The Stream: Subtle scares aren’t boring but not memorable either

The Big Screen: Provides spooks and chills while remaining classy

The Final Bill: Nice iteration of The Conjuring but not memorable like the others

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Michael Chaves
Writers: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (screenplay by), James Wan (story by) | 1 more credit »
Stars:  Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor | See full cast & crew »
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes (the credits show some eerie images you might stay for)
Production Companies: New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, The Safran Company, See more »
Platform: June 4, 2021 and HBO Max
Notable Trailers: Reminisence (Aug. 20), In the Heights (June), The Forever Purge

There’s something strange in your movie theater. Who ya gonna call? Ed and Lorraine! That’s right, Streamers, your favorite paranormal couple is back. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was finally released in theaters and HBO Max this weekend. This time the Warrens battle the forces of evil that made a man kill. His defense…. I bet you guessed it… the devil made him do it. But, let’s see if the devil is in the details of this flick.

Now, if you’re familiar with The Conjuring series (including the Annabelle series), then you won’t need much introduction for this flick. For those who are just traveling to the theater for a horror flick or out of pure boredom of this pandemic, you really don’t need to know anything about them. That’s a bonus for this third sequel. Yes, they make reference to Annabelle and their previous work but it’s completely insignificant. Overall, this is a self-contained story and a classy one. Part of this film and the others is that The Conjuring have found a genuine way to be creepy without being gross, gory or even over the top. This movie gives you the chilling feeling like the others without even a curse word. While it’s great to be classy and all, in a third movie you’d think the scares would go to the next level, but here, they actually took a step back. That’s no bueno especially after the second movie had one of the most disturbing faces with the Nun. This flick didn’t have that or anything memorably scary. It has scares but unfortunately they are ones we’ve seen before. The only positive is that the scares are unpredictable, which to some could be a good thing or a bad thing. In a way, I like that I couldn’t cover my eyes at the moment I knew it was coming – some may not be so satisfied. The filmmakers of The Devil Made Me Do It were able to make this film in a way that isn’t like a typical exorcist flick, which frankly was enjoyable but they could have done more. I appreciate that they made an off shoot of The Conjuring flicks which feel like not just another run-of-the-mill possession film just for the money.

Also, the cast is fine as usual. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson give us their typical Lorraine and Ed. Nothing wrong there. The issue becomes their storyline is a bit distracting to the overall movie. In other movies, their love story was used to lighten the mood between the intensity of the rest of the film, but here it felt a bit more like filler and puffing. We still get our reprieves, but again something just feels off. All of this leads to the feeling that this movie isn’t that scary, which is unfortunate because the movie is held to a high standard based on the first two movies.

Nevertheless and neverthemore, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is certainly a welcome addition to The Conjuring series. Unfortunately, I find this to be the least scary of the three, but that may just be a bonus for those of you who don’t like horror movies. The Devil Made Me Do It is a solid horror movie that provides the creeps without the over the top gore or in your face grotesque nature. Enjoy a matinee movie time or check this out on HBO Max with a bowl of popcorn.