this investigation reveals that Dalton isn't actually in a coma, but is dealing with something much more sinister. Now, the Lamberts are in a race against time as they attempt to find the key to bringing their son back to them.

Seasoned horror director James Wan created an incredible thrill ride with Insidious , a project so popular with audiences that it now has a total of five films within its cinematic universe. It's the twists and turns within the movie that had audiences on the edge of their seats, and the screenplay by Saw 's Leigh Whannell has layers that allow repeat viewings to uncover details that were missed in the first viewing.

WATCH ON NETFLIX

3 'Midsommar' (2019)

Directed by ari aster.

In Midsommar , a young woman named Dani suffers an incredible loss, all while on the brink of a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Christian. When the two are invited to go to a summer solstice festival in Sweden that only occurs every ninety years; however, it's not long before Dani and her friends realize that this seemingly peaceful gathering is much more sinister than it appears.

While writer and director Ari Aster could've simply made Midsommar about a creepy festival that leads to a couple realizing they're not right for each other, it's the added layer of Dani ( Florence Pugh ) grieving the loss of her entire family, that makes the film one to watch again and again. Audiences loved the hints of Dani's grief hidden within the scenery of the film as well as the brilliant detail that the entire plot of the film is revealed in the opening shot . While the more graphically violent scenes of the film may not want to be revisited, it's the amount of care that went into the film that fills it with meaning.

WATCH ON MAX

2 'The Cabin in the Woods' (2011)

Directed by drew goddard.

When five friends arrive at the remote cabin they've chosen for their getaway, they have no idea that there are a group of mechanical engineers who are manipulating their stay. When one of the house guests unknowingly summons zombies to their location, the friends must fight to survive, all the while not knowing an audience is watching them.

The Cabin in the Woods brings the self-aware horror movie to a new level, with the victims being directly manipulated behind the scenes in the same way the writer and director of the film do. A satirization of age-old horror tropes, the movie doesn't give away everything to the audience like they may initially assume. In fact, its final moments are still so unexpected in their reveal that it'll have audiences restarting the film to see all the clues they missed the first time around.

The Cabin in the Woods

1 'it: chapter one' (2017), directed by andy muschietti.

Based on the beloved Stephen King novel of the same name, IT follows a group of unlikely friends in Derry, Maine, as they attempt to battle Pennywise The Clown, a demon that appears every twenty-seven years and takes the form of whatever its victim fears the most. Almost more terrifying than this evil clown are the adults that reside in Derry, whose lack of compassion for the kids who live alongside them only brings more danger to their lives. As Pennywise's power grows, it's up to these seven middle schoolers to save themselves, and the rest of their town, from this ancient cycle.

Andy Muschietti 's brilliant adaptation of IT is the perfect combination of horror and heart, proven by fans likening it to Stand By Me , another film inspired by King's writing. What makes It something to revisit is its emotional maturity, a trait best captured in its incredible score by Benjamin Wallfisch ; a musical composition that, without context, sounds as if its from a romance film. The love that the main characters possess for one another, matched with the universal relatability of facing life's biggest fears, makes It an absolute triumph. The unmatchable performance of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise and the film's $704 million gross at the box office, which made it the highest-grossing horror film of all time, is just icing on the creepy clown cake.

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‘Fall’ Star Grace Caroline Currey to Lead ‘The Breed’ Remake (EXCLUSIVE)

By Selena Kuznikov

Selena Kuznikov

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Grace Caroline Currey has joined the cast of “ The Breed ,” and is set to lead the film. Directed by brothers Nathan and Griff Furst, the film is an “unconventional reimagining of the Wes Craven cult classic.” The brothers will produce together through their company, Curmudgeon Films.

The film centers around Currey’s character Violet, “a rebel icon and badass on a mission to search for abandoned dogs on a remote island which leads to complete adrenaline-fueled terror.”

Popular on Variety

Currey starred in New Line’s “Annabelle: Creation,” the fourth installment in The Conjuring franchise. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and was nominated for Best Actress at the Milan International Film Festival for her role in “Badland,” an indie feature with “Hocus Pocus” actor Vinessa Shaw.

“The Breed” is co-produced and financed by Daro Film Distribution, which also represents the international rights to the film.

Currey is represented by Mainstay Entertainment, Innovative Artists, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox.

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Homeric quest … Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro in Spirited Away at the Coliseum, London.

Spirited Away review – Studio Ghibli gem becomes a theatrical feast

Coliseum, London Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece is brought to life with imaginative puppetry, wondrous music and moments of delicate poetry

F ood and cooking feature prominently in the films of Studio Ghibli’s legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki . They are central to the odyssey of young Chihiro in Spirited Away (2001) as she stumbles through a portal to find her parents turned into pigs after feasting, uninvited, at a sorceress’s banquet.

There are many other meals in this lavishly imaginative surtitled adaptation from Japan, which is meticulous in its visual detail and choreography, delightful in its puppetry, both meditative and whirling in its speed, and packed full of comedy and adventure. But it does come to feel like a gargantuan meal with too many dishes, all of them delicious, but a surfeit nonetheless.

As we follow Chihiro (Mone Kamishiraishi) into the magical bathhouse of gods and spirits, it is hard not to compare John Caird’s production with the RSC’s immaculate My Neighbour Totoro . As an animation, Spirited Away is seen as the more perfect masterpiece, often branded the best animation of all time, complete with its myriad mythic creatures and Homeric questing.

While superbly performed, it is a harder challenge to animate its emotional life because it is so dominated by action and spectacle. The love story between Chihiro and the sorceress’s apprentice, Haku (Kotaro Daigo) is delicate and heartfelt; the scene in which Haku offers Chihiro rice balls is full of plaintive tenderness.

Caird, who co-adapted the film with Maoko Imai, is an associate director at the RSC and this has the same fluidity as Totoro across all the elements. There is an almost constantly reconfiguring set by Jon Bausor, including a revolve that takes us to different parts of the bathhouse, and the same spectacular addition of music and song, with a magnificent score by Joe Hisaishi (who also composed My Neighbour Totoro).

The music is one of the show’s greatest strengths and brings especially wondrous effects through its percussive accompaniments, with a kabuki-like feel that heightens comic elements. But more than that, it adds sweeping emotion and an epic feel.

The production begins and ends with a screen conjuring slanting rain or smoke in black and white, sometimes spreading its effects across the surfaces of Bausor’s set, so that it looks like a 3D graphic novel.

Sachiko Nakahara’s costumes stand out too, much more elaborate than Totoro’s, and the puppetry designed by Toby Olié is a combination of the cute, magical and comic. There is no puppet that matches the physical scale and surprise of Basil Twist’s in Totoro but they are no less imaginative – maybe more so. Sorceress Yubaba (Mari Natsuki) turns into a gigantic face held by several puppeteers, coal-man Kamaji (Tomorowo Taguchi) is a characterful arachnoid-human hybrid and No-Face (Hikaru Yamano) becomes the scariest creation of the show as a hideously engorged monster of the bath-house. The sooty coal carriers of the boiler room have an uncanny resemblance to the soot sprites in Totoro and are sweet, but not quite as lively.

The physical movement is symphonic, not only in the reconfiguring set but the quantity of parts on stage. The magical transformations and special effects are kept emphatically lo-fi – the water around the bathhouse is wavering light, the morphing of the parents to pigs is done with masks and Chihiro’s transparency when she enters the magic world is achieved deftly with a sheer sheet. When Yubaba’s twin miniaturises her sister’s attendants, they spin behind a curtain and emerge as their new selves. But the minute clever flourishes can become confusing too.

There is plenty of comedy but it irons away some of the terror that Chihiro feels in this world. The lyrical Ghibli pauses, which Miyazaki describes as “ma” or emptiness, are here in abundance, capturing some of the poetry of the film. Like Chihiro’s world, it is utterly magical but this banquet of a show also leaves you stuffed, like her parents.

Spirited Away
Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki

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COMMENTS

The Conjuring movie review & film summary (2013)
Watching "The Conjuring" is like getting a tour of a haunted house attraction from someone that pushes, and pulls you through every room. There's nothing really scary about Wan's latest because there's nothing particularly mysterious, or inviting about its proceedings. The film's relentlessly lame expository dialogue, and tedious parade of jump scares are overwhelming in the worst way possible.
The Conjuring
Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/09/24 Full Review Sawyer K The Conjuring is the perfect example of a disappointing, non-creative, generic horror movie with no aspects differentiating ...
The Conjuring Movie Review
Parents say ( 60 ): Kids say ( 318 ): This horror film provides a treasure trove of typical haunting tricks that seems fresh and terrifying once again. Best known for co-creating Saw, expert horror director James Wan has happily advanced into more sophisticated tales with Insidious and now The Conjuring. Rather than gore, Wan goes for a more ...
Film Review: 'The Conjuring'
Film Review: 'The Conjuring' Reviewed at Los Angeles Film Festival (Special Screenings), June 21, 2013. (Also in Edinburgh Film Festival — Night Moves.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 111 MIN
The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring: Directed by James Wan. With Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
The Conjuring
Thu 1 Aug 2013 16.30 EDT. Henry Barnes and Catherine Shoard review The Conjuring guardian.co.uk. The craft - if not the art - of a great horror flick skitters around Saw creator James Wan's ...
The Conjuring (2013)
Graciously, somewhat rude reader. The Conjuring is creepy, intermittently nightmarish, tense, gross, unsettling, and in its purest form, scary. This is the type of film that dares you not to hug yourself or laugh nervously in the hopes you deflect some iota of the sensation of primal fear.
The Conjuring
Ten years later, The Conjuring is still one of the best horror films. Full Review | Jul 20, 2023. Perhaps Wan's biggest achievement is that when the traditional sequel setup is revealed, the ...
'The Conjuring' review: the return of true horror
Movie Review 'The Conjuring' review: the return of true horror. The director of 'Insidious' and 'Saw' ups the ante in his latest ghost story. By Bryan Bishop on July 18, 2013 09:01 am 72Comments.
'The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It' Review: Patrick Wilson and
Screenplay: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Camera: Michael Burgess. Editors: Peter Gvozdas, Christian Wager. Music: Joseph Bishera. With: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah ...
'The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It': Film Review
Screenwriter: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by James Wan, Johnson-McGoldrick, based on characters created by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes. Rated R, 1 hour 52 minutes. The Conjuring: The ...
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It: Directed by Michael Chaves. With Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook. Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence.
The Conjuring
Generally Favorable Based on 35 Critic Reviews. 68. 74% Positive 26 Reviews. 23% Mixed 8 Reviews. 3% Negative 1 Review. All Reviews; ... It was a really good horror movie, maybe One of The greatest of all time. ... Movies like The Conjuring are less about the battle between God and Satan than the battle between the silly and the scary. Read ...
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
55% 256 Reviews Tomatometer 83% 1,000+ Verified Ratings Audience Score "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" reveals a chilling story of terror, murder and unknown evil that shocked even ...
Movie Review: 'The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It'
In The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the eighth in the franchise, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who try to help a man accused ...
'The Conjuring' Review: Homeownership Has Its Perils
Directed by James Wan. Horror, Mystery, Thriller. R. 1h 52m. By Manohla Dargis. July 18, 2013. The dread gathers and surges while the blood scarcely trickles in "The Conjuring," a ...
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It review
With The Conjuring franchise, Warners has turned a sleeper hit into a series of seven and a half films over eight years, totalling almost $2bn at the global box office, unprecedented for the ...
The Conjuring
The Conjuring is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes.It is the inaugural film in The Conjuring Universe franchise. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of haunting.Their purportedly real-life reports inspired The Amityville ...
The Conjuring
Movie Review. In 1971, the Perron family—husband, wife and five precious, precocious daughters—move into an ancient Rhode Island farmhouse. It's a risky move: They sink their life's savings into the place and Roger's earnings as a truck driver barely cover the mortgage. ... The Conjuring is a very effective fright flick—maybe the ...
How to Watch The Conjuring Movies in Chronological Order
The Conjuring Movies in Chronological Order. 1. The Nun (2018) Prequel frightfest The Nun takes place in 1952 Romania, and stars Demián Bichir and Taissa Farmiga (sister of franchise star Vera ...
{Movie Review} The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. 112 Minutes • Rated R. Starring Patrick Wilson • Vera Farmiga • Ruairi O'Connor. Story by James Wan and David Leslie Johnson - McGoldrick. Screenplay by David Leslie Johnson - McGoldrick. Directed by Michael Chaves. Review by D. S. Ullery. Before I get to the actual review, I'm going to ...
10 Most Rewatchable Horror Movies Of The 2010s, Ranked
40 years after the events of the original Halloween film, Laurie Strode is forced to face her mortal enemy once again, as Michael Myers escapes from jail during a routine prison transfer. What the ...
"Fall" Star Grace Caroline Currey to Lead "The Breed" Remake
Currey starred in New Line's "Annabelle: Creation," the fourth installment in The Conjuring franchise. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and was nominated for Best ...
The Strangers: Chapter 1 Director Breaks Down Full Trilogy Plans
"We, of course, shot them on top of each other and mixed up, like movies are always made. But we had to keep in mind that this is one story arc. It is one 4.5 hour movie, and the first movie is a ...
Spirited Away review
The production begins and ends with a screen conjuring slanting rain or smoke in black and white, sometimes spreading its effects across the surfaces of Bausor's set, so that it looks like a 3D ...

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

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