Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren are back again to help a man who is on trial for murder. The man, Arne, is essentially innocent because he was possessed by a demon at the time of the murder. The central question becomes: can Ed and Lorraine find enough evidence to assist Arne’s lawyer in building a defense against the murder charges?
They determine that the hauntings and possessions are stemming from a curse, but will they have enough time to find who’s behind it? The nearly 2-hour runtime says probably.
While I wouldn’t call this third Conjuring movie a disappointment, I would say it is not nearly as satisfying as the previous two. I appreciate the attempt at trying to break the formula that worked so well before. However, there was a noticeable drop in character development, plot cohesion, and build up to the final scares.
The Ed and Lorraine characters are best as the anchors for a specific haunting. As soon as they take center stage, they don’t seem as useful to the story. Similarly, the demonic creatures that were shown weren’t as skin crawly as the other movies. Sometimes it was due to too much exposure, other times it was because they just weren’t that creepy.
I still enjoyed the movie. It’s a far better horror movie than most.
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