The Witch), or some combination of the three. In this way, pop culture is catching up with the beliefs of actual satanists, the majority of whom don’t believe in Satan as a literal entity to be feared
or worshipped. Not so
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, a movie that’s as deathly serious as The Louvin Brothers when they sang “Satan Is Real” in 1960.
Although the possession subgenre is inherently Christian if demons are real, then therefore so is God
The Conjuring’s literal-minded approach has always made it especially so. As A.A. Dowd wrote in his review of the latest entry, in these films “good is good, evil is evil, and the difference can’t be missed,” and it can’t be denied, either. There’s a holy war going on, and Bible-thumpers Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are on the front lines. Join, or burn. This fire-and-brimstone subtext remained just that when the fictionalized Warrens were battling ghosts; you don’t have to