Culture Representation: Taking place in the U.S. state of Georgia, the dramatic film “The Christmas Ring” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A widowed mother searches for a precious ring that has been a family heirloom for generations, and her search leads her to a jewelry store owned by a father and a son, who have very different intentions for the ring.
Culture Audience: “The Christmas Ring” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and sappy romance movies that have low-quality filmmaking and unimpressive performances.
Kelsey Grammer in “The Christmas Ring” (Photo courtesy of Fathom Entertainment)
“The Christmas Ring” looks as authentic as a counterfeit trinket found at the bottom of a junkpile. This subpar, sluggish, and extremely predictable romantic drama belongs on the Hallmark Channel but instead was released first in cinemas as a blatant cash grab. This greed is the opposite attitude of what this treacly slog of a movie is preaching.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a predictable love story. But when it’s made into a fake-looking movie where the would-be couple has no convincing chemistry, and there’s too much cringeworthy acting from most of the cast members, it all becomes a time-wasting bore. There is absolutely nothing about this movie that has any spark of originality or compelling performances.
Directed by Tyler Russell, “The Christmas Ring” was co-written by Russell and Karen Kingsbury. The adapted screenplay is based on Kingsbury’s 2025 novel “The Christmas Ring.” The movie takes place in the Georgia cities of Marietta and Columbus. “The Christmas Ring” was actually filmed in Tennessee.
“The Christmas Ring” begins with voiceover narration from Vanessa Mayfield (played by Jana Kramer) with black-and-white footage re-enacting something that Vanessa says happened during World War II. Vanessa explains that a young U.S. Air Force pilot named Bill Bailey (played by Kyle Kupecky) was shot down in France during his World War II combat. Bill discovered a ring on the ground and kept it as a sign of hope that he would make it out of alive.
This antique ring has a gold band with diamonds encircling a ruby at the center of the ring. The ring has one word inscribed on it. It’s the most obvious word in a romance story, but the movie makes it look like finding out this one-word inscription will be a big mystery to solve. When the word is revealed, it’s done in a hokey way that is very underwhelming in this no-suspense story.
Bill made it out alive from World War II, and the ring became a family heirloom. Bill was also Vanessa’s great-grandfather. Vanessa is the widowed mother of a daughter named Sadie Mayfield (played by Megan Ashley Brown), who is in her late teens. Sadie is the only child of Vanessa, who lives in Columbus, Georgia. Sadie will soon be leaving home to attend her first year of college. Vanessa’s late husband Alan was a U.S. Army medic who was killed on duty three years ago.
Three years ago, after her husband died, Vanessa accidentally lost the family heirloom ring when she went skiing with Sadie. Vanessa says in the voiceover that losing this ring was one of the biggest mistakes she ever made. She’s been looking for the ring ever since. Vanessa has used the Internet for her search. But she’s also been looking for the ring in the old-fashioned way: by going to stores and shops in person to see if they have the ring.
One day, Vanessa is in Marietta, Georgia, when she goes into a store called Miller’s Antiques. The store is owned by widower Harold Miller (played by Kelsey Grammer) and his widower son Ben Miller (played by Benjamin Hollingsworth), who is about the same age as Vanessa. Ben has no children. Ben’s wife Clara died seven years ago. Harold’s wife died four years ago.
Vanessa meets Harold and Ben during this visit. The shop doesn’t have the ring that she’s searching for, but romantic sparks fly between Ben and Vanessa, who find out that they’re both widowed, and they flirt with each other. Vanessa and Ben exchange contact information and immediately start having a platonic friendship online and through phone conversations. This relationship stretches for five months into the Christmas holiday season, when most of the movie takes place.
With all these widowed people in this story, isn’t anyone divorced? Apparently not, because divorced people just don’t exist in this faith-based movie that’s obviously targeted to audiences who believe divorce is a stigma. Vanessa’s two best friends are also military widows: Leigh (played by Jessie James Decker) and Maria (played by Debbie Winans), who are this story’s version of a gossipy Greek chorus. Leigh and Maria gawk and giggle like teenagers when they talk about Vanessa’s inevitable romance with Ben.
The movie is filled with dreadfully dull dialogue that can put even the most die-hard romantic to sleep. Howard notices Ben’s attraction to Vanessa and says to him: “For what it’s worth, Ben, your mother and I always believed you’ll find love again.” Ben says with all the romantic enthusiasm of a worn-down pencil: “I’m starting to believe it.”
Vanessa is reluctant to tell Sadie about Ben because Vanessa says Ben is “just a friend.” Leigh and Maria don’t believe that Ben and Vanessa have only platonic feelings for each other. Sadie is busy at college and has a military boyfriend named Hudson (played by Austin Robert Russell), who is on active duty. Hudson is still alive because he and Sadie aren’t married. If you’re one of the main characters in this story, and you’ve been married, your spouse is now dead.
Meanwhile, the long-lost ring ends up at a certain store, where the ring is set to be sold for $25,000. Both of the store owners find out that the ring is Vanessa’s family heirloom. One of the store owners wants to sell the ring. The other store owner doesn’t want the ring to be sold and thinks it should be given back to Vanessa. Again: Don’t bother looking for any surprises in this drivel. It’s all so basic and uninspired, it’s really an insult to viewers’ intelligence.
There’s also a subplot about Vanessa being the president of a charity called Columbus Cares, which is having its big Christmas fundraising gala. In other words, this is an event where you know some type of spectacle will happen involving the story’s couple who are afraid to tell each other “I love you.” It goes without saying that Ben and Vanessa have a very chaste romance, so don’t expect anything sexual or scandalous to happen in this movie.
A too-long stretch of “The Christmas Ring” is Vanessa’s monotonous charade of trying to prevent Sadie from finding out about Vanessa’s relationship with Ben, even though you know that Sadie will eventually find out before Vanessa actually tells her. Sadie isn’t an underage kid who needs to be “protected” from the realities of her widowed mother dating someone. Sadie is an adult, but Vanessa seems to think Sadie is too young to handle knowing that Vanessa might have a boyfriend. It’s all so tiresome and corny.
And then there’s the typical romantic story cliché of one person in the couple who wants the relationship to be more romantically committed than the other person, which leads to tensions, arguments, and a probable estrangement. This conflict will then lead to a dramatic moment in the movie where true feelings are confessed. And you know the rest.
“The Christmas Ring” is obviously meant to be a heartwarming holiday romance story. But the story and the way this movie was made is so cynical and lazy in how it treats its audience like idiots, it’s likely to annoy some viewers who can see right through this uncreative sludge. People who want to get into the holiday spirit are better off doing something useful for a good charitable cause instead of wasting any time or money on this bland and lackluster movie.
Fathom Entertainment released “The Christmas Ring” in U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement from November 6 to November 20, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 28, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1981, the horror sequel “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Hispanics) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A husband and a wife, who are well-known demonologists/paranormal investigators, get involved in a murder case to try to prove that the defendant was possessed by an evil spirit when he committed the murder.
Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of people who are fans of “The Conjuring” franchise, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” will appeal to people who are interested in horror movies that blend the supernatural with real-life legal drama.
Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor, Vince Pisani, Sarah Catherine Hook and Patrick Wilson in “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
How much people might enjoy “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” will depend on how much they can tolerate “The Conjuring” universe taking a “Law & Order”-like turn in this particular sequel. That’s because demonologist/paranormal investigator spouses Ed Warren (played by Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Wilson (played by Vera Farmiga) go beyond the typical haunted house/exorcism storylines of previous “The Conjuring” movies and get involved in a murder case to the point where the Warrens are investigating crime scenes like detectives and giving legal advice like attorneys.
It has the potential to make “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” a convoluted mess. But somehow, it all works out to be a satisfying horror thriller that makes up for its predictability with good performances, some terrifying visual effects and overall suspenseful pacing. The movie also has some unexpected touches of humor and romance that take some of the edge off this grim and gruesome story.
Directed by Michael Chaves and written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (also known as “The Conjuring 3”) is inspired by a true story from the case files of the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren. The case was about Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who stabbed his 40-year-old landlord to death in Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1981, when Johnson was 19 years old. Johnson admitted to the stabbing but pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
His defense? The devil made him do it. Johnson claimed that during the stabbing, he had been possessed by the devil, which entered his body a few months before, during an exorcism of an 11-year-old boy named David Glatzel, who happened to be the younger brother of Arne’s girlfriend Debbie Glatzel. It was the first known U.S. murder case where demonic possession was used as a defense argument.
In real life, the Warrens got involved in the case because they were at this exorcism that was the catalyst for this tragic turn of events. And the Warrens ended up testifying on behalf of Johnson. (The trial doesn’t happen until toward the end of the movie.)
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” begins with an effectively horrifying re-enactment of the exorcism of David Glatzel (played by Julian Hilliard), which takes place in the movie at the Glatzel home on July 18, 1981. In the movie, David is 8 years old, not 11. Ed and Lorraine Warren are at the exorcism, along with Arne (played by Ruairi O’Connor) and Arne’s live-in girlfriend Debbie (played by Sarah Catherine Hook), who have a very loyal and loving relationship.
Arne and Debbie are both in their late teens and live in another house in Brookfield. Also at the exorcism are David and Debbie’s father Carl Glatzel (played by Paul Wilson); David and Debbie’s mother Judy Glatzel (played by Charlene Amoia); and the Warrens’ videographer/assistant Drew Thomas (played by Shannon Kook), who is filming this exorcism.
When the movie begins, it’s implied that the exorcism has been going on for hours, with David showing ebbs and flows in his demonic possession. At one point, David has reached such a state of exhaustion that Arne takes David up to David’s bedroom to tuck the boy into bed. Arne is depicted as a mild-mannered and polite person.
Arne tells David, “You’re one brave kid. I was a little runt growing up, so I know what it’s like to be picked on, but that was nothing compared to what you’re going through.” David says, “I don’t feel very brave.” Arne replies, “Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you’re scared, but you’re hanging in there. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
David then says, “Arne when are you going to ask my sister to marry you?” Arne replies with a slightly embarrassed tone, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Despite this friendly banter, there’s a lingering sense of danger in the air. Arne looks outside David’s bedroom window and sees that a priest has arrived by taxi.
The priest is Father Gordon (played by Steve Coulter), who will be the official exorcist for David. Whatever evil spirits are around seem to know that a clergy person is there, because all hell breaks loose soon after the arrival of Father Gordon. David starts attacking like a demon child, beginning with stabbing his father in the leg. He goes through various contortions. And the inside of the house begins to look like a full-force tornado with swirling gusts of evil.
During this chaos, possessed David attacks Ed, who is knocked down on the ground. Arne sees that the demon won’t leave David’s body, so Arne grabs the possessed child and shouts at the demon: “Leave him alone and take me!” And not long after that, David calms down, but Arne won’t be the same. And neither will Ed, because he’s had a heart attack during this exorcism.
It’s a powerful way to begin the movie, which grabs viewers’ attention from this opening sequence and keeps this heightened level of tension throughout the film. David seems to be “cured,” but Arne starts having nightmarish visions. There’s a sinister-looking woman (played by Eugenie Bondurant) who keeps appearing in the visions, with a clear intent to harm Arne. For example, the first time that she attacks Arne, she starts to strangle him, but he’s able to stop it when he comes out of his trance.
At first, Arne doesn’t tell anyone about his visions because he doesn’t want people to think that he’s crazy. But then, things happen to the point where he can no longer keep it a secret that strange things have been happening to him. It’s eventually revealed in the movie who this evil-looking woman is and her ultimate malicious intent.
Ed’s heart attack lands him in a hospital emergency room. He’s eventually released, but he has to use a wheelchair for a good deal of the story. Over time (this movie takes place over a six-month period, from May to November 1981), Ed doesn’t need the wheelchair anymore, but he has to use a cane. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” includes a flashback to May 1981, when the Glatzels moved into the home that appears to be where the family first encountered the demon, which attacked David in a memorable scene involving a water bed.
Meanwhile, Arne and Debbie are trying to get their lives back to normal. Arne works for a tree service company, and Debbie works for Brookfield Boarding Kennels, a pet service company that’s located inside a two-story house. Debbie and Arne live in the house rent-free as part of her job. It’s a house that’s filled with barking dogs kept in cages when they’re inside.
In a conversation that takes place after the exorcism, Arne suggests to Debbie that they move away from Brookfield. He also drops hints that they should eventually get married. Debbie seems reluctant to move away from Brookfield because she and Arne can’t really afford to move yet and she doesn’t want to live too far away from her family. However, she tells Arne that she’ll think about it.
The owner of Brookfield Boarding Kennels is a creepy drunk named Bruno Salz (played by Ronnie Gene Blevins), who has an underpaid Debbie doing most of the work. She’s very responsible and caring in her job, where she’s essentially the manager and bookkeeper for the business. And that’s another reason why Debbie doesn’t really want to move: She’s afraid that the dogs won’t be taken care of very well if flaky Bruno is left in charge of the kennel.
Bruno has been pestering Arne to repair Bruno’s broken stereo in the house’s living room. And one day, when the stereo is repaired, Bruno decides to crank up the music and have an impromptu party with Debbie, Arne and plenty of alcohol. Bruno plays Blondie’s “Call Me” full blast on the stereo and starts dancing with an uncomfortable-looking Debbie. (“Call Me” will be featured in another part of the movie too.)
Suddenly, Arne seems to be losing touch with reality. And this is where he’s supposed to be possessed by the demon. There’s an almost psychedelic nightmare that’s depicted on screen. And by the end, it’s revealed that Bruno was stabbed to death by Arne. (The stabbing is never shown on screen.) The murder in the movie takes place in September 1981, but in real life, the murder happened on February 16, 1981. It was the first murder in Brookfield’s history.
In a daze, Arne walks down a deserted road, with blood on his hands and clothes. A police officer (played by Chris Greene) in a patrol car stops to ask Arne what’s going on. And that’s when Arne says, “I think I hurt someone.” Arne is arrested for Bruno’s murder. And guess who’s coming back to Brookfield to investigate?
Fans of mystery solving will appreciate the added storyline of Ed and Lorraine Warren doing a lot of detective-like investigating, as the Warrens dig deep to find out the origins of this evil spirit that seems to have taken possession of Arne. In the movie, the demon isn’t inside of Arne all of the time. Arne is placed in the psychiatric ward in the local jail, and he’s a fairly passive prisoner most of the time. But there are moments when the demon comes back to haunt and possibly harm Arne.
In the movie, the Warrens are depicted as being the ones to convince Arne’s defense attorney Meryl (played by Ashley LeConte Campbell) to use demonic possession as a defense argument for Arne. It’s an unprecedented legal strategy that Meryl is convinced won’t work, until Ed and Lorraine show the attorney what they found in their demonologist research over the years. Debbie and the rest of the Glatzel family fully believe that Arne was possessed when he killed Bruno, so the Glatzels are supportive of Arne before and during the trial.
The Warrens take it upon themselves to help gather evidence for this case, but they also want to see if they can get rid of this demonic spirit that they believe exists. The Warrens’ investigation leads them to Danvers, Massachusetts, where they find out how the mysterious case of two teenage girls who were best friends is somehow connected to Arne’s case.
The teenagers are named Katie Lincoln (played by Andrea Andrade) and Jessica Louise Strong (played by Ingrid Bisu), who went missing in May 1981. Katie was found murdered, while Jessica is still missing. The Warrens also track down a former priest whose last name is Kastner (played by John Noble), who might have some answers about this particular demon.
Along the way, Ed and Lorraine also get help from a jail priest named Father Newman (played by Vince Pisani) and a police detective in Danvers named Sergeant Clay (played by Keith Arthur Bolden), who is skeptical at first about helping the Warrens. But then, things happen that change Sergeant Clay’s mind. The movie has a few far-fetched things in the story, such as Sergeant Clay being willing to share his case files with Ed and Lorraine, when in reality that’s a serious breach of police protocol.
And some of the horror scenes are over-the-top with visual effects happening in a very “only in a movie” way, instead of depicting what the real exorcisms probably looked like. The amount of body contortions alone would break bones and put someone in a hospital. But elaborate scare spectacles are what people who watch horror movies like this expect to see.
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” delivers in a way that’s effectively chilling but not as disturbing as 1973’s “The Exorcist,” the gold standard for exorcism movies. However, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” is a vast improvement over director Chaves’ feature-film directorial debut: the bland 2019 horror flick “The Curse of La Llorona.” Because of Arne’s murder trial, there’s a lot more at stake than the usual attempts to rid a person or a house of an evil spirit.
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” is also helped by a suitably convincing production design (by Jennifer Spence), which involves a lot of dusty, dark and unsettling places. And it’s easy to see why the movie changed the seasonal time period to the late summer/early autumn, instead of winter, because cinematographer Michael Burgess effectively uses a lot of autumn-like brown and gold for the exterior shots to contrast with the black and gray of the biggest horror scenes in the film. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” would have looked like a very different movie if it took place in the winter.
Viewers will also see little bit more backstory to Ed and Lorraine’s relationship. In brief romantic flashback scenes, it’s shown how the couple met: Thirty years prior, when Ed and Lorraine were both 17 years old, Lorraine (played by Megan Ashley Brown) went with some friends to a movie theater, where Ed (played by Mitchell Hoog) was working as an usher. It was attraction at first sight, and they began dating shortly afterward.
The movie doesn’t have these scenes as filler. Lorraine is reminiscing about this courtship because of Ed’s near-death scare with his heart attack. It’s caused her to reflect on their longtime relationship. And it’s made the couple appreciate their marriage and partnership even more.
But the movie also has a few touches of comic relief, by showing some of the personal dynamics between this longtime married couple. There are some subtle references to the gender roles that were and still are expected of couples who work together. In “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” Lorraine has to take charge of much of the literal physical legwork in the investigation because of Ed’s recovery from his heart attack.
In a scene where Ed and Lorraine want to investigate a cellar in the Glatzel house, Ed (who is using a cane) realistically won’t be able to crawl around in the cellar. However, Ed tells Lorraine, who tends to dress like a prim and proper schoolteacher: “Honey, let me handle it. You’re going to ruin your dress if you go in there … Be careful.” With an “I can handle it” expression on her face, Lorraine calmly says, “Just hold my purse,” as she hands her purse to Ed. It’s a very realistic and hilarious moment that says it all about how women are often underestimated by men.
The film also shows Ed’s frustration at not being able to physically move around in the way that he’s been used to for all of his life. His anxiety isn’t portrayed in a heavy-handed way, but it’s a nod to the lifestyle adjustments that people who’ve been able-bodied have to go through when they find themselves disabled, even if it’s a temporary disabled condition. Ed does some griping about it, but not in a way that’s too self-pitying.
In a scene where Ed and Lorraine leave a courthouse after a preliminary hearing for Arne, observant viewers will notice that Ed needs to be carried in his wheelchair down the courtroom steps. It’s because the story takes place nine years before the Americans With Disabilities Act made it federal law in 1990 for buildings to provide reasonable access for disabled people. Nowadays, a courtroom building with outdoor steps, such as the building depicted in the movie, is also supposed to have ramps for people who use wheelchairs or walkers.
Since the first “The Conjuring” movie was released in 2013, Farmiga and Wilson have settled into these roles with a charming familiarity. Lorraine is the more level-headed and articulate one in this couple, while Ed (and his East Coast dialect slang) is the more approachable and down-to-earth spouse. Farmiga and Wilson are believable as a couple with a very deep love and respect for each other.
The rest of the cast members are perfectly fine in their roles, but the characters that are new to “The Conjuring” franchise for this movie were clearly written as only for this movie. The character of Arne is a little on the generic side, but O’Connor does an admirable job of conveying Arne’s inner turmoil. Bondurant’s role as the mystery woman who’s been plaguing Arne definitely brings a menacing aura to the movie, but she hardly says anything, so her presence is literally more muted than it needs to be.
Make no mistake: Ed and Lorraine Warren are the main characters for viewers to be the most invested in emotionally. In “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” Lorraine’s psychic abilities are a major part of the story. People might have mixed feelings about how these psychic visions are depicted in the movie and how much of this real-life case was embellished into a Hollywood version.
But just like the rest of the story, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” isn’t about trying to explain a lot of things that can’t be explained by scientific facts. Whether or not viewers believe that demonic spirits exist, “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” succeeds in providing plenty of memorable horror that makes it a worthy part of “The Conjuring” universe.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” in U.S. cinemas and on HBO Max on June 4, 2021. The movie was released in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2021.
