The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It - Everything You Need to Know

(Updated 04/22/2021)

In 2013, James Wan's THE CONJURING gave life to a supernatural box-office juggernaut that is now six films strong. With the summer release of THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, the series gets a seventh chapter and continues the tale of characters based on real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.

THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT brings a new filmmaker into the CONJURING universe while offering a fresh set of scares that will thrill fans of the entire series. Here's everything we know about the bloodcurdling new CONJURING movie, including the first trailer!

The Conjuring 3 Release Date

THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT sweeps into theatres on June 4. That means it arrives nearly five years after THE CONJURING 2, and almost two years after the most recent film in the CONJURING universe, ANNABELLE COMES HOME.

Watch the Trailer for The Devil Made Me Do It!

The first trailer for THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, aka THE CONJURING 3, immediately indicates that the series is moving forward. While there are some familiar haunted house ideas, a lot of this trailer takes place outside, and in a courtroom. There are police procedural elements and musical cues reminiscent of SEVEN and "Twin Peaks." All the movies in this series, from the core CONJURING chapters to the spin-offs, have had a fairly consistent tone, however, so we're excited to see how this one fits in.

How We Got to The Conjuring 3

Back in 2011, after James Wan's low-budget and creepily effective supernatural horror story INSIDIOUS (above) had become a hit, the script for THE CONJURING fell into his hands. Writer Tony DeRosa-Grund had written the first version of THE CONJURING in the 1990s. Over time the movie was redesigned to be more about Ed and Lorraine Warren, and that helped it become a hot property that landed at New Line Entertainment in 2009.

Soon after, with Wan on board and his INSIDIOUS co-star Patrick Wilson signing on to play Ed Warren, THE CONJURING became almost like a bigger-budget companion to Wan's previous shocker.

THE CONJURING 2 followed in 2016, while the ANNABELLE spin-off series, which is now three movies strong, began in 2014. And in 2018 we saw THE NUN, another spin-off which built on the story of a demon seen in THE CONJURING 2. A sequel to THE NUN is in development for release at some point in the future.

The Conjuring 3 Story

The case files of Ed and Lorrain Warren are dense and full of potential movie ideas. We know that this sequel will be a bit different than the previous chapters. Writer/producer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who also wrote THE CONJURING 2 and wrote AQUAMAN and its forthcoming sequel for James Wan, said this new movie would be "a completely different movie than the first two." He elaborated, saying "the franchise is expanding beyond the "haunted house" formula." Indeed, the trailer makes that clear.

What we know is that THE CONJURING 3 is based on the real-world case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who in 1981 was tried for the murder of his landlord. Johnson claimed demonic possession as his defense, and the trial was nicknamed "the devil made me do it" case — which leads to the title of the new movie.

New Line and Warner Bros. haven't revealed much about the sequel's script other than that it "starts with a fight for the soul of a young boy, then takes [the Warrens] 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." And while the trailer reveals quite a few images and moments, it shies away from describing the story and new characters.

The Cast of The Conjuring 3

First and foremost, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return to star as Ed and Lorraine Warren. They are joined by Ruairi O’Connor, as Arne Cheyenne Johnson, with Ronnie Gene Blevins as his landlord, Alan Bono. Sarah Catherine Hook and Julian Hilliard have key roles, and Mitchell Hoog and Megan Ashley Brown play younger versions of the Warrens.

The Filmmakers Behind The Devil Made Me Do It

James Wan produces the new CONJURING sequel and, as mentioned, writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick is responsible for the script, while Peter Safran returns to produce alongside Wan.

Michael Chaves, who previously made the 2019 horror movie THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA (above), has his second outing as a feature director with THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, which he had already begun working on some time prior to the release of THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA.

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All images courtesy of New Line Cinema / Warner Bros. Pictures.