The first trailer for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It arrived earlier today, and it certainly looks as though it’s got the biggest budget the franchise has seen yet. Every installment in the shared horror universe has cost no more than $40 million to produce, but the promo teasing the third outing for paranormal investigators Ed and Lorriane Warren boasts some sweeping visuals and plenty of effects-driven set pieces.
There are only six weeks to go until The Devil Made Me Do It comes to theaters and HBO Max, so expect a full-on marketing blitz to be heading your way as Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema try to drum up the buzz and excitement, which shouldn’t be too hard when we’re talking about the latest chapter in the highest-grossing horror franchise in history.
The Devil Made Me Do It is the first Conjuring film without James Wan behind the camera, although he remained heavily involved in the creative side of things as a producer, as well as helping to develop the story alongside writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Michael Chaves, who made his feature directorial debut on The Curse of La Llorna, steps behind the camera as Wan’s replacement, and recently admitted that he’s been tasked with the biggest movie in the series yet.
“In a lot of ways, this is the biggest Conjuring movie. I showed the final cut to Vera Farmiga and her husband and they agreed, and they were like, ‘This is the darkest Conjuring movie’. It digs into some really dark material. This is definitely a case where there’s real consequence, there’s real victims. One of the things that James Wan and I connected on while making The Curse of La Llorona was sharing a lot of the same favorite movies, and one of them is Se7en. We both love that movie, and so when he came to me with this script, he basically was like, ‘It’s Se7en, but in the Conjuring universe’. And he knew that was like catnip for me.”
Interestingly enough, Chaves’ comments make The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It the second major horror sequel arriving in the space of the next few weeks to cite Fincher’s Se7en as a direct influence and inspiration, following in the footsteps of Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw reboot Spiral. Whether either of them hit that high benchmark or not, though, we’ll have to wait and see.