The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was released in theaters and on HBO Max Friday looks like a victim to a case of diminishing returns, as the Conjuring movie series does not improve with each subsequent look into the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

James Wan directed the first two movies in the franchise, and the first movie at least was a deliciously scary story of a family trapped in a house with a demonic entity who called upon the Warrens, paranormal experts who are part exorcists, part ghostbusters, to restore their home to them.

Where The Conjuring was chilling and genuinely frightening, its sequel The Conjuring 2 worked with the same formula with similar, if less thrilling results. That movie, set in the British town of Enfield, introduced a new element to the storytelling, namely Lorraine’s extensive visions as a plot device to help the couple figure out how to dispose of the evil in their midst.

That device gets another workout in the newest sequel, though this time Michael Chaves (The Curse of la Llorona) takes over directorial duties from Wan. This Conjuring iteration moves beyond the haunted house setup into a different kind of movie: a crime procedural.

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as the Warrens in a by now familiar tale of possession: the couple is attempting to help a stricken young boy in need of an exorcism from series regular Father Gordon (Steve Coulter). But the exorcism goes awry when the boyfriend of the boy’s sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) invites the demon to enter him instead.

The boyfriend, Arne Cheyenne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor, The Spanish Princess) gets his wish: the demonic thing jumps ship to reside in Arne, with what seem to be no ill effects. Later, however, mild-mannered Arne commits a gruesome murder and gets arrested. The Warrens intercede with his lawyer, trying to convince her to use as a defense that the Devil made him do it, literally. She balks at the idea at first, but Warrens manage to sway her to proffer the unusual explanation.

The movie is based on a real case, though when Johnson was tried, the judge ruled that his lawyer would not be permitted to offer demonic possession as a defense. The case was a media sensation back in 1981, but neither that nor the trial are any significant part of this movie.

Instead, the film puts the Warrens in the position of having to investigate the origins of the demon possessing Arne. Lorraine finds a totem under the home of Debbie and her brother, and that leads them to Kastner, an expert in such things played by John Noble (Fringe.)

Noble basically essays his Fringe character here; he has all the creepy supernatural knowledge of Walter Bishop though without the scatterbrained distractedness. Their encounters with Kastner lead them to the big bad demonic thing they must fight, using Ed’s strength, the knowledge they get from Lorraine’s visions, and their faith in God and religion, as they always do.

And that’s where the movie lacks the edge it needs to keep the franchise fresh. The story credit for this film goes to Wan, but the screenplay was penned by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who penned The Conjuring 2 and Orphan (which also starred Farmiga.) Johnson-McGoldrick leans more towards the formulaic tropes found in the previous Conjuring entry rather than the more original scares seen in Orphan.

In the movie, as in real life, nothing can save Johnson from being convicted of the murder. However, he only serves five years of his sentence and marries Debbie, to whom he is still wed, according to the credits.

Julian Hilliard, who played one of the Maximoff boys in WandaVision, is excellent in the film as the little boy who is the first one possessed by the demon. And Farmiga and Wilson are reliably good as the married demon-hunters; this film introduces a sweet look at the beginning of their courtship and their love seems genuine and is a force for good in their lives. But like old married couples, the Conjuring franchise may have grown a little too staid over the years. If there is a Conjuring 4, it will need a serious formula shake-up to get out of its mid-life crisis.