More horror has come this week as the Conjuring is here with its latest installment.

Ed and Lorraine Warren, two of the most famous paranormal investigators are back in a film that centers on what is considered to be their most famous case: “The Devil Made Me Do It.” — Which revolves around the possession of Arne Cheyenne Johnson that causes him to kill someone. Time is limited as Ed and Loraine have to investigate and find out who released the cursed spirit and save an innocent person from facing capital punishment.

Seeing as how the first two films created a big impact, even creating a cinematic universe, a lot has been riding on this movie. Having seen it myself on HBO Max I can safely say it’s good. While it’s not quite on par with the first two, I think it has enough solid material that deserves some merit.

One element that I thought generated some suspense was Ed Warren suffering damage to the heart, which causes him to frequently risk his life doing something as simple as running through the woods. There’s also a creepy scene in a morgue that got a reaction out of me. But aside from that, the rest of the scares play out like the other scares in this series. I’m also grateful that there are no jumpscares as every time something happens it was something real. Though, none of them are gonna keep me up at night like some people.

I do give credit to the filmmakers for basing this film on one of the most famous cases the Warrens have ever come across. But here’s the thing, when you read the words “based on a true story” you can’t help but feel the Hollywood influence with how certain events play out. I did a little research and while you can tell they’re keeping the details about the case as faithful as possible, there are still scenes here that were clearly put in to be more cinematic. For example, the climax of this film involves another underground cult lair where the characters have to find while being chased by a demon, and it even has one of the characters floating in mid air while everything is being blown away. It’s pretty easy to tell what events were real and which events were purely made to look cool on the big screen.

With that said, a lot of the elements that I’ve mentioned before are still good, even if they’re not quite on par with the first two films. The best way I can describe it is as seeing your favorite characters in a side episode of a TV series. Does it leave the biggest impact? No. But it has enough good material to where you stay with it from beginning to end. If you’re into horror, then this is definitely worth checking out.

Rating: 4 / 5 Spinnaker Sails.