The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It: It Conjures Giggly Frights!

The  Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It

Starring: Patrick Wilson , Vera Farmiga ,Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Julian Hilliard

Directed by:  Michael Chaves

Rating: * ½

What the devil!  The  devil’s advocates  made me do it. I  have no interest in this haunted-house type of trope terror supplier. But the demand for a review was  incessant.  “You can’t  be  selective  about what  your reviews.  It’s got nothing  to  do with personal  likes and  dislikes.” Blah  blah.

So okay then,  here  goes. The  8^th  Conjuring movie is  a sequel  to the last two  films in the series. It’s  perhaps  a tad better than  the last Conjuring film the Curse  Of  La Llorana. And  an episode where Lorraine recreates  events  leading up to the murder  of a girl in a forest is savagely sharp in  its impact.

But this one is nonetheless a  slog unless you are a diehard  fan  of these devil-may-(s)care films where   atmosphere  is all. To be  fair, cinematographer Michael Burgess  shoots the scary scenes in  the light  of darkness when the  flickering-orange  colour suggests  a diabolic  beam  rather than any  ray  of hope.

The  film opens with a  little   child David(Julian Hilliard) possessed  by the devil, being exorcized when a young man Arnie(Ruairi O’Connor) offers to host the “devil” in his body. I am sure Arnie  didn’t expect  the  Devil to take   up the  offer so quickly. But  there you have  it. Strange are the  ways  of  the twisted. Unwanted guests  are  the  order  of the day, Covid or Devil.

Like previous   Conjuring films this one  too is based   on true facts. Apparently  a man accused of manslaughter  pleaded  possession by the Devil. The  Judge  didn’t  swallow that one. But  our  paranormal  investigators  see some truth in  Arnie’s claim.

What  I like about this shiver giving series  is the  credibility that Patrick Wilson and Vera  Farmiga bring to their  roles as  the  Ed and Lorraine Warren.  More than their cases,  it is their investigation that I find easy to follow and believe in. This isa  couple that  believes in their  truth  no matter  how eerie and outlandish  it may seem to us  heretics/nonbelievers.

While  some of the episodes showing  Arnie’s  anti-gravitational elevation in  the prison hospital are  more pukey than spooky,   some  of  Ed and Lorraine’s occult  trysts  with an old priest(John Noble)  are bound to  give you jumpscares  no matter how  much of  a disbelieving rationalist  you might be.

There is  a particularly  creepy passage in an underground  sequence where Lorraine runs for her life  as she sees several images of herself running with her. Besides doling out the jitters, there is  also some unexpected humour  in the  overly solemn rites of exorcism. Lorraine tells  a snarky  police office she has met Elvis Presley. To this  the cop  sniggers,  “Before or after he  died?”

“Before…and after,” is  Lorraine’s deadpan  reply.

You can  defeat the demon. But not the  exorcist.