As James Wan’s DCEU debut heads for cinemas this Friday, the Aquaman helmsman still has one foot in the cinematic universe he helped create as he teases the horror to come in The Conjuring 3.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, the director of the first two Conjuring movies said that this third installment will also take inspiration from a real life case investigated by Lorraine and Ed Warren.
“It’s not necessarily based on an artifact but it’s based on one of the Warrens’ case files,” Wan said. “All the Conjuring films are based on the case files, so they’re more based on the true story aspect of the real life Warrens. I think that’s important. It’s important that the mothership stays true to the inspiration of the real people. The spinoffs are where we get to have more fun and do weird and wonderful crazy things. The mothership of it being the Conjuring films, we want it to come back to the real stuff.”
A couple of months ago, it was reported that the upcoming threequel would see Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson’s characters look into the case of a man on trial for murder who claims he was possessed by a demon. Sure enough, Wan confirms that this is the true story being tackled in the next film.
“It’s this guy who was on trial for committing a murder,” Wan said. “I think it’s the first time in America’s history where the defendant used possessions as a reason, as an excuse.”
While Wan is on producing duties for The Conjuring 3, the director this time will be filmmaker Michael Chaves, whose feature debut The Curse of La Llorona is due for release in April next year. And while most of us are pretty unfamiliar with this particular helmsman’s output, Wan also served as producer on La Llorona and assures us that Chaves left him impressed.
“He definitely did,” Wan said. “I feel like he’s this young up and coming filmmaker in this world. He’s a guy that understands how these films work. He’s really great working with actors and I feel like that’s something I want and need to work with, someone that people like Patrick and Vera would feel comfortable with.”
We still have a long wait before the movie arrives in theaters, but in the meantime, the Warrens will be making a return in next year’s Annabelle 3, which sees Lorraine and Ed’s daughter Judy try to live through the night after the film’s demonic doll awakens the evil spirits found in the family’s artifacts room. We can find out how she fares when the third Annabelle comes out on July 3rd, 2019, before The Conjuring 3 hits theaters on September 11th, 2020.
