Der Teufel auf der Anklagebank

A young boy is apparently being possessed by a demon. David sees visions, hears things, sounds demonic, and needs an intervention from the Catholic church. A murder happens, and an interesting defence is put forward.

I'm not totally convinced here, it was a watchable hour or so, but it didn't really have a lot of meat on the bone as it were. Sure it's out in time for Halloween, but the wonderfully imagery doesn't quite tell the whole story, yes it's about possession, but it's very talky.

Your enjoyment level is going to depend on where you sit on the whole debate of demons and possessions being real or not. I looked for a plausible solution, for me it felt as though were presented with a very credible one.

Let's applaud it for not being made into a six part series, it's pretty brief, and there is some interesting content, and some startling footage. You will see heavy influences for horror films, those were interesting to spot.

Sominex, wow that advert was quite something, that was a pretty unexpected twist.

6/10.

The entire first hour of this documentary plays out like a horror film, and when I realized early on that it's a re-imagining of the third Conjuring film, the events were less impactful. I'd read about the Glatzel case at the time, and while it seemed interesting from a cinematic perspective, I doubt there was enough material for it to be explored as a matter-of-fact documentary. But here, the makers chose not to go that route and spent almost 55-60 minutes detailing supernatural events that may or may not have happened, with scenes re-created in the style of a typical horror flick (replete with jumpscares).

It's only the final 20 minutes or so, that the titular case comes under question. The demonic possession plea was never accepted to begin with, and therefore, it really has no value in any of the proceedings. What did surprise me is how Netflix also decided to question the Warrens' approach to media and money-making when it has several films from The Conjuring universe in its catalog. That, to me, was an interesting take.

I am house sitting for a week, flicking through the horror films on Netflix I have already seen most of them but this feature length documentary caught my eye for something to watch. With a running time of about 80 minutes it felt ideal for a watch before going to bed. It certainly didn't give me nightmares though! This concerns the apparently true story back in 1980 where 11 year old David Glatzel becomes possessed by a demon whilst he is helping his big sister movie into her new home(!). Her boyfriend Arne then becomes possessed and kills his landlord. During the trial his defence sought to prove him innocent based upon him being possessed by a demon. He was convicted of first degree manslaughter. Famous (or should that be infamous?) paranormal investigators Ed and his wife Lorraine Warren helped with the case. The film includes real sound recordings that they made of David but to me they sound far from convincing. David and his brothers Alan and Carl are each filmed talking about the case over 40 years later. David is convinced that he really was possessed, Carl says that it was a hoax and he's certainly get my vote for who to believe. If you are interested in the paranormal or the Warrens and their legacy (The Conjuring movies etc) then it is worth a watch. If like me you are sceptical of such matters then chances are it will only re-enforce your disbelief in the paranormal.

The Devil On Trial might be interesting for people that liked The Conjuring. I'm one of them that enjoy that kind of stories. Do I believe all those things really happened? To be honest, not really, and this documentary turns more towards that way towards the end. Overall it's well made, the re-enactment looks believable, but I doubt that The Warrens are what they say they are. To me they look like conmen in this documentary and because of that all The Conjuring movies look more unrealistic from now on. The Devil On Trial is just for people that like easy entertainment, in this case a horror story based on true or false events. That's up to you to decide.

It was a very interesting and beautiful documentary. I really enjoyed watching it. When you watch it, you think you're watching a documentary, but you think you're watching a horror movie. In my opinion, this is the first documentary that brought the world of summoning into question. I want to say that this documentary was one of the beautiful supernatural documentaries that I saw. I wish they would make a documentary about the rest of the Summoning series so that the world would be more aware of supernatural events and realize that demons and demons exist just as we do. And finally, if you think that there are no demons and that the movies that start with a lie to make more money, watch this documentary, that all these movies are not like this, and some of the movies and series are really true stories.