In 2011, an American couple with a "special status" made it difficult for Chinese-American director Wen Ziren to calm down for a long time.
The couple lived in New England, with a husband named Ed and a wife named Rowling, whom the outside world called "The Warrens."
On the surface, this couple is no different from normal people, but when it comes to their profession, people can't help but break into a cold sweat .
They are "exorcists".
The husband claims to be able to see "what ordinary people have failed to see" and to be able to "talk to the soul."
Since 1952, the Warrens have traveled extensively to investigate the paranormal, while also providing "professional" help to some "trapped" people.
They also built a "supernatural" museum that is only open at 9 p.m.
On the walls are photographs of their own paranormal phenomena from all over the world, and in the aisles are strings of bells, accompanied by eerie music coming from the radio, and "dancing" as soon as someone walks by.
The negative floor under the museum is a "no-go area for visitors", because there are some "supernatural objects" "sealed" here, and the most feared by the Warrens is a red-haired and white-cloth doll named "Annabelle".
Director Wen Ziren also heard about the real events behind this rag doll and was very excited about it.
Because although he has made some horror films before, they are all created virtually, but this time there is reality as a blueprint, if such a thing is made into a movie, it will definitely explode.
So when the story script was sent to Wen Ziren, he immediately decided to direct it himself this time, and also to present the names of Warren and Annabelle in their original names.
Two years later, "The Conjuring" with an investment of more than 20 million US dollars was released, and finally won 320 million US dollars at the box office (more than 2 billion yuan) around the world, successfully opening this IP.
Wen Ziren, who also has a keen sense of business smell, takes advantage of the victory, he imitates the MCU of Disney Marvel, and also creates his own "Conjuring Universe" around the Warrens, "Conjuring" series, "Annabelle" series, "Nun", "Curse of the Weeping Woman" are all movies that belong to the "Conjuring Universe", together with "Conjuring 3", which has launched 8 works so far.
But so many works also tell a rather embarrassing fact -
"The Conjuring" and "Conjuring 2" directed by Wen Ziren are both excellent quality masterpieces, but if he only serves as a producer, the quality is more general.
Therefore, fans generally believe that if Wen Ziren himself does not care about the management, this "soul-summoning universe" will sooner or later go to the end like "Chainsaw Horror".
Perhaps hearing the voice on the Internet, Wen Ziren has put a lot of effort into the orthodox sequel "Conjuring 3" this time, and it is said that the real prototype of this adaptation is one of the most terrifying events that the Warren couple encountered in their lives.
I. The 1981 "Possession of Arne Thane Johnson" incident in the film
On the night of July 18, 1981, in Brookfield, Connecticut, the Warrens and Father Gordon exorcised his 8-year-old son, David, at carl Gleiser's home.
In addition to Carl and his wife Judy, there was his daughter Debbie, Debbie's boyfriend Arne, and photographer Drew Thomas.
The Warrens didn't go well with the exorcism every time, and this time they failed.
The evil spirits lurking in David's body were high, shocking Rowling and Father Gordon back, and beating Ed to a heart attack.
Before Ed loses consciousness, he sees the evil spirit leave David's body and possess Arn's body, but he faints before he can tell everyone.
Ed's dizziness, that is, 3 months, after waking up, he immediately picked up the consciousness before the coma, he tried to contact Arne and his girlfriend Debbie, but it was too late, and the tragedy still happened.
On the same day, Arne saw the apparition and then attacked his landlord Thors in the kennel, stabbing him 22 times in one breath, and Sauls died of excessive blood loss.
The court said the evidence was conclusive, but Arne claimed that he had been driven by the devil to commit the crime, and when the judge heard that this involved a blind spot in knowledge, he invited the Warrens to discern the truth of the case.
Suspecting that David and Arne were cursed, Rowling searched Carl Gleiser's house, and found the witch's artifact under the living room floor.
Ed judged empirically that this could not be a single curse, and asked the police department acquaintances to know that four months ago, the female high school students Katie Lincoln and Jessica Strong suddenly disappeared, and later the police found Katie's body, and then found the artifact in Jessica's home.
Rowling used her expertise to help the police find the body of Jessica, who committed suicide by jumping into the lake after the killing, and also used the case to help Arne prove that she had not lied. But Rowling also realized that this time they were no longer facing an invisible evil spirit, but an evil witch who liked to do evil.
So the second half of the film evolves into a battle between the Warrens and the Witch.
After layers of investigation, they found the witch's altar, and after some PK, Ed broke the stone offering table with a hammer, destroyed the altar, and the witch was eventually eaten by the failure of the work, and finally the "expected" was tortured to death by the devil.
In general, this "Conjuring 3" is no longer based on the secret room horror and the ghost fighting method as the selling point, but is biased towards the suspense thriller genre.
The film slowly approaches the truth by laying down a lot of puzzles, and then by the protagonist's in-depth investigation and stripping away the cocoon. And the dangerous situation of the good and evil fighting method at the end also exceeded Pigo's expectations, and it seemed to return to the era of watching Lin Zhengying's ghost films in an instant.
Because of these advantages, "The Conjuring 3" escaped the curse of the sequel to the end, although it is not as good as the two previous works directed by Wen Ziren, but the quality of a horror film is still worth affirming.
Second, there is a huge difference between "real events" in history and movies
The story film ends naturally with a reunion ending, with Arne serving a 5-year sentence and marrying Debbie in prison.
The rationality of marriage in prison is not to be said, but the murder sentence is only 5 years, which does not sound right, does the judge really believe the Warrens?
Since it is based on real events, let's look for information to see what really happened in history.
From the data, the plot of the Warren couple exorcising the boy David Glaezer in the film, and the murder of Arne after being possessed, is roughly the same as the real history.
But David, who was 11 years old at the time and a chubby boy who claimed to have been attacked by a humanoid beast with sheep's hooves and horns, told his family when the Warrens arrived and told their families that David was possessed by as many as 43 evil spirits.
The family members were frightened, if they did not hurry to exorcise the demons, and wait for the 43 evil spirits to make a schedule, how could the children bear it?
At the request of the family, the Warrens expelled the evil spirits from David one by one, and the process was very difficult, and the little brother Arne, who was watching, could not bear to see his brother suffering, just at this time he shouted at David's body:
"Don't torture David, it's up to me!"
Arne was 19 years old at the time, and being able to say this either meant that his age was falsified or that he was really moralistic.
Whether his "request" was met or not we don't know, but Arne did kill people later.
Arne's lawyer felt embarrassed because the Warrens offered two cases in which they had been successfully exonerated on the grounds of "possessed by a demon," but the lawyer himself felt that he did not necessarily have the extraordinary courage of the first two lawyers.
In the end, the court still dropped the hammer, believing that the cases had no scientific basis, so they did not accept them, or sentenced Arne to 15 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter.
That is to say, in fact, the Warrens tossed to the end and did not help much.
But in reality, Arne was lucky.
He was released early because he performed well in prison and just after he became an adult, serving only 5 years in prison, which is the same as the ending explained in the movie.
And Arne and Debbie's relationship has always been stable, and they cherish each other to this day.
It is worth mentioning that the film also shows the past of the Warren couple for the first time in the form of a memory screen, and Pigo also found some relevant information, and here is also a popular science for everyone.
Ed Warren met Rowling At the age of 16. R. Moran, who was working as a seat usher in a theater called The Colony in Bridgeport, Connecticut. When Rowling shows up in the movie theater, Ed falls in love with her at first sight and comes forward to talk to her, and the two quickly develop into a couple.
The following year Ed joined the Navy on his 17th birthday and experienced World War II, after which he returned to the United States, where he soon married Rowling and had a daughter, Judy Warren.
Later, Ed studied painting at the Perry Art School affiliated with Yale University, and he liked to go to the haunted house with Rowling, so he became acquainted with the haunted house and began to investigate supernatural events.
Although Ed Warren died on August 23, 2006, at the age of 79, the controversy over the Warrens continues to this day.
The mysterious museum in the basement of the Warren couple's home in the movie is actually an exhibition place open to the public, and some people in Europe and the United States think that they are just big liars who use sensationalism to gain fame and fortune.
However, whether it is true or not, wen Ziren's relationship with The Warren couple can be said to be a "win-win".
The Warrens' memoirs contain a lot of bizarre cases, which are good material that can be adapted into movies, and because of the "Conjuring Universe" movie, the Warrens' story has also been able to influence the world.
But Wen Ziren's ability to control as a producer is obviously not as good as That of Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige, and many of his directors are embarrassingly useful.
In addition to Wen Ziren's "Conjuring" and "Conjuring 2", the reputation and box office of other outgoing films in the same universe are not satisfactory, which makes fans feel that the "Conjuring Universe" will come to an end sooner or later.
The Conjuring series has thus completed a trilogy, and there will be two more films in the future, "Hunchback" and "Nun 2".
"Nun" is the second most appeared ghost in the "Conjuring Universe" besides Annabelle dolls, and "Hunchback" has already appeared in "Conjuring 2", both of which are worth looking forward to.
Of course, as fans, we still hope that the "Conjuring Universe" movie can find a more reliable director to make works with good reputations such as "After Turning Off the Lights", "Lurking 3", "Lurking 4: Locking the Dead", and "Conjuring 3" to continue the "incense" of this IP.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
© Original 丨 Article Copyright: Ppdianying
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization