Movie Review: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

The 3rd installment in The Conjuring universe titled The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was a surprise. Not in the sense that we were surprised that they made another one. The universe they are building seems to be ever-growing. The surprise was more in the sense that it just seemed very dull in contrast to a lot of the previous entries.

The previous entries had a lot of atmosphere. The original Conjuring was one of the most intense movies we had seen in a while at release. They set up the tension perfectly in almost every spot. The score, the scares, the buildup… everything was well-placed and built an amazing overall atmosphere that kept you right in the pocket and on the edge of your seat. It’s a classic. The second one wasn’t as atmospheric as the first. It definitely had its moments, though. The Crooked Man was great. There were a lot of other things mixed in like The Nun etc. that added to the universe and also the atmosphere in that film. While not as scary, it still held its own.

So what happened here? Like the previous films, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is another story based on one of the Warrens’ real cases. This time, though, the film was much slower and played out more like a detective story than a horror film. There was barely any “horror” to be found, and no atmosphere or tension at all for the most part. This was a prominent story, as it was a case in which a court had been presented with the idea that someone had committed a crime based on being possessed. The redeemable part of this film would have been the idea of introducing witchcraft into the equation. They had a chance to really drum up some scares with it, but it went nowhere. It was pretty much a great but poorly-executed concept that they weaved into the story which led to the finale.

Overall, this one can be safely avoided and you will not be missing out on anything. It didn’t have much to offer in the horror category. It was pretty boring for the most part, and doesn’t add anything of value to the franchise or universe they have been building up to this point. It seems like they lost sight of the quality of the series and whatever path they were paving that linked all of these films together.