The third entry in the Conjuring franchise takes on one of the darkest cases yet. More importantly, it seems to shake things up with significant changes in the setting. Gone is the familiarity of the haunted house. Instead, it transplants Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) to a small town where a horrific murder occurs. Stylistically, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ushers the Warrens into the ’80s, and series originator James Wan passes the baton to director Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona). With so many changes lined up for this sequel, Bloody Disgusting participated in a press event to get an idea of what fans can expect for this devilish new movie.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It sees the Warrens take on the historical case of Arne Johnson, a man who went to trial in 1981 for murder and claimed demonic possession as a defense. That a real-life murder served as a basis for this story already gives it a darker edge, but the addition of the criminal justice system introduces a new flavor to the franchise.
Chaves explains how this new setting brings exciting energy, “At this point in their careers and our experience with the Warrens, the haunted house has now become a comfortable setting. So, I think it gives us an opportunity to take them places that we haven’t seen. What I’m so excited about is that there are sequences in the movie that haven’t even been in the trailers, but everybody loves them when they see them. It’s because it’s so out of the experience of what we’re used to. And I’m honestly so thrilled that they weren’t put in the trailer because there’s a lot of cool, wild stuff in store for fans of this.”
Conjuring universe producer Peter Safran weighed in on approaching the true-crime element with a tenderness that reflects the most in the Warrens, “It almost requires the most love from Ed and Lorraine to counteract and to balance that real darkness that exists in the real Arne Johnson case. We were always very sensitive about the fact that there was a real victim in this. There were many victims, but there was really one murder victim in this, and so we were always very sensitive to it, and I think that’s probably why it’s the darkest but also has the most love in it.“
Patrick Wilson agrees and says of these characters, “They’ve become the through-line between all these films. And that’s something that sets us apart from other horror franchises because you’re following the good guys throughout instead of the villain. I think, James, those conversations that we had early on in the first one, where you knew you’d get to the scares, but you knew you had to build the character and the relationships.” Wilson adds, “It’s our version of Ed and Lorraine; we don’t know who they were behind closed doors. When you know you can center around that, I think it frees you up to go as dark as you want in the other aspects because you get to balance it out. Because I would say that this film probably had some of the darkest moments of any in the universe, but as you had with the Elvis moment in the second one, or us dancing at the end of the second one, you have those moments in this of just this deep, profound romance. You can’t; we don’t go halfway with either. If you’re going to have these terrifying scares, then we want to have as many love moments as you can.”
More than just emphasizing the love between Ed and Lorraine to balance out the encroaching evil, it seems that The Devil Made Me Do It will uniquely showcase Lorraine’s power. Farmiga teases, “I also can tell you that this is some of the biggest stuff I’ve ever had to play in my career. Like operatic, it’s epic. The emotional scope of this character, not only, I mean, I’ve never had to consider a characters’ spiritual prowess. When you’re denouncing demons, you’re like, this stuff is huge! Her clairvoyance gets put to the test, and we get to see other aspects of her clairvoyance.” The emphasis on her character’s powers and powerful connection to Ed gives the actress a different read on this sequel, “For me, it’s more of a love story than it is a horror story.“
As for the scares, Wan promises plenty, “Mike [Chaves] knows what makes scary movies scary. People love to be scared; that’s the bottom line. There’s a reason why these movies work as well as they do. People want to be scared. I think the Conjuring films, at least for me, and I know it is for Michael as well, is to start with something real. So, base some of these scares off reports that people have talked about. If you start with that, then you can kind of embellish on it, but you always can come back to that point of a foundation where it was grounded in reality, to begin with.”
Wilson enjoyed his experience working with Chaves and explains how it allowed for bolder choices this outing, “I speak to his passion and reverence for the series, but also his ability to swing a big stick, honestly. To make some choices, whether they work or not, we don’t know yet. This is where it’s coming from. It’s always coming from an organic place of wanting to scare the audience, wanting to make the audience feel something, going back to the emotional through-line.”
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It arrives in theaters and HBO Max on June 4.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/interviews/3665556/patrick-wilson-vera-farmiga-the-conjuring-devil-made-me-do-it/
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