In 2021, the third installment of the franchise, ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’, drew inspiration from a chilling true story of evil. The film was based on the first person in the US to use the defense of “the devil made me do it” in a murder case. This Halloween, Netflix will delve deeper into this true story with the premiere of ‘The Devil on Trial’ on October 17, 2023.

The documentary explores the first and only time that “demonic possession” was officially used as a defense in a US murder trial. It includes firsthand accounts of alleged devil possession and shocking murder, compelling viewers to contemplate their fear of the unknown.

The case revolves around one of the most sensational murder trials of the 1980s. Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who stabbed an acquaintance to death with a five-inch folding knife, presented an astonishing legal defense: not guilty by virtue of demonic possession. Johnson’s eerie journey began when his girlfriend’s eleven-year-old brother, David, encountered a spectral figure at the foot of his bed. David subsequently displayed signs of demonic possession, speaking in Latin, levitating, and enduring beatings from an invisible demon. After a team of Catholic priests failed to exorcise the demon, the case was taken up by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens, renowned demonologists, had faced malevolent entities worldwide, but the Connecticut Devil proved to be one of their greatest challenges, and possibly their most perilous.

Directed by Christopher Holt, this upcoming feature documentary promises to shed light on this chilling and enigmatic chapter in American legal history.