The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It faced two main challenges in development: how to keep the Conjuring Universe original and fresh and how to balance reality with drama.
“We wanted to keep the elements of the previous films that people love,” says screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who also worked on the story with Wan, “but you don’t want to give them the exact same thing all over again.”
Wan knew before they started that he wanted this new “Conjuring” to be a mystery with Lorraine’s clairvoyant abilities front and center. Inspired by films like John Carpenter’s Eyes of Laura Mars, and David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, they were looking for a case where Lorraine could shine as a psychic detective, where her gifts would be integral to the story in a way that hadn’t been seen before, using her psychic visions as plot points rather than scare points.
It’s a known fact that the real Lorraine Warren consulted with police on numerous cases.
“Within the first few minutes, you’ll know you’re in for a much different ride than you’ve been on in other ‘Conjuring’ films,” says Patrick Wilson who plays Ed Warren.
Wan and Johnson-McGoldrick considered those cases but couldn’t land on one they wanted to adapt. What happened to Arne Johnson in the aftermath of David Glatzel’s final exorcism, however, appeared to be a great springboard for a new story. There was a little-known element of the case where the Glatzels felt that somebody out there had placed a curse on them.
The Mystery of the Finding the Perfect Case
No one was ever able to get to the bottom of that suspicion, and it seemed like the perfect real-life angle in a case file from which to launch an investigation. But the fact that the Glatzels’ concerns were never resolved meant the plot would need construction. Although the Conjuring films have always taken some dramatic license in order to advance the narrative, this one was different. Wan and Johnson-McGoldrick needed to come up with an idea that was both exciting and authentic.
“We decided to interweave reality with a sort of composite story,” Johnson–McGoldrick explains, “that takes numerous, real-life occurrences that took place in different situations and combines them into one story. We go into a more fictional place in Act II where we’re solving the mystery, but we’re still pulling from the actual interactions that Lorraine had with the police.”
Once that was decided, the next thing to do was figure out how to start things off. The Devil Made Me Do It case, also known as the Brookfield Demon Murder case, has two distinct parts: the torment and possession of David Glatzel, which has been the focus of most interest in the past and for which Ed and Lorraine Warren were called to intervene, and the subsequent torment and possession of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who challenged David’s demon during his last exorcism while being admonished by Ed not to address it directly.
Months later, Johnson killed his friend and landlord during what he claims was demonic possession. In the trial that followed, with the support of the Warrens, Arne’s defense claimed he was not guilty by reason of demonic possession, citing two incidents in England where demonic possession was accepted by the courts as a legitimate defense. This was the first time in U.S. history where anyone had attempted to claim demonic possession as a defense. It was rejected by the judge. This was the part of the story that interested Wan and Johnson-McGoldrick.
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How to shift the focus from David to Arne was the prerequisite, but a relatively easy one to satisfy. “We decided to start with what would normally be the conclusion of a Conjuring movie,” Johnson-McGoldrick tells, “the haunted house version of this story has already taken place offscreen. We can get straight to the exorcism because we’ve seen this movie before, and that allows us to start Arne’s story right away. We go very quickly to the inciting incident, which is the moment when Arne challenged the demon.”
In order to tell Arne’s tale convincingly, Johnson-McGoldrick embarked on a multi-pronged path of research. The Devil Made Me Do It case was national news. It was a sensational case that everyone was talking about at the time. Johnson-McGoldrick was able to source old Newsweek and Time magazine articles as well as local and regional newspapers that were reporting on the case every day.
Those local papers became even more important when Johnson-McGoldrick discovered that the original court transcripts had been lost or destroyed, because they revealed who was in the courtroom and what witness testimony was given throughout the trial. Armed with a pretty clear understanding of the case, Johnson-McGoldrick decided it was time to go to the source.
“I interviewed Arne Johnson and also Debbie Glatzel,” Johnson-McGoldrick divulges. “The two came out together. It’s always better that way. On the one hand, you are getting the event, finding out what happened, but you’re also starting to get a feel for who these people are. That’s important, because when you have to fictionalize certain elements to make a movie, you still want to replicate what if felt like for them.”
Shifting the power dynamic in the relationship between Ed and Lorraine was something the creative team wanted to do to change things up and another component Johnson-McGoldrick had to figure out. There had to be a way to accomplish this from outside the marriage.
“No one ever wants to see Ed and Lorraine fight,” Johnson-McGoldrick says. “I feel like the only argument we can have for them is who is going to be nicer to the other one. Ed and Lorraine are on the same side all the time.”
This led to another situation of compositing stories. Ed Warren had a real-life heart attack following the Maurice Theriault exorcism that was briefly portrayed in the first “Conjuring.”
“In the video of the actual Theriault exorcism,” Johnson-McGoldrick reveals, “you can hear Lorraine asking if Ed feels ok because he doesn’t look good. Not long after, he had a heart attack. We opted to bring it in here. So even though Ed’s heart attack didn’t happen during the Glatzel exorcism, it does have its basis in reality.”
In previous Conjuring Universe films, Ed is always the guy who’s fixing the car or fixing the sink; he’s physical and active. Having his vitality compromised forces him to take a step back and let Lorraine take the lead, which is not easy for him.
“The scene where she goes under the house instead of him,” says Johnson-McGoldrick, “it’s very hard for him to be on the outside, and we get to see Lorraine take action.
In the haunted house, Ed and Lorraine have always been the authority. They’ve been called in to help because of their expertise. They are not out in the world having to prove themselves to people.
In The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, it’s different because Ed and Lorraine now have to try and convince non-religious skeptics in the courts and the police to help them in order to help Arne. They manage to win over Arne’s defense attorney by taking her to the Artifact room. Detective Sergeant Clay is another matter, however.
“Detective Clay is a composite character,” Johnson-McGoldrick acknowledges. “He’s not a real person, but he represents the police with whom the real Lorraine Warren consulted. We’ve taken elements from other cases and brought them together in him. He’s a skeptic to whom she has to prove herself. That was something the real Lorraine encountered regularly.”
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max. Last weekend the film made $24.01M from 3,102 locations.
