- Director: Michael Chaves
- Writers: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, James Wan
- Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes
Synopsis
On July 18, 1981, Ed and Lorraine Warren were called to document the exorcism of David Glatzel. He was eight years old. The exorcist arrives. David, possessed, stabs his father, and Ed tells the priest “We have to do this right now!” The boy leaves Wolverine-style claws on the walls as they drag him downstairs. The thing in David goes full Exorcist, throwing things around the room and laughing at them while twisting into impossible shapes. “Take Me!” Shouts the older teenage boy, and the demon is more than happy to do so. Ed has a heart attack, so no one really followed up on the older boy, Arne Johnson. Credits roll.
Ed wakes up and tells everyone that “It’s got Arne!” Meanwhile, Arne starts behaving strangely and seeing things. Arne’s obnoxious brother is obnoxious, and Arne stabs him 22 times, thinking it’s a demon (and it might be a demon).
We soon see Ed and Lorraine visiting Arne in prison. They have him read from the Bible, which proves he’s not possessed now, but he might have been at the time. They talk to Arne’s lawyer; they want to plead that Arne was possessed at the time, a defense that has never worked in the past. They invite the lawyer to their house to look at their evidence, and she’s completely convinced. They plead “Not guilty by reason of demonic possession.”
Why did the demon disappear? Demons don’t act like this normally. We get a flashback to five months ago. It’s moving in day, and little David is attacked by something in his waterbed. Later, Ed and Lorraine find floor damage where the waterbed used to be, and Lorraine goes under the house to see what’s really under there. She finds dozens of rats under there as well as a witches’ totem. The totem “invited” the demon to the house. David was cursed, and the curse was passed into Arne.
They go to see (former) Father Kastner, who knows about these totems. He’s got a creepy room full of Satanic memorabilia just like they do, but for some reason, they are creeped out by his toys.
Elsewhere, the Satanist is doing another ritual, and Arne spills a mop bucket in the prison infirmary. Ed gets a call from a policeman in Massachusetts who has seen a totem just like it. The Warrens team up with Sergeant Clay to solve a missing persons case. Lorraine gets a vision and solves the case. Lorraine uses the recovered corpse to get a vision of the Satanist. Lorraine and the Occultist have an Astral conversation. “She knows who we are,” Lorraine warns.
“You can break the curse by destroying the altar it was cast from,” Ed reads from an old book. Lorraine has seen the altar, but she doesn’t know where it is. They soon find another totem in their own home.
Kastner explains that the curse needs three victims to be completed. There have been two so far, and Lorraine is sure Ed is number three. Kastner explains that he had a child with a woman who died in childbirth, and he raised the child on his own. He believes his own obsession passed to his daughter. She knows the tunnels under his land, and she probably built her altar there. Lorraine leaves just as the Occultist confronts her father.
Meanwhile, at the prison, the Priest and Debbie, Arne’s girlfriend are there with him. Things start exploding and the lights go crazy as the priest watches helplessly.
Lorraine goes through the tunnels and finds the Occultist’s altar. Lorraine and the woman fight in the tunnel as Ed tracks them both down. Ed is possessed and chases Lorraine all over the tunnels with a sledgehammer. Lorraine finally gets through to him, and he uses the hammer to smash the altar and stop everything.
Some time later, the “Possession Defense” works and Arne is convicted of manslaughter instead of first degree murder and a death sentence, serving only five years.
Commentary
Who knew a table could be so important? Smash the altar, smash the curse!
For a guy recovering from a demon-induced heart attack, Ed sure does run around a lot. It’s never really explained why the Occultist chose those particular victims. This is basically a mystery with a supernatural twist. Will they find the murderer in time? What clues do they follow?
I like films where the main characters aren’t in constant doubt, denial, or need to be convinced of whatever evils the movie pits them against (i.e. Superhero origin stories for the most part). Or the story includes main characters that have literally no idea what monsters are. This one, with Ed and Lorraine, avoided that nonsense entirely. They, along with the audience, believe in the demon from the get-go, but they don’t know the specifics.
The films are supposed to be based on true events, which is ridiculous. The Warrens were frauds at best, and I’ve heard even worse stories that I’m not going to repeat here. Still, taken as a purely fictional story, it’s pretty good, as are all the Conjuring films. Anyway, I liked this one.