Preview: Director Michael Chaves on What Fans Can Expect from THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT

Last week, Daily Dead joined in with a group of other journalists to get an early look at The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which is being helmed by Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona). For this third film in the franchise, Chaves has taken over directorial duties from James Wan, and during the preview event, he discussed with us how The Devil Made Me Do It will set itself apart from the other Conjuring films that have preceded it. 

“The big idea was that we've seen the Warrens go on these adventures before and there's the expectation that they're going to face a demon,” Chaves explained. “They're going to exorcise that demon by the end of the movie, and from the very beginning we were like, ‘Let's just turn that whole idea on its head. Let's start with the thing that you think the movie is going to end with and then have it go horribly wrong.’ Because there's also that expectation that the Warrens, they're the good guys and they always get it right, and they always save the day. But the idea is that it doesn't always happen that way and that's not the way life is, so what happens when they get it wrong? What happens when it goes wrong? And that's how we wanted to start the movie.”

Then, we had the opportunity to check out the first 11 minutes of the The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which features a young boy named David Gatzel, who is possessed, and the Warrens (Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson) have enlisted the help of an exorcist to try and help the boy. Things turn violent and go horribly awry, and by the time the scene wraps up, it’s evident that this story is only beginning, and that Ed and Lorraine are dealing with forces beyond their scope here.

After we viewed the footage, Chaves was kind enough to chat with us about what we can expect from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and he discussed the pressures of following in James Wan’s footsteps, his bold decision to pay homage to The Exorcist in the opening of the film, the importance of practical effects, and more.

Look for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in theaters and streaming on HBO Max on June 4th, 2021.

How challenging was it stepping into the shoes of James Wan as the director of this third movie?

Michael Chaves: It was terrifying. It was the most terrifying thing about this whole movie. In all honesty, like a lot of you guys, I'm the biggest James Wan fan there is. I've seen all his movies. Even Dead Silence, which not many people have seen. I love all his stuff. Honestly, it was the greatest thrill to get to work with him on La Llorona, And then, it was honestly the greatest, most humbling, terrifying honor to step into this film. When I got the script and I first started talking to him and New Line about it, like you can imagine, I was losing my mind because I was so excited to step into The Conjuring franchise, which is one of the most successful horror franchises ever. I mean, what an incredible honor. I was also like, "Wait, James isn't going to direct Conjuring 3?" I definitely know there's a lot of Conjuring fans out there and this is a franchise that's been built by the Master of Horror, so I don't take that lightly. I am definitely excited for you guys to see the film and to see the direction that we've taken it in.

So, with all of the Conjuring movies, they all have that "inspired by a true story" disclaimer. But this is the first one that's really dealing with something really in the real world, an actual murder that really happened and an actual murder trial. I'm just curious how you approach that in a sensitive way, because there were actual victims of this crime. How do you walk that line between making a really great, entertaining, scary horror film that doesn't downplay the loss of life? 

Michael Chaves: I'm so glad you asked that. I'm sure you guys know, this is the Arne Johnson story. What you just saw, this actually started with a real Catholic-approved exorcism that he and the Warrens were witness to. He claimed that he became possessed at this event, and he went on a few weeks later to murder his landlord. Now, this went to trial and he claimed demonic possession as his defense. The Warrens knew him up to this point and they came to his side in this. Up to this point, every case that we've seen, every time this has been brought to the screen, there are no real victims. The Warrens can walk away when the demon has been cleared, and it’s just a question of what you believe. All of this can take a back seat because it's a fun thrill ride and no one was hurt during the process of it. We can enjoy that. I think honestly, just when I got that script and I started reading it for the first time, I was elated and out of my mind excited to do this movie, but I was also conflicted by the fact that, just like you said, there's a real victim in this. There's a man who lost his life.

And we're not even telling it from that point of view. We're telling it from the point of view of the man who claimed to be possessed, the man who took his life, the murderer. That was something that, from the very beginning, I was like, “I hope I get this right and I hope I tell that story fairly because I don't think you can downplay that at all.” Ultimately, he never denied murdering him and justice was served because he went to jail and Arne served his time. I think that one of the things that I definitely wanted to show in the film is that wherever you stand on this, whatever your belief is, our court system worked and justice was served. But ultimately, this is a Conjuring film. This is the story of the Warrens and their experience and their journey, and this is what they believed happened and they believed Arne Johnson. So much so, they put their careers on the line and they went to trial and they testified for him.

So, there are always stories about faith and usually there's stories about our faith in God, or the character's faith in God. And in this, I think it's much more about just the faith we put in other people. Just like Arne’s girlfriend at the time, Debbie Glatzel, who is the sister to David Glatzel, the kid who got exorcized. She was there at the murder and she testified on his behalf and she married him in jail. She stayed with him her entire life, and she actually just passed away just a week ago from cancer. But she lived with him, she believed him, and she stuck by him. And I think that ultimately, when I was looking at this, I struggled to decide what I believe actually happened. But what I ultimately decided is, my belief needs to take a back seat to their story. And ultimately, it's the story of their faith and the faith they put in each other.

The first two movies were so great. Are you worried going into this third movie about expectations that people might have?

Michael Chaves: I have no worries. It's going to exceed it tenfold. I would be very nervous if this was another haunted house movie. James is the master of the haunted house movie, and how can anybody live up to the incredible precedent that he set? These are big shoes to fill, without a doubt. James is the Master of Horror and he has really defined this brand; it's not just a horror movie, it's an experience. People have an emotional connection to the Warrens. I think that what's most exciting is that, from the very beginning, we're taking it in a different direction, and that was coming from James. That wasn't me coming in being, "Guys, I'm going to totally take it in a different direction." James and the studio were like, "We have a lot of fans out there. We've really explored the haunted house format really well, and we want to take the Warrens and the experience of The Conjuring and bring it into a new direction."

I think that was the most exciting thing for me and I think that that's where the movie can definitely exist and stand on its own. I think that from the very beginning, when I saw The Conjuring—before the spinoffs, before anything else—what it reminded me of is The X-Files. I loved The X-Files growing up and I loved Mulder and Scully and I was, "This is like a folksy Mulder and Scully. I can't wait to see the werewolf and all the other adventures they go on." So, I think that everyone fell in love with the haunted house concept of that first Conjuring, and I think that that's what the franchise has been built on up to this point. I think at this point, this is an opportunity to open the door to the other stories, just like Mulder and Scully would go on other adventures and there would be the monster episodes, there would be the conspiracy episodes, and the variety of that is actually what made The X-Files awesome. And I think that is the promise of the Warrens; they have a big artifact room and it can't all be from a haunted house.

What conversation happened either on set or in your head before you decided to have a priest show up in that hat, in that fog, get out of a taxi, stand in front of that house? That's a bold, bold choice you made right there. Talk to me about that.

Michael Chaves: I think The Conjuring movies are always these love letters to horror movies and to horror cinema. You look at the first one and you can see so much of The Changeling in it, and other horror movies as well. I think it does that with great love, and I can tell you that was, without a doubt, a shameless Exorcist reference there. The figure in the window was also another shameless nod to Psycho. It's funny, because I was on the verge of cutting it out. I was like, "Oh, it's too on the nose. People are going to think I’m just shamelessly stealing from the greatest movie of all time.'" But I kept it and I was glad I did, because when we started screening it, people, they loved it. They loved being able to see those references and make those connections.

Michael, I wanted to ask, because James has always had a mantra of doing everything as practical as possible in these films and in most of his films as a whole. So how much of this are we going to be seeing as practical effects and things like that? And was it a challenge to really have to do a lot of stuff in camera? I'm just curious as to what the balance was there.

Michael Chaves: I think that's one of the things that people expect from The Conjuring movies and it's honestly a great opportunity to have with The Conjuring movies. On this, all of the contortions, that's all in camera and it's not sped up at all. That is a real contortionist. Her name is Emerald Wolf. She's 12 years old, and she did all of that stuff. We did have CG and we did face replacement, but all of those moves, there is no wire work. That's all her just doing it. And what's crazy is that's at speed. Originally, I was thinking, because we had these rehearsals where she just did all of the crazy contortionist stuff she could do, which honestly you could make a whole movie out of it, but she did that one and she did it really slow and it's really creepy.

So that's what the plan was. She was going to do this slow rise up and we did a couple takes of that. Then I was like, "Emerald, is there anything else that you can do? Can you do that any differently?" And she was, "I could do a really fast version." So she did it and everyone on the crew, you could just hear them trying to keep their lunch in, because it was just so unnerving and just Patrick and Vera's honest reaction there when they're looking at her. A lot of that stuff, that's the joy of making a Conjuring movie because there's that expectation and the license to go practical. Even in other stuff that you wouldn't expect. 

If you look at the trailer, there's a moment where Lorraine is in the woods and she's connecting to this event that happened, and you can see this dramatic effect with the light as it moves across, as it goes from day to night. And that was all in camera. There is not a single visual effect there. Basically, we just had this giant light and we had it on track and they had a Technocrane arm, so we're moving on the track and then shooting that arm out and moving it across so you have that setting sun light. It's funny because I expected that people would be blown away by this. But no one actually ever talks about that, because I think that it's one of those things where the assumption is stuff like that is going to be CG. The assumption is, "Oh, that's going to be just a CG effect." So yeah, wherever we could, we were definitely playing it as practical as possible.

[Photo Credits: Photos Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, with BTS Photo by Ben Rothstein]