The Conjuring and its sequel, The Conjuring 2, are two of the best horror films this century, so naturally, expectations are high for the upcoming third installment. And with the official title now having been revealed for the third Conjuring movie, it sounds like the next film in the series could be the scariest yet.
The franchise’s third installment will be titled The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, a title that is both playful and, given the demonic antagonists of the franchise, downright terrifying. The film, like the previous Conjuring films, is based on one of the real-life cases of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and it’s a doozy.
In 1981, a 19-year-old Connecticut man named Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his landlord to death. Following his arrest for the murder, Johnson presented a peculiar defense: he claimed the devil made him do it. Johnson claimed that, during the recent exorcism of his girlfriend’s little brother — an exorcism which involved the Warrens — Johnson called for the demons to leave the boy and enter him instead. His girlfriend backed up the claim, leading to the case being the first time in American history that demonic possession was used as the official defense for a crime in a court case. The judge presiding over the case didn’t buy the excuse, however, and ultimately convicted Johnson of manslaughter.
We can probably expect things to be a little more… sensational… in the movie adaptation, as the Conjuring films have never shied away from showing that demons are very much real and more than willing to torment their victims if given the opportunity. We’ll see just how wild things get when The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It possesses theaters on Sept. 1, 2020.
