In 1981, Arne Johnson claimed not guilty to the count of murder by reason of demonic possession. It didn’t work, but it sure as hell looks like it’s going to work as a movie.
The Devil Made Me Do It may be the eighth film in the overall Conjuring universe (the Conjurverse?) but it’s a direct sequel to The Conjuring 2, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. It’s based on another of their actual case files, where they claimed a family entered a cursed rental house that got their young son possessed by a demon — which eventually fled into Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) and allegedly caused him to commit murder.
It’s all a bit confusing, but you don’t need to know the ins and outs of what happened to get spooked by evil things living inside water beds.
The kid, by the way, is played by Julian Hillard, who you might recognise as Billy (the magical twin) from WandaVision and young Luke from the Haunting of Hill House. Also, I don’t really know why John Noble is in this, but it’s always good to see him, especially when he’s subduing his Australian accent to play a New Englander.
The film hits Australian theatres on June 2. Oh, and you can read more about the real event here, although — spoiler alert — it turns out “demonic possession” is not a viable defence for murder. Just so you know.