Many, including family members of David Glatzel, have alleged that the exorcism and demon possession story featured in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was all just an elaborate hoax. What happened to Glatzel wasn’t the film’s focus, but it did kick off the main plot, which involved Arne Johnson (Ruairi O'Connor) being forced into murder by a demonic curse. What started it all was Arne’s role in the exorcism of his girlfriend’s younger brother, David Glatzel.
Played by Julian Hilliard, David was possessed by an evil entity that Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) struggled to purge from his body. To save the boy, Arne permitted the spirit to leave David and enter him instead, thus saving the child but plunging him into a murder trial. Much of what transpired afterwards, such as the fight with the Occultist (Eugenia Bondurant), was fictionalized, but the Glatzel portion of the story originated from Arne Johnson and the Warrens’ real-life accounts of what happened, as well as a tape that supposedly contains audio of the actual exorcism.
Though the Warrens, Debbie Glatzel, and Arne Johnson have long maintained that these events are true, they’re not accepted by all parties involved. Carl Glatzel, David’s brother, has said for years that the story was fabricated. When the book about the incident, The Devil in Connecticut, received a reprint in 2006, both Carl and David sued her in 2007 on the grounds that the book violated their privacy and caused “emotional distress”. Afterward, Carl spoke with the Associated Press in an interview and argued that David wasn’t possessed by demons. According to him, David’s problems were related to his mental health, and not supernatural in any way. Some have discounted Carl's viewpoints, in light of the fact that the book paints Carl in a negative light.
Carl’s argument was that Ed and Lorraine Warren took advantage of his family because they saw a “gold mine”, while Lorraine’s position is that it was actually Carl who was trying to make a profit with his lawsuit. The book’s author, Gerald Brittle, said he wrote it using approved quotes and stories from the Glatzel family, who were paid $2,000 by the publisher. However, Carl and David’s father, Carl Glatzel, Sr., said in 2007 that he in fact never told Brittle that David was possessed. The case was ultimately dismissed, but the book was still removed from print, with Brittle saying that he was motivated to do so because he had become “fed up” with Carl.
As for David himself, since the events in The Conjuring 3 he has avoided putting himself in the limelight so his exact thoughts on the matter are unclear, but Carl has revealed that though David had a hard time dealing with all the attention, his mental health has since recovered. Carl hasn’t spoken much about the controversy as of late, but he did reiterate past statements when he told the Hartford Courant that the supposed hoax put him and his family through a “living hell”. His issue with the story and the Warrens is likely the reason why he wasn’t included in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’s exorcism scene.
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