Warner Bros.
Last month, star of The Conjuring franchise Patrick Wilson revealed that he had completed filming for the third installment of the series. While discussing his new film Midway, Wilson, who has played Ed Warren in the first two Conjuring films, as well as short appearances in some of the spin-off movies, said The Conjuring 3 is going to be “a different beast.”
He wasn’t kidding.
On Sunday, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema announced at CCXP in Sao Paulo, Brazil that The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It will be the title of third film in the series and revealed a synopsis of the story Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Vera Farmiga) will be following in their next horrifying adventure.
“A chilling story of terror, murder and unknown evil that shocked even experienced real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. One of the most sensational cases from their files, it starts with a fight for the soul of a young boy, then takes them beyond anything they’d ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.”
Just like the first two Conjuring films starring Wilson and Farmiga, this third installment is also based on a true story.
Back in 1981, Arne Cheyenne Johnson became the first defendant in America to use a claim of demonic possession as his reasoning for denying reponsibility.
During the “Devil Made Me Do It” case, as it became known, Johnson was on trial for the killing of his landlord, Alan Bono, in Brookfield, Connecticut.
As the story goes, an 11-year-old named David Glatzel was allegedly possessed by a demon that was exorcised by several Catholic priests brought in by paranormal investigators and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, and upon its release found itself a new home in Johnson’s body.
It was the demon that Johnson claimed made him kill his landlord by stabbing him multiple times with a five-inch knife after an argument. The next day, Lorraine Warren contacted Brookfield Police and told them that Johnson was possessed when he murdered Bono.
His defense did not work and Johnson ended up being convicted of first-degree manslaughter, and served five years of the 10 to 20 year sentence he received.
According to Deadline…
In the video shown to the CCXP audience, Wilson and Farmiga apologized for not being at the con before introducing the exclusive clip. In it, the Warrens are called upon to help investigate a death that may or may not have been associated with paranormal activity.
The two are in a morgue and lift the sheet off a dead body which is freshly decomposing. Lorraine touches the dead body’s hand to see if she could get a reading — but she can’t.
Scares begin to bubble up when the lights mysteriously shut off. Ed turns the lights back on and Lorraine is in a daze over the body. We see a dark figure standing behind Ed and it turns out to be the decomposed body which begins moving in an ever so creepy way — and then it cuts to the black before you can fit in a jump scare.
The story was later made into a book, The Devil in Connecticut, and Johnson later appeared on Discovery Channel’s A Haunting to corroborate the Warrens’ story.
Also starring in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which opens in theaters on September 11, 2020, will be Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona) – who will also be directing the film, Ruairi O’Conner, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Julian Hilliard. James Wan returns as producer after directing the first two films.
In other Conjuring-related news, the writers of the first two films are developing a new horror franchise based on a tale American Horror Story fans are familiar with: the infamous LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans.