The Conjuring: A Proper Movie Trilogy (VIDEO SCRIPT)

The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Not only have the real life case files these movies have been inspired by been the foundation of supernatural horror films in america with roots tracing all the way back to The Amityville Horror, but has itself spawned an entire cinematic universe from its debut.

But with the recent simultaneous release of “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” both in theaters and on HBO Max for a limited 30-day window until its home release, the original franchise that kicked off The Conjuring Universe now has under its belt a trilogy. But is it a proper trilogy? And if not, then how do we MAKE it one? Let’s find out.

INTRO

The Conjuring was released in 2013 by Warner Brothers and New Line Studios, written by Chad and Carey Hayes and directed by Saw and Aquaman helm James Wan.

/Based on a case file of real-life demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, it tells the story of the Perron family experiencing a haunting of their newly moved home in Rhode Island in 1971 coming hot off the tail of a case that caused Lorraine to lock herself away in her room for 8 days straight a year prior. Together with their assistant Drew Thomas, they have to exorcise the spirit of Bathsheba -- a witch and descendant of Salem witch Mary Eastey who cursed the land the house is built on before her death -- before it can possess Carolyn Perron and force her to kill her youngest children./

Now while the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren have been the basis for a lot of supernatural horror movies like The Amityville Horror series and those surrounding exorcisms and the like -- some even receiving lower budget adaptations by smaller studios...

None have made them with the intention of making Ed and Lorraine the main characters until Tony DeRosa-Grund was able to partner with The Hayes and fellow producer Peter Safran, after unsuccessfully pitching the film to tell the story from the Perron’s point of view for almost 14 years.

With the movie now about the Warren’s as opposed to strictly the Perrons, New Line Cinema picked up the film after originally losing it in a bidding war with Summit, and James Wan joined on as director in 2011.

/And the end result was the start of what is now pretty much the Indiana Jones of Horror franchises. Because not only did its almost 320 million dollar box office haul on a budget of only 20 million secure The Conjuring a sequel of its own, but its success also sparked the decision of forming a cinematic universe surrounding the cases of Ed and Lorraine in spinoff films of their own; the first being a trilogy inspired by the Annabelle doll featured in the beginning of The Conjuring, and the second being a prequel based on the demonic nun that was the main antagonist of The Conjuring 2./

Speaking of which, The Conjuring 2 was released 3 years later. The Hayes returned to write the story alongside David Leslie Johnson, and Wan returned to direct and collabed with the Hayes on the initial story.

/This time it was based on the case regarding the Warren’s involvement with the Enfield Poltergeist, right off of their involvement with Amityville, 7 years after the events of the first movie. But as the Warrens figure out, the situation is more complex than just the spirit of the previous homeowner possessing a single mother of four’s second oldest child, and they have to get to the bottom of what’s truly going on before those seeking to expose that the family is making up the haunting just to ride off the fame of Amityville causes the involvement of the church to withdraw./

It remains a fan favorite of everyone who enjoys The Conjuring movies and its spinoffs, thanks to the combination of a better look at Ed and Lorraine’s love for each other, how its mirrored with Peggy’s struggle as a single mother and dealing with Janet’s possession, and the very mystery the Warrens deal with in discovering the TRUE entity behind the entire ordeal; the demon Valak the defiler, the profane, the marquis of snakes.

/And this is all despite the amount it brought in box office wise, which thanks to its increased budget of 40 million, didn’t make as much in profit as its original with the 321 it brought in; 281 million as opposed to the 300 million the original made in 2013./

Still, what it made despite its increased budget wasn’t anything to scoff at, and a prequel based off The Conjuring 2’s nun depiction of the demon was fast-tracked as well as a third Conjuring movie; this one centered around the Warren’s involvement in the case of Arne Johnson in 1981 who made real-life history in pleading not guilty to a murder case due to demonic possession.

However, thanks to new commitments with directing Aquaman for DC Films and its upcoming sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, James Wan would have to step down as director despite showing interest in the next installment set in the 80’s and helping develop the story with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.

2018 brought about the announcement of Curse of La LIorona director Michael Chaves filling the director's seat, and one Covid-19 release delay later, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” was simultaneously released in theaters and HBO Max on June 4, 2021.

And with its story, marks the installment as the first to steer the main Conjuring franchise away from the concept of house haunting. Which, as far as setting the main franchise up to be a proper movie trilogy, is actually one of the best things to ever happen to it.

CURRENT STANCE

/While I definitely fall under the category of The Conjuring 2 being my favorite from the main franchise in The Conjuring Universe, I definitely have to give my props to The Devil Made Me Do It for going out of its way to take it in a new direction./

Were there some things it could’ve done better to make me care about characters OTHER than Ed and Lorraine? Absolutely. Especially since The Devil Made Me Do It marks the first HUMAN antagonist we’ve seen in the main franchise, and we don’t even know her name until the end of the movie’s third act.

/Then there’s the fact that the movie implies our human antagonist -- who goes by “the occultist” until you learn her first name is Isla later on -- has no real motive for why she decided to curse the individuals that she’s cursed over the course of the movie, outside of just wanting to sew chaos and disorder./

Now you would think that because this information was given to us by John Noble’s Father Kastner...

/Especially since in the movie it’s revealed that he knew that “the occultist” the Warren’s were searching for that cursed Arne Johnson, David Glatzel and the girl named Jessica was his daughter -- this was stated as more of a way to throw the Warren’s off the scent of the antagonist. And it kinda is./

The thing about it though, is that because it actually uses that angle with Isla just doing what she’s doing for the sake of doing it, her presence lacks a certain amount of prominence to it.

Like, yes; Joker in The Dark Knight is, in fact, an agent of chaos. But he only wore that facade as a means to an end; he never JUST “did” things for the sake of doing them, despite saying exactly that. He still had an end goal -- a motive -- and it became clear over the course of the film and we saw it play out accordingly.

/Because it was never established what Isla’s end goal truly was in “The Devil Made Me Do It,” it LITERALLY felt like she was just cursing peeps just to curse peeps. Because the movie only SLIGHTLY implied it but never said it directly, I just assumed that she was doing what she was doing because she wanted power. After all, why ELSE would you bind a demon to your will in order to execute a curse that if you were unable to finish by any means necessary it would take your soul instead?/

No, despite the situations she put the Warrens in and especially her reflecting the only antagonist in the history of the Conjuring franchise that has came the closest in destroying them, the decision in giving Isla a true agent of chaos angle instead of it just being a mask for an ACTUAL motive for why she’s doing the things that she does in “The Devil Made Me Do It” is not only a disservice to one of the strongest villains we’ve seen in the main Conjuring franchise to date...

But is also a missed opportunity regarding the longevity of the franchise because of her connection to both the occult and the church due to being Father Kastner’s illegitimate child.

The movie also -- as you can imagine -- has no immediate ties via plot thread to the original Conjuring movie from 2013 in order to make the three films a proper movie trilogy.

The thing about it however, is that if you actually rewatch the first movie, there was, in fact, a perfect thread just ready and willing to be used in order to bring these three films full circle in a way that would still allow the studio to make more Conjuring movies. But they used it too early. Allow me to explain.

THE THREAD

/Readers, I would like to take a moment to congratulate the three Conjuring movies for so far being the hardest series of films I had to find a way to establish as a proper movie trilogy in this segment. All of the movies are so well done in its narrative, its pacing, and especially in the development of the Warrens, that it makes every single installment of the base franchise within the Conjuring universe detrimental./

I say that, because the way the first Conjuring movie set things up with a thread that could work for “The Devil Made Me Do It” was PERFECT.

It was subtly hinted at throughout the film, you saw how the allusion to it affected Ed’s eagerness to take on new cases, and then while Ed is working on Rodger’s car, he tells the story that could easily be used.

/The reason why he’s so adamant about Lorraine taking part in paranormal cases now is because during the exorcism of Maurice, she saw something after being touched by him that was so horrible that she locked herself in her room for 8 days in order to recover. And because of the way Ed understands Lorraine’s clairvoyant abilities, he believes that the more she works on big cases such as the haunting of the Perron house, she’s going to eventually reach her mental and spiritual limit and succumb to possession./ (Big Chunk)

Now even before that explanation was given, I was looking at the very leadup to it going “That’s it. That’s the thread. I think I found the thread.”

/And when he revealed what happened after Rodger’s inquiry of why he didn’t originally want to take the case, stating that she never told Ed what she saw and he never decided to inquire, that just solidified it even further./

What did she see? Why hasn’t she told Ed yet? Could the information she’s holding back from him play out in “The Devil Made Me Do It” in a way that has it play a role in the plot?

It was because I found myself asking these questions about this bit of information that was dropped in the movie to help establish the progression and development in the Warrens, I saw this plot hook as the perfect opportunity for the eventual third movie to explore, and I anxiously waited for either a possible payoff, or to establish one if the third movie foolishly decided to keep that riddle unanswered.

Then after The Conjuring ended, I started The Conjuring 2. And after they introduced the character of the nun and her link to Lorraine, THIS scene happens.

(I saw a premonition of your death)

That’s right, Readers. They took the possible plot thread from The Conjuring, and expanded upon it in The Conjuring 2.

And I...was fucking...LIVID.

Now to go over it again, Readers. The purpose of the plot thread in a proper trilogy is to stitch all three patches together in order for it to become a single piece.

And in order for it to be that support, the thread has to be an element of the first film’s plot that plays a significant role in the third in a way that makes all three films work together as one cohesive story.

From there, you can use the third film to reveal new information about what's being carried over from the first, and expand upon it in various ways; the most common form being a plot twist.

Yes, you can allude to the eventual reveal of the thread’s eventual third movie expansion in the second one.

/Not only was that done in Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader tells Luke HE is his father as opposed to what Obi-Wan told him in A New Hope, but the ACTUAL expansion of Yoda confirming it and Obi-Wan’s ghost explaining why he utilized the point of view he had when he told Luke what he did back then eventually happened in Return of the Jedi./

What makes the decision to reveal what The Conjuring teased about Lorraine’s vision in The Conjuring 2 a letdown however, is that they chose the immediate sequel to fully expand the thread.

/The vision, the involvement of the demon Valak, the showdown that displayed just how strong both Lorraine’s abilities and her will was after seeing the vision, the whole kit and kaboodle./

Because I’m not gonna lie; having the plot thread of a proper movie trilogy work in tandem with the trilogy’s overall theme is the best outcome when it comes to forming one. As I stated in my previous installment of this series, that’s one of the reasons why the Kung Fu Panda trilogy works so well.

And the overall theme within the three main Conjuring movies is both the trust and willingness between Ed and Lorraine, and Lorraine’s journey in both remembering and utilizing her true strength despite what happened to her when a Valak-possessed Maurice touched her.

Being strong enough to help Carolyn regain her humanity while Bathsheba was being exorcised out of her.

Overcoming and banishing a demon powerful enough to cloud her abilities disguised as a nun to test her faith in an attempt to possess a young girl all the way in London.

Being able to help a possessed Ed break the hold a bound demon has on him.

/Lorraine represents not allowing a moment of weakness you suffered be the way not only others see you, but how you see yourself. You can bounce back, be stronger than ever, and show them with the faith you have in yourself that you’re nothing to be trifled with. And that would’ve been so great to have seen that displayed if the reveal of what she saw when Maurice touched her was saved and properly expanded upon in the fantasy elements of the Arte Case in “The Devil Made Me Do It.”/

But, because we only adjust the THIRD installment of a trilogy in order to make it a proper one -- not to mention the spinoff movie “The Nun” cementing that aspect of the fictional portions in the Conjuring Universe’s timeline...

We have to find ANOTHER thread within the first movie that can easily tie into “The Devil Made Me Do It” and reveal some new information about the fictional portions of the Arte Johnson case.

/And the only thing we have from the first Conjuring movie that doesn’t interfere with the portions of the story that were ALSO based on the real-life events is the information regarding witchcraft and Bathsheba, the spirit that haunts the land that was cursed. Because according to the lore established in the movie.../ (She’s related to Mary Eastey. She’s one of the women accused of witchcraft in Salem. She was hung during the trials)

So if we take a look at The Conjuring and “The Devil Made Me Do It,” we have the reveal that Bathsheba -- the main malevolent spirit in the first film -- is a descendant of Salem witch Mary Eastey, who cursed her land so that anyone who lived on it would end up being possessed by her and force them to kill their youngest children followed by themself...

And then we have human antagonist Isla Kastner, an occultist who ALSO practices witchcraft inspired by her fathers collection and his dealings with the cult of the Ram, and has a demon bound to her in order to perform a curse that slightly mirrors the murder-suicide motive of Bathsheba’s spirit to whoever she has it possess

And in the third movie, the confrontations between Lorraine and Isla and how eager she is to see Lorraine die -- especially by the hands of her husband Ed -- are just prominent enough to work with the overall theme of the trilogy.

(Nods) I can work with this. Let me break it down for you.

THE RECONSTRUCTION

/In The Conjuring, The Warrens help a family experiencing a haunting from their newly moved-in home by exorcising from it the spirit of Bathsheba -- a descendant of Salem witch Mary Eastey -- who sacrificed her first born and killed herself in order to curse her land so that every mother and child that lives on it afterward would meet the same fate. However, after witnessing Lorraine’s experience of the exorcism of Maurice -- aka Frenchie from The Nun -- Ed is worried that too much is being taken from her with every case, and is genuinely worried for both her mental health and her soul/

/In The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, an occultist named Isla Kastner who is the daughter of Father Kastner -- a retired priest and demonologist similar to Ed and Lorraine -- uses very serious witchcraft to curse individuals into committing murder and then suicide in order to gain power and to satisfy the demon bound to it. And Lorraine is able to see glimpses of her altar -- what needs to be destroyed in order to break the curse -- during the exorcism of David Glatzel/

So let’s have Isla Kastner ALSO be a descendant of Mary Eastey, and let the connection Lorraine accidentally establishes with Isla during David’s exorcism be the final straw that not only convinces Ed that Lorraine is at her limit, but also proves that as a clairvoyant Lorraine is as strong as she’s ever been.

The difference between the first two Conjuring movies and The Devil Made me Do It, is that unlike the first two, The Devil Made Me Do It is at its heart a MYSTERY movie. Once they realize it's a curse they’re dealing with, the Warrens have to find the culprit responsible for and break it.

So in order to keep that Mystery Inc. vibe the third movie gives off and properly use the thread of Mary Eastey we’re bringing from the first movie, we have to establish a SECOND mystery the Warrens have to solve in order to get to the bottom of this.

And that second mystery is established when the Warrens visit Father Kastner for the first time to ask him about the totem Lorraine finds in the crawlspace of the Glatzel house.

/In the theatrical cut of The Devil Made Me Do It, Father Kastner takes the Warrens to HIS cursed museum and tells them/ (The clues that you seek could be anywhere. Or they could not be here at all)

/He then begins to recall the story of his bout with the Ram cult and shares with them what happened to the head prosecutors family after the disciples of the cult were convicted, with the intent of advising them that dealing with the occult may not be worth it./

Now for those of us who saw The Devil Made Me Do It, we know that he suggested all of this to protect his daughter Isla, so it’s not necessarily out of the reach of the narrative for him to also want to protect himself.

/So let’s adjust this scene a bit. Let’s have Father Kastner notice Lorraine’s unease and need of not wanting Ed to touch anything within his cursed museum. Assured that they won’t go digging, he shares his experiences with the Ram cult to further sway Lorraine away./

But Ed is a bit more persistent and slinks off while the two are distracted and finds a journal written by Mary Eastey, who he remembers Lorraine telling him Bathsheba from the first movie was a descendant of.

Skimming it a bit, he reads a passage inside, making sure not to touch the book with his bare hands; one involving a book of witchcraft called the Stregherian and how it lists instructions on how to create a totem exactly like the one they found earlier on in the movie.

He wraps it up, puts it in his back pocket and slyly joins back with Father Kaster and Lorraine without one of them noticing.

/I’ll let you figure out who was the one that did./

So now they know two things: Father Kastner was deliberately trying to scare them off the trail and that Mary Eastey knew how to make this exact totem.

/The morning before they arrive at the Danvers Massachusetts police department to help with the missing persons case of Jessica in exchange for her case file, they recall Bathsheba's haunting of the farmhouse in Rhode Island now that they know her ancestor had knowledge of the very totem. Ed once again gets worried about Lorraine pushing herself too far with her abilities, and he calls Drew to see if he can find a copy of the Stregherian to find out more about the totem while they’re gone./

After that, the rest of the movie plays out similarly. The Warrens help Danvers PD find the body of Jessica while discovering that Jessica was also possessed and murdered Katie Lincoln the exact same way Arte murdered the landlord, only to commit suicide afterward.

/Realizing her body might have a connection to whoever’s responsible, the Warrens sneak inside the morgue in order for her to astral project to where the altar is to Ed’s now even higher concern./

Like it was shown in the movie, she stops Isla from forcing Arte from committing suicide in the isolation ward.

/But THIS time when Isla notices her, “How are you doing this?” is no longer the first thing she says to Lorraine. Instead, what’s stated before the question is asked is “You’re more powerful than I thought you’d be...”/

THAT throws her off. Because now, it's implied that the occultist KNOWS who Lorraine is, but Lorraine knows NOTHING about her.

Then after they find out about the curse once Drew succeeds in finding a copy of the Stregherian and Isla almost succeeds in getting Ed to kill Lorraine by sneaking a totem into their home, it’s clear to everyone that Isla should be considered a serious threat.

/But when Lorraine asks Ed about what he experienced when he was in his altered state, he recalls Isla being there and stating/(You know the two of you have gathered quite the collection)

Now this is true in the theatrical release we got. But right before Ed attempts to threaten Isla to tell him the location of Lorraine, let’s have Isla say one more thing in relation.

/The full statement would go something like, “You know the two of you have gathered quite the collection. But I’ve seen better. BIGGER, too...”/

So with Drew and Ed working on Jessica’s case file and Debbie -- Arte’s girlfriend -- going to the prison to keep a watch of him in case Isla decides to complete the ritual, Lorraine proceeds to visit Father Kastner again to translate the Stregherian as originally done in the movie.

Only this time, she also brings the journal of Mary Eastey with her and the knowledge of what Ed told her Isla said to him.

/So while she’s getting the rest of the information about the ritual translated, Lorraine questions him about the knowledge in the journal and why he not only chose not to tell them about it, but also accuses him of helping Isla by using Ed’s testimony to figure out she had access to his museum./

That’s when Father Kastner reveals to Lorraine that Isla is his daughter, who he kept secret from the church because they required celibacy after her mother died in childbirth.

/However, unlike the theatrical version, he reveals that Isla’s mother -- like Bathsheba -- was a descendant of Mary Eastey, and did her best to keep all of her mother’s link to the witch away from her. But because she gained an obsession with the occult against Kastner’s wishes, she found out about her heritage and took it as a sign to follow in her footsteps./

And now we have a villain -- a HUMAN villain, mind you -- who is not only better interconnected with the plot of “The Devil Made Me Do It” than how the original version of the movie made her out to be, but she has significant ties to information that was initially given to us in the first Conjuring movie, despite not being involved with its events.

Now all that’s left is to establish why Isla is so hellbent on seeing about the destruction of Lorraine. And that part is pretty simple as well.

/During their encounter in the tunnels where her altar is located, Isla reveals that she knew Lorraine was the one who fought off Bathsheba long enough for her to be banished from the Rhode Island farmhouse 10 years ago. Not only did she feel her connection with Bathsheba die, but she also felt how powerful Lorraine was as a result./

Ever since then, Isla followed the careers of the Warren’s with great interest.

/But after figuring out that she was able to banish Valak in England 4 years ago, she thought she was nowhere near as strong as she used to be considering the battle that took place between them./

/Of course this proves to not be the case by the time Lorraine has to psychically reach out to a possessed Ed in order for him to break free of his hold long enough to destroy the altar, thus proving that Lorraine is not only stronger than the encounters Ed was worried she was losing chunks of herself over, but also putting an end to yet another one of Mary Eastey’s descendants./

CONCLUSION

By linking Isla with the lineage of Mary Eastey as Bathsheba was in the original Conjuring movie, not only does she have more agency as a villain in “The Devil Made Me Do It” outside of just wanting to do bad things with her demon friends...

But her already high desire to eliminate the Warrens -- especially Lorraine -- helps elevate Lorraine’s display of what she’s truly capable of as the next big step in displaying her own agency after being displayed as one case away from being at her limit ever since the first movie.

It may not have been the most obvious thread to link the third movie to. But in retrospect, having Isla be a living descendant of Mary Eastey seeking to eliminate the medium that banished her ancestor in order to grow stronger uninterrupted was just the hook we needed in place to help conjure us up a proper movie trilogy.

Right now you can stream the entire main Conjuring Trilogy on HBO Max, with “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” only available to stream with the $15 a month ad-free plan until July 5, 2021 until its transition from theatrical to home release.

But if you want to own the films that are currently available to purchase and help financially support the channel, I’ll have affiliate links in the description down below as well.

So with that being said Readers, your homework assignment for the day:

Write in the comment section below what YOU thought of The Conjuring trilogy if you’ve seen it.

And if you have a trilogy -- proper or otherwise -- that you want me to go over in this segment, feel free to leave them in the comment section below as well.

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But until then, this is Readus 101. Class Dismissed.