The Conjuring 3 Ending & Demon Origin Explained

The The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It ending left viewers with a few questions, especially when it came to having The Conjuring 3 demon origin explained. Making sequels is a grueling task because the expectations are high and, for an already successful horror franchise like The Conjuring universe, the pressure is even more immense. In The Conjuring 3, The Warrens return to investigate David Glatzel’s possession and find a curse and an occultist behind the boy’s strange behavior. This Conjuring villain is different from previous cases.

While every Conjuring movie is based on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It employs the real-life murder trial of Arne Johnson, who killed his landlord and claimed a defense of demonic possession in 1981. Johnson’s case is one of two the Warrens investigate, both of which are connected back to The Occultist and her chaotic plans — and the villain’s connection to The Conjuring 3 demon and how this plays out in The Devil Made Me Do It ending made for one of the most explosive finales in the franchise so far.

Conjuring 3 Villain (& Her Plan) Explained

The Devil Makes Me Do It Focuses On A Deadly Satanic Sacrifice

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is unique from its predecessors in that it moves away from the haunted house concept completely. Rather, the sequel turns its focus to a singular villain, an occultist named Isla, the daughter of Father Kastner. While Ed and Lorraine initially believed David and Arne to be possessed by a demon, they discover that Isla actually cursed them by putting a witch’s totem beneath the Glatzel’s house.

What the Warrens ultimately discover is that she actually needed three people — the child (Jessica), the lover (Arne), and the man of God, which explains why she went after Ed, who attempted to kill Lorraine while under the curse — to commit murders before they die by suicide.

Isla needed to claim the victims’ lives because she had made a deal with The Conjuring 3 demon, and she had to deliver on her end of the bargain; her soul literally depended on it. The Occultist had already been successful with one of the three — Jessica, who had taken the totem back with her from college. Killing her friend Kate before throwing herself off the cliff did the trick before Isla moved on to the next person.

The Occultist went after the three because of proximity, not necessarily because she herself had any strong connections with them. All she really wanted was to cause chaos. However, the Warrens were able to destroy the altar and break the curse before Isla finished what she started.

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How Conjuring 3’s Demon Is Different From Other Franchise Monsters

Unlike the previous movies in The Conjuring universe, The Conjuring:The Devil Made Me Do It didn’t deal with evil spirits possessing dolls, people, or traditional hauntings. While demons have existed in the franchise, The Conjuring 3 movie changes things up a bit by foregoing the usual kind of possession, which is to say it’s not a possession at all.

While Isla made a demonic deal, her obsession with the occult is what drove her actions. Arne, Jessica, David, and Ed are cursed, and it makes for a unique change because Isla is the one controlling them all behind the scenes.

It isn’t that a demon or spirit is specifically attached to one person or thing. A big part of what makes The Conjuring 3 so sinister is that it’s a regular human being behind the harrowing happenings — someone who is still alive and not dead, like Bathsheba from The Conjuring, for example. The demon is merely an extension of the Occultist rather than a being operating on its own.

What’s more, audiences never see the actual demon, only the physical consequences of what not delivering on a deal look like. The overall lack of a haunted house the Warrens must investigate is also a departure from the previous films. The action in The Conjuring 3 largely takes place outside the house and the possession isn’t limited to within its walls.

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How The Conjuring 3 Compares To The True Story

The Devil Made Me Do It Took Many Creative Liberties

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It draws a lot from the real-life case files of the Warrens, as well as from the murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson. David’s exorcism plays out, at least according to the Warrens’ recollection, similarly as is depicted in the film. Johnson still stabs his landlord, with claims he can’t remember what happened, and the Warrens are there throughout, engaging with the Glatzels, Johnson, and the police.

His not-guilty plea with a defense of demonic possession is accurate, as is Johnson’s relationship with Debbie and their living arrangements — first at the Glatzel home where David was presumably possessed and then at the property where Debbie and Arne lived together afterward.

However, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It takes a lot of creative liberties with the story beyond its factual constraints with regard to the trial. The most pertinent addition to the story is the Occultist, Isla, who didn’t really exist and was never a part of the Johnson case, though she was the primary antagonist of the sequel.

The Conjuring 3 diverges greatly from real-life events after Johnson stabs Bruno (whose real name was Alan Bono), adding in visits to Kastner and his connection to The Occultist, as well as his mysterious past and how she came to be involved in demonic witchcraft. To that end, The Devil Made Me Do It picks and chooses which real-life aspects to put in the film while also leaning on complete fiction to weave together its horror story.

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Was Jessica Louise Strong A Real Person (& Case)?

The Conjuring 3 Character Is Entirely Fictional

In the Easter egg-laden The Conjuring 3, Jessica Louise Strong is a teenager who went missing shortly after her best friend Katie was killed. As it turns out, Jessica, under The Occultist’s curse, was the one who murdered her friend, stabbing her 22 times before the curse also forced her to end her own life.

The specific nature of the case involving Jessica is fictional and fabricated specifically for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It; she is not a real person who disappeared nor did she kill anyone. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t similar cases out there. Sans the occult portion of the story, Jessica’s subplot in the film can be compared with the disappearance of Skylar Neese, a teen who was killed by two of her high school friends after driving to a remote location where they stabbed Neese to death.

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Were The Disciples Of The Ram Real (& Annabelle Connection)?

The Cult Weren’t Real, But Their Inclusion Was A Great Easter-Egg

To get a bit more information on the witch’s totem that they find beneath the possessed David Glatzels’ home in The Conjuring 3, Ed and Lorraine visit Father Kastner, who spent his life dedicated to researching the occult. It’s revealed that Kastner actually dealt with the Disciples of Ram, a satanic cult that wanted to bring more demons into the world and which Annabelle Higgins was a member.

This is a direct reference to to The Conjuring spin-off movie Annabelle, in which a score called “Disciples of the Ram” is also on the soundtrack, and to Annabelle: Creation. However, they are not a real satanic cult. The Conjuring films have long been focused on the cases the Warrens tackled, but there is a tremendous amount of fictional additions to every movie in the franchise that is meant to elevate the horror more than anything else. The biggest takeaway about the Disciples of the Ram mention is the connections it continues to weave within the universe no matter the movie.

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The Real Meaning Of The Conjuring 3 Ending

The Devil Made Me Do It Explores Several Themes

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has a surprising amount of thematic depth as far as movies in The Conjuring Franchise go. By focusing on the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, The Conjuring 3 ending explores the link between belief in the supernatural, exorcisms in particular, and mental health. The case was one of the most intriguing in U.S. history, and The Devil Made Me Do It put its own unique spin on it that still managed not to downplay the element that trauma played in Arne’s actions.

However, due to the introduction of The Occultist, The Conjuring 3 also managed to add thematic depth from elements that weren’t connected to the original case due to the character being fictitious. The Occultist, Isla, made a demonic pact that she then had to make good on to save her soul — a clear allegory for the dangers of greed and lusting for power.

Faith is also, as in all The Conjuring movies, a key theme too. This time, the fact that spiritual faith and love for one’s family can sometimes be at odds. This is clearly demonstrated by Kastner and his having to raise Isla in secret, and his love for her causing him to forgo his faith in God entirely and look the other way while she convened with evil entities.

Could The Warrens Return In The Conjuring 4?

A Sequel To The Devil Made Me Do It Is Concerned

The Warrens went through the wringer in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Ed suffered a major heart attack that deteriorated his health further. Meanwhile, Lorraine was physically assaulted by the demonic presence wielded by The Occultist, nearly falling over a cliff. She also came very close to being killed by Ed, who was under the influence of Isla’s curse at the time.

The Conjuring films have followed the Warrens for a decade by the time of the latest film’s events. But, considering the couple is still going strong in the films despite some setbacks, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It leaves the door open for a fourth installment.

The film is set in 1981, so it’s possible The Conjuring 4 could tackle the Smurl haunting next, with Janet and Jack Smurl claiming they were being terrorized by a demonic horde; Ed later suggested there was also a succubus, a type of demon, existing inside the house. Ed and Lorraine Warren got involved in 1986, and it was another case that was heavily publicized following their involvement with Arne Johnson’s murder case. The Smurl haunting is only one of many the fourth film could explore.

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Everything We Know About The Conjuring 4

Details On The Sequel Are Scarce

It’s no secret that The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It absolutely rocked the box office when it released via theaters and streaming on HBO Max in the summer of 2021. The highly-anticipated horror film grossed $24.01 million during its opening weekend and also had the third-largest box office opening during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. Details surrounding the next Conjuring film are relatively scant, though it is confirmed, and, there are a few things about it that can be surmised.

A truly crucial element behind the success of another sequel would be Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga returning as Ed and Lorraine Warren. After all, the actors can’t simply be replaced now that they have become the faces of the ultra-popular horror franchise. While it hasn’t been discussed publicly yet, it’s very likely that The Conjuring 4 will feature Ed and Lorraine Warren again, with their roles reprised by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively.

Other elements about the new movie remain up in the air. James Wan directed the first two Conjuring films before passing the torch to Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona), so it’s not known who will be sitting in the director’s chair. There’s no word about a possible release date or plot details, but it’s likely that The Conjuring 4 will cover another high-profile Warren case, like that of the aforementioned Smurl haunting. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is yet another installment to the most profitable horror franchise of all time, and the ending is just as chilling as the rest of the film.