“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” is not the sequel fans wanted. It is a movie about a real case, a real family, and a real crime, dressed up in jump scares and demon traps. It is also, mostly, a failure. The film tries to tie the Annabelle origin story to a murder case in the mid-1980s, and it never quite gets there. What arrives instead is a mess of false scares, a thin script, and a lead performance that is less terrifying than exhausted.
The premise is simple. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate a series of murders tied to a demonic entity in Connecticut. The case is based on real events, and the filmmakers lean heavily on that fact. They want you to believe this is history, not fiction. The trouble is that the history is stranger than the script can handle.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
The Warrens Meet the Case
Ed Warren is played by Patrick Wilson, and Lorraine Warren is played by Vera Farmiga. Together they have become the face of the franchise, a husband-and-wife team who travel the country hunting demons. In “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” they are pulled into a case involving a serial killer. The film wants you to believe that the killer is controlled by a supernatural force. That is the setup. It is also the problem.
The Warrens spend most of the film arguing with each other. Ed wants to fight. Lorraine wants to pray. The dynamic is meant to be tense, but it plays as repetitive. Wilson and Farmiga are both solid actors, and they know the material. But the script gives them nothing to do except bicker and run scared. The tension is manufactured, not earned.
A Murder Case, Not a Horror Film
The case itself is a real one. It involved a series of killings in Connecticut, and the Warrens were brought in to investigate. The film treats the murders as a demonic attack, which is a stretch. The real case was a brutal string of deaths, and the film flattens that into a simple possession plot. This is a mistake. The horror of a real murder is not a demon trap. It is a human being doing terrible things.
The film also leans on the idea that the killer was possessed. That is a claim the source material supports, but the film never makes a compelling case for it. Instead, it settles for jump scares and shadowy figures. The killer is a presence, not a person. The film wants you to be afraid of the demon, but the demon is never shown. It is only referenced, in whispers and shadows.
False Scares Everywhere
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” is full of false scares. A door creaks open. A shadow moves across the wall. A light flickers. None of it lands. The film is so eager to scare you that it forgets to build tension. A scare without context is just noise. The film generates noise for forty minutes, and then it expects you to care.
The pacing is uneven. The first half drags. The second half rushes. There is no middle ground. The film opens with a slow, atmospheric setup, and then it cuts to a chase sequence that feels like it belongs in a different movie. The tone shifts are jarring, and they pull you out of the story. The film is trying to be two things at once: a true-crime procedural and a supernatural thriller. It succeeds at neither.
The Killer’s Performance
The killer is a presence in the film, and the performance is over-the-top. He is a murderer, a liar, and a monster. The film wants you to hate him. It also wants you to fear him. It does neither.
The performance is loud. He growls, he sneers, he screams. None of it works. The character is a cartoon. He is a man who kills people, and the film treats him as a joke. The murders are real. The killer is not. The monster is not scary. He is just loud.
The Script’s Weaknesses
The script is the weakest part of the film. It is thin, repetitive, and poorly constructed. The dialogue is wooden. The scenes are static. The characters are one-dimensional. The Warrens are supposed to be iconic, but in this film they are just two people running around a haunted house. They have no depth. They have no arc. They are just the audience surrogates.
The film also fails to establish stakes. The murders are real, but the film does not make you care about the victims. They are names on a page, not people. The killer is a threat, but the film does not make you feel it. The tension is absent. The scares are empty. The payoff is a letdown.
A Real Case, A False Ending
The film has a conclusion, but it is a letdown. The reveal is anticlimactic. It is a shrug. The film has spent an hour and a half setting up a demon, and then it says “Oh, by the way, there was a demon.” It is a disappointment.
The ending is also a cheat. The film has spent its runtime telling you that the killer is a human being. It has shown you his crimes, his motives, his fear. And then it takes it all back. The killer is not a human being. The killer is a demon. The film has lied to you. It has built a story around a man, and then it tells you that the story was never about the man. It was always about the demon.
The Verdict
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” is a flawed film. It has moments of tension, and it has performances that are strong. But it is ultimately a failure. It fails to scare you. It fails to engage you. It fails to respect its source material. It is a film that is less than the sum of its parts.
The film is not a waste of time. It is not a bad film. It is a mediocre film. It is a film that you will watch, and you will forget. It is a film that you will not recommend. It is a film that you will not remember.
It is a film that deserves a 5.3 out of 10.
Key Facts Box
- Title: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
- Release Year: 2021
- Runtime: Not stated in the source
- Score: 5.3 out of 10
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