The devil made me write this review.

They say the devil is in the details, and after you eat a full meal at Mighty Taco the devil is in your colon and your underpants. The Devil Made Me Do It is the third film in what is currently a trilogy of Conjuring movies, because everything needs to be a trilogy. It means we’re destined for a Nun III now that Annabelle has come full circle, and hopefully a trilogy about the Ferryman who is my new spinoff hopeful after the Crooked Man film died in the womb.

We’re finally back to Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) and her husband. Patrick Wilson. The Warrens are dealing with quite the pickle of a possession case. After saving the life of 8-year old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), the crew is struck by tragedy after Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) stabs his landlord to death and we learn that he’s probably possessed by the devil. In fact, Arne is definitely showing symptoms of severe spoopies.

Slowed by a heart attack, Ed and Lorraine travel to Danvers, Massachusetts’s in order to track down details of another murder, one that may be connected by a demonic totem found underneath the house. Is this a case of a curse? Can they stop the devil worshipper in time? Can the light of God tell us why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Only time will tell. Yeah probably. It’s the cinnamon sugar swirl on every bite.

I suppose it’s safe to say at this point that this is definitely a Conjuring movie. Directed by Michael Chaves who you may know from 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona…oh god. Well the good news is this is definitely better than his prior movie, although it’s kinda obvious this isn’t the work of a seasoned director. Was James Wan really that busy that he couldn’t come back to direct this movie? Or does he prefer sitting on his phone the whole time and throwing his name on as producer?

Not to say Chaves’ work as a director is bad, it’s just…let’s call it not quite ripened. I’m not expecting master work out of a guy with literally one film under his belt. It does build a lot of what we’d expect from the series with plenty of spoopies and very creative camera-work. Maybe it’s because of Chaves being inexperienced, but the movie dumps a lot of the overused scares from the prior films I’ve brought up as getting tired. The waterbed scene is great.

And once again they’ve managed to keep the story fresh. This time the Warrens are dealing not just with a demon but going head to head with a Satan worshipper with a goal. It’s a race against time movie, not just for the soul of Arne but for the safety of the Warrens and everyone involved. It’s nearly two hours long but it does keep you engaged over the full runtime.

With this movie down we are officially almost done with the Conjuring Universe films for now. Told you I’d be able to catch up, and it only took two and a half years.

Rating: B+