Despite being the single highest-grossing horror franchise there’s ever been with The Nun II pushing takings past the $2.2 billion mark, there’s no doubt a lot of people out there who don’t realize The Conjuring figureheads Ed and Lorraine Warren are real people, but the subjects of Netflix’s new documentary The Devil on Trial won’t ever forget.
The streaming service combines two of its favorite topics by examining both a murder investigation and a bout of supernatural shenanigans at the same time, with the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson the focus. At the time, the case made history as the first – and still only – time that demonic possession was put forward as the defense in a homicide trial in the United States, which in turn served as the basis for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It more than 40 years later.
Using archive recordings, home videos, and the usual talking heads to tell its story, it’s fascinating to see that one member of the Glatzel family remains completely and utterly adamant that not only did nefarious demons have absolutely nothing with the tragedy that befell the clan, but they even call out the Warrens for monetizing their headline-grabbing grief and continuing to profit off it to this day.
Of course, there’s plenty of other participants who are as convinced as ever that it was all the work of the devil himself, not least of all Arne Cheyenne Johnson and Peter Glatzel, who was just eight years old when he ended up having the Warrens, the church, the exorcists, and the cops called in.
Feel free to make up your own mind, though, something Netflix users will have been doing considering that The Devil on Trial has debuted as the third most-watched feature-length title on the platform’s worldwide watch-list after assimilating the body of the Top 10 in 83 countries, per FlixPatrol. Did the devil really do it, or did the devil do not do it? That’s entirely up to you.
Published: Oct 18, 2023 12:41 pm