MOVIE INFO
The Devil on Trial explores the first -- and only -- time "demonic possession" has officially been used as a defense in a US murder trial. Including firsthand accounts of alleged devil possession and a shocking murder, this extraordinary story forces reflection on our fear of the unknown.
Genre: Crime, Documentary, Horror
Original Language: English
Director: Christopher Holt
Producer: Hattie Bridges Webb
Writer: Christopher Holt
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 17, 2023
Runtime: 1h 21m
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date17 October 2023
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime, Documentary, Horror
CastArne Cheyenne Johnson, Foster Hamilton, Susannah Spearin, Adam Hunt, Victor Serfaty, Kathy Rupcic, Raine Van Elsacker
DirectorChris Holt
WriterChris Holt
CinematographyBrendan McGinty
ProducerHattie Bridges Webb
ProductionDorothy Street Pictures
Certificate16+
About The Devil on Trial Movie (2023)
A horror documentary about a 1980s murder trial, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson murdered his landlord Alan Bono on the evening of February 16, 1981, claiming, "The devil made me do it."
“My name is David Glatzel. When I was 11, I was possessed by the devil.” Opening lines don’t get better than this, but it’s a pity that Netflix’s The Devil on Trial isn’t able to live up to their promise. A retelling of the real-life events that inspired the third Conjuring film — a week from now, Apple will release a similar project about the true story behind the second Conjuring — the film is a slapdash, surface-level examination of a truly fascinating modern American tragedy.
When the 11-year-old David began displaying erratic behaviour in the year 1980, his seemingly regular family decided that it must be the doing of the devil. David’s mother summoned the infamous demonologist duo Ed and Lorraine Warren, who had the unique knack of becoming associated with that era’s most talked-about paranormal stories, including the Amityville haunting, the Annabelle curse, and the Enfield poltergeist. Based on their own five-step metre to gauge such incidents — permission, infestation, oppression, possession, destruction — the Warrens estimated that David was already on step three.
Also read | Depp v Heard review: Inconsiderate new Netflix series flogs a dead horse, treats Johnny Depp and Amber Heard like zoo animals They reached out to their associates in the Catholic Church, and after filling out the necessary paperwork — who knew that expunging your soul of demons required you to briefly turn into Mussadi Lal — arranged for a ‘minor’ exorcism to be performed on David. During the ritual, a family friend invited the devil to try him on for size and leave the boy alone, a twist that even the seasoned Warrens weren’t prepared for. They declared that it was absolutely the wrong thing to do, seeing as it violated step one of their guidelines: permission. The family friend, David’s sister’s boyfriend Arne, appeared unaffected in the moment, but would later murder an acquaintance in cold blood. His trial became known as the “Devil Made Me Do It” case, because it was the first known court case in America in which demonic possession was used as a defence. It’s all malarkey, of course. And the movie knows it, which is why it’s so strange for it to pretend otherwise for a full hour. Director Chris Holt rounds up the remaining members of the Glatzer family, including David and his two estranged brothers, the convict Arne, the detective who investigated the murder, and a random priest who appears to have changed divine allegiances over the years. But he takes a unidimensional approach to a story that is practically begging for a more careful telling.
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