‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ Originally Set Up Another Spin-Off Film – Here’s Why Director Michael Chaves Cut It
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do Itis very different from the two mainConjuringentries that came before. For one thing, ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick WilsonandVera Farmiga) aren’t dealing with a haunted house this time. They’re also up against a human antagonist. On top of all that, unlike the two otherConjuringfilms,The Devil Made Me Do Itdoesn’t explicitly set up a spin-off character.The Conjuringhad Annabelle,The Conjuring 2had the Nun. ButThe Conjuring 3avoids setting up a spinoff altogether.
But that wasn’t always the case. When I spoke withThe Devil Made Me Do ItdirectorMichael Chaves, he revealed that an earlier cut of the filmdidset up a spinoff character – but that character ended up on the cutting room floor.
A Deleted Demon
The Devil Made Me Do Itworks perfectly fine without setting up a spinoff, but it’s fun to ponder “what if?”
“I haven’t said this to many people, so this is [an exclusive],” Michael Chaves told me when I interviewed him about the film:
“We actually did have what we thought was going to be the new [spin-off] demon, and this is something that was true to the story. We had a demon that was full-on pulled from little David’s interview and description. Arnie said he saw the same thing. And it felt like this was going to be the iconic demon. And [producerJamesWan] was with this from the very beginning – James, Monster Maestro. And we shot it. We had a cut of the film with this demon in it. The demon worked with Occultist [memorably played in the movie byEugenie Bondurant]. It was the two of them together.”
So what happened? According to Chaves, having the demon working with the Occultist made the movie too complicated. “We’re introducing a human adversary, which was the first time that’s ever happened in theConjuringUniverse,” the filmmaker said. “So all of a sudden, [the] relationship [between the Occultist and the demon] seemed a little hinky.”
Chaves said that while they were making the movie, he was positive the demon character was going to be the next to get its ownConjuringspinoff. “[But] sometimes they just don’t quite click,” Chaves said, adding that there’s some precedent for this inThe Conjuringsaga:
“The same thing happened inThe Conjuring 2. The Nun was actually totally created in reshoots. The Nun didn’t exist before. There was another demon in [Conjuring 2] that the Nun replaced. And so we were in a similar situation where we had this story, [and] it was getting a little too complicated. The demon just wasn’t quite connecting.”
The Demon Actor is Still in the Film – as a Human
Chaves added that he felt bad forDavis Osborne, the actor who played the now-deleted demon. Thankfully, they were able to give Osborne another role – a patient in the prison infirmary who taunts Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), a young man driven to murder by demonic possession. “The guy who played the demon, incredible actor, this guy Davis Osborne,” Chaves told me:
“We brought him back and he’s actually the infirmary patient [who torments Arne Johnson in prison]. He did a great job in that. I was so happy. I felt so bad, my heart broke because I was like, ‘Man, you did such a great job with that demon, but it does not work in the movie.’ And so we figured out a way to still bring him back. But I think it goes to show the way these movies are made, and the flexibility of it.”
In the end, Chaves said he was “proud” hisConjuringfilm didn’t include a set-up for a spin-off, while adding that there are still elements inThe Devil Made Me Do Itthat could influence futureConjuringentries. “What I actually am so proud of is that [with] this story, we were already taking a step out of the familiar format,” the director said. “And New Line, James, everybody was on board with that. Our first plan didn’t quite work, and we could adjust it, and tell the very best story with what we had. And I’m actually very proud that this doesn’t have that obvious spin-off. [But] I think that there’s a lot of threads you may pull. I think there is still a lot of room for where [the franchise] could go.”
