With the film's theatrical and HBO Max release date of June 4 just over a month away, a trailer has arrived online for the latest film in the Conjuring Universe, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Check it out in the embed above!
The folks over at IGN also got their hands on a batch of images from the film, and you can see those below. They include one shot that's obviously a direct reference to The Exorcist, as well as our first look at a mysterious character called The Occultist.
While The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 director James Wan handed the reins over to The Curse of La Llorona's Michael Chaves for this one, Wan did stay on board as producer and crafted the story with screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. This time around, franchise stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are dropped into
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.
Speaking with IGN, Chaves said that The Devil Made Me Do It is both the biggest and darkest Conjuring movie yet, and said Wan pitched it to him as "Se7en, but in the Conjuring Universe". This one is not a haunted house movie, but focuses on the Warrens' involvement with the murder trial of Arne Johnson. Chaves told IGN,
This is really taking the Warrens into uncharted places. Being a fan of the franchise, I was honestly really nervous at first breaking with convention, breaking with a lot of things that are tradition, but I think that what we've done is really woven the language and the things that you do want from a Conjuring film – the scares, the Warrens, their relationship – [and [pushed them] to the limits in this really fresh and exciting new direction."
It's also said that The Devil Made Me Do It will put less emphasis on introducing supernatural characters that might get their own spin-off (like the previous films had Annabelle, The Nun, and The Crooked Man).
From the very beginning, James and the studio wanted to do something very different, basically treat this as a new decade for the Warrens, a new chapter where we're introducing new themes, new ideas, and taking these characters to places that they've never gone before. Let me just say their adversary is unlike any adversary they’ve faced before, and not just in the sense that it's another iconic character. There's something fundamentally different with this one and I think that's honestly what I'm most excited about."
Chaves says the new film takes the Warrens to the limit, and I look forward to seeing how it's going to play out.
Wilson and Farmiga are joined in the cast by Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Julian Hilliard.
Wan produced the film with Peter Safran. Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Michael Clear, Judson Scott, and Michelle Morrissey served as executive producers.