PLOT SUMMARY: When Arne murders his landlord, he claims he is possessed by a demon that escaped during an exorcism the Warrens performed.
The Conjuring is one of the most popular horror franchises. Based on the cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren, two popular paranormal investigators who worked on around 10,000 cases during their lifetime.
While the Warren's have now passed away, their cases and stories are still remembered and adapted into movies? The reason their stories are still talked about today is that several sceptics over the years have posed a question on the authenticity of their cases. Did those hauntings really happen or were they an invention by the Warrens?
But the Warrens did claim their investigations were thorough and they did look out for hoaxes, something that was partly covered in Conjuring 2 where the Warrens thought the family being haunted had staged it for fame. Of course, it turned out towards the end that the nefarious Nun, who is actually a demon called Valak, was behind it all.
The Conjuring 3 is based on another popular case, this time on a rather controversial one: the Devil Made me do it case. This was thought to be the first case where the defendant claimed he was possessed when he murdered his landlord. Although the defendant, Arne Johnson was sentenced to 10-20 years in prison, he served only five before being released.
THE CONJURING 3: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT Movie Plot
When the movie begins, demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren are at the Glatzel's house present during the exorcism of eight-year-old David who is possessed. Arne is also present because he's Debbie Glatzel's boyfriend.
David twists and turns as the demon feel tortured by the exorcism. Arne is concerned for David as he thinks the exorcism is failing because Ed is attacked by the things wooshing about in the house and suffers a heart attack.
In desperation, but actually, rather impulsively, Arne invites the demon into himself just so he could leave the little boy. The demon decides Arne is a better fit than an eight-year-old boy so happily inhabits Arne.
Ed is taken to the hospital where Lorraine doesn't leave his side and recounts the moment she met Ed for the first time at the movie theatre where he worked as an usher. They share a look and that is enough for them to decide they are boyfriend and girlfriend now. They have one date and find a gazebo to be romantic in.
When Ed finally awakes, the first thing he tells Lorraine is that the threat from the demon isn't over and that he saw the demon enter Arne.
Sure enough, Arne is being haunted by something demonic. He keeps seeing strange things and one day, thinking he's being attacked by a demon, stabs his landlord to death. His eyes go cloudy and later as he's walking in a bloody shirt down the street, is picked up by a cop. Arne comes back to his normal self and confesses he did something bad.
The Warrens meet with Arne in prison and make him read religious texts and hold religious symbols. Arne is able to do all of it without trouble and the Warrens tell him that any demon possessing him would have been irritated by now being surrounded but religious symbols. But it also didn't rule out that he was possessed and not anymore. The Warrens promise to investigate and go to the Glatzel house. Debbie shows them around and tells them about the first day they came to the house.
David went into his room and the first thing he does is jump on the waterbed. But as he is resting, a face pops up in the water and David freaks out as a hand pops out.
Debbie tells the Warrens that they removed the damaged waterbed and had to put a carpet on because of the damage it did to the floor as well.
The Warrens pull out the rug and find that the stains on the floor aren't from water damage but something more sinister.
Lorraine volunteers to go into the crawlspace under the room to investigate and makes Ed hold her purse because he's too weak to do it himself. Ed doesn't put down the purse but keeps holding it.
Lorraine crawls under and finds a tacky object made of sticks that are supposed to be a witch's totem from which a curse has been passed.
Lorraine knows better than to touch it and takes pictures of it. She tells the Glatzels that someone put a curse on them.
Upon further investigation, they find that a similar totem was found in connection with a murder that took place in another town wherein a girl murdered her best friend in the woods but then was never found.
Lorraine believes she can crack the case thanks to her abilities but needs to convince the detectives to help them by giving them case files.
The detectives mock Lorraine at first but when she is correctly able to point out the murder weapon, all the men in the precinct are in awe.
Along with the detective, the Warrens head to the woods and Lorraine shows off her powers even more by telling the detective he missed a turn.
In the woods, Lorraine sees the murder even unfolding before her and almost falls off a cliff. Ed, even though he's spent a month in the hospital, manages to grab Lorraine with one hand and pull her up showing her that he isn't only capable of holding purses.
Lorraine tells the detective that the murderer jumped off the cliff. The basin is investigated again and the detective tells them they found the body.
At the morgue, Lorraine touches the dead girl's hand and at first, feels nothing. And then she finds herself following a woman wearing black clothes and her hair tied in a tight bun, doing something hokey-pokey.
Back at the prison, Arne meets with the priest who hands him a bottle of holy water to protect himself.
The witch in Lorraine's vision is crafty enough to know that even though Arne is kept on suicide watch, she can use other means to have him kill himself. The holy water presents the right tool.
Arne crushes it in his hand and uses a shard to cut himself but Lorraine manages to hinder the witch's ritual and Arne is saved.
THE CONJURING 3: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT Ending Explained with spoilers!
The witch notices Lorraine and when Lorraine comes to, she tells Ed that their connection worked both ways.
The Warrens return home where they find that someone has left them a vase of black roses. Suspecting evil, the Warrens break the vase and find a totem at the bottom. The curse has passed on to them and Ed immediately starts getting haunting visions and almost tries to hurt Lorraine.
The Warrens learn that they must break the altar through which the witch started the curse. They meet with a priest again who finally yields and tells them he had a daughter even though he wasn't allowed to.
He taught his daughter about the occult so that one day she may help him become an exorcist but she developed a fascination for it and began wearing black dresses and tying up her hair really tight. Lorraine recognizes the witch from the photos and enlists the priest's help who willingly gives them access to the tunnels where his daughter liked to play being a witch.
Of course, his daughter is mad he let intruders in and kills him.
The witch doesn't want to directly kill Lorraine so she uses Ed to go chasing after his wife in a possessed state.
Lorraine reminds Ed of the time they met and the gazebo where they shared their first kiss. The demon possessing Ed is disgusted by the romantic tale and escapes leaving Ed in his former state.
He breaks the altar and the witch is terrified because she promised the demon souls and was unable to complete the curse. The demon contorts and breaks the witch's body and takes her soul.
The Warrens are safe and Arne is sentenced to prison. Once inside, he marries Debbie and is then released after five years.
Ed apologizes to Lorraine for chasing after her by getting her a gazebo to commemorate their first kiss.
Later, Ed keeps the witch's totem among the other artefacts he collected from the previous movies.
Wouldn't it be great when one of the Conjuring instalments has all of the demons arise from their artefacts in the room and haunt the Warrens? What would they do then?
This idea was previously toyed with in the movie Annabelle Comes Home. Come to think of it, where was Warren's daughter in all of this? Her father gets a heart attack and she doesn't visit?
Is it a different timeline?
The Conjuring 3 is a nice horror movie though nowhere as chilling as the first part. There are scares but none that will actually keep you up at night or conjure up nightmares.
The lead actors clearly have good chemistry and it is always a pleasure to see another instalment of the Warren's cases.
Scare scale: 4/5
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