The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It first look revealed

 After seven movies featuring parents trying to kill their children, children trying to kill their parents, nuns trying to kill nuns, and dolls trying to kill… everyone, it’s a bold claim to call The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It darker than any of its predecessors, but it’s a claim that director Michael Chaves (who helmed 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona) stands by.

“In a lot of ways, this is the biggest Conjuring movie,” Chaves tells media. “I showed the final cut to [star] Vera [Farmiga] and her husband and they agreed, and they were like, ‘This is the darkest Conjuring movie.’ It digs into some really dark material. This is definitely a case where there's real consequence, there's real victims.

One of the things that [series creator] James [Wan] and I connected on while making The Curse of La Llorona was sharing a lot of the same favorite movies, and one of them is Se7en,” says the director. “We both love that movie, and so when he came to me with this script, he basically was like, ‘It's Se7en, but in the Conjuring universe.’ And he knew that was like catnip for me.”

Considering the oppressive bleakness and heavy personal toll the characters pay there, don’t expect Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren to be breaking out the guitar and crooning Elvis this time around.

The new film’s expanded scale and more ominous tone comes down to an early decision on the part of producer and franchise steward Wan to abandon the haunted house setup of the first two Conjuring movies, pivoting to one of the Warrens’ most famous cases in America: the murder trial of Arne Johnson, played here by Irish actor Ruairi O'Connor. In 1981, Johnson killed his landlord and, at trial, became the first person in American history to claim demonic possession as a defense. The Warrens’ involvement in that case came after their high-profile investigations of the Amityville and Enfield hauntings (both featured in The Conjuring 2), and provided the filmmakers with an opportunity to open up the storytelling in a way the more limited scope of previous films didn’t allow for.

“This is really taking the Warrens into uncharted places,” says Chaves. “Being a fan of the franchise, I was honestly really nervous at first breaking with convention, breaking with a lot of things that are tradition, but I think that what we've done is really woven the language and the things that you do want from a Conjuring film - the scares, the Warrens, their relationship - [and [pushed them] to the limits in this really fresh and exciting new direction.”

This is really taking the Warrens into uncharted places,” says Chaves. “Being a fan of the franchise, I was honestly really nervous at first breaking with convention, breaking with a lot of things that are tradition, but I think that what we've done is really woven the language and the things that you do want from a Conjuring film - the scares, the Warrens, their relationship - [and [pushed them] to the limits in this really fresh and exciting new direction.