It isn’t for me to say whether Arne Cheyenne Johnson really killed his landlord Alan Bono because he was possessed by a demon, as his lawyers tried to argue in a landmark 1981 trial in Connecticut known as the “devil made me do it” case. But on the basis of the spurious, crudely sensational documentary “The Devil on Trial,” it isn’t for the director, Christopher Holt, to say what really happened, either.
The film strives to present a credible account of a disturbing story, which also involves the supposed possession of a young boy and an exorcism conducted under the guidance of the self-declared ghost hunters and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren — events loosely depicted onscreen in “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” a fictionalized account.
The story is that Johnson accidentally summoned the demon possessing the child to enter his own body, igniting the mayhem that followed.
While the documentary’s opening credits insist that “all the audio recordings and photographs” used are real, the film appears to have little interest in the truth and even less in reportorial integrity.
The photographs, which purport to show evidence of possession, have been so heavily filtered and processed that “real” seems misleading. The old, garbled audio recordings are not compelling testimony either, and the filmmakers know it: They’ve goosed them up with sound effects and dramatic theme music.
Firsthand accounts of the events from Johnson and others are used as fodder for slick re-enactments, which is where Holt really goes to town: Houses shake, lights shudder and shadowy figures lurk mysteriously, all in the style of a third-rate horror movie. The desperation to be scary, rather than engaging or provocative, is an intellectual failure, and an artistic one — a failure of imagination. Instead of challenging assumptions, exploring implications or discussing the difficult questions here, Holt merely mines the material for superficial shock value and lurid titillation.
The Devil on Trial
Rated TV-MA for disturbing imagery and violence. Running time: 1 hour 21 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
Calum Marsh
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