Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy 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.
The third Conjuring film shifts away from haunted house horror toward a procedural thriller framing, which is a novel structural idea but ultimately feels muddled in execution. The murder-defense premise is intriguing but underutilized, and the investigation plotline leans heavily on genre conventions rather than developing the courtroom angle meaningfully. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga remain the emotional anchors and elevate the material considerably with their chemistry and commitment. Cinematography is competent and atmospheric but lacks the standout set pieces that made earlier entries memorable. As a sequel, it inherits the franchise's visual language without adding much new. The ending resolves too neatly and lacks the dread of its predecessors, feeling more like a generic supernatural showdown than a satisfying conclusion to its more grounded premise.