Maybe it’s just me, but there’s nothing like a “Based on a true story” message at the start of a movie that drives a horror fan to Wikipedia afterwards. I’m guessing that I can’t be the only one who came to this book after watching James Wan’s The Conjuring, and the truth is that I picked up the book to be entertained -- more specifically, to be scared. (Ed Warren may argue that this makes me a more inviting candidate for demon visitation, or a more innocent spirit manifestation, but at least I have better weapons now.) The Demonologist is touted as a reference book for exorcists-in-training, and you can’t get more authoritative than that -- provided, of course, you give credence to the preternatural in the first place.

So is it scary? Oh, it is -- but only if you’re a believer. And by “believer” I don’t necessarily mean a devout and practicing Catholics like Ed Warren, I mean anyone who concedes even the slight possibility of people lingering on -- whether as spirits or as mere energy -- after death. If you believe this, then from there it’s a slippery slope -- at least if you allow yourself to be seduced by the Warrens’ lucid explanation -- to accepting the existence of malevolent entities. But it sure helps if you’re a Catholic, and I guarantee you, you’ll be good and scared.

As a book though -- and not just in terms of the stories being told -- The Demonologist is a mixed bag. The chapters are divided somewhat arbitrarily, sometimes by case, sometimes by theme, and it’s confusing. Structurally, it’s repetitive, as the same practical advice gets duplicated towards the end. Stylistically, The Demonologist is a bit of a mess, as it’s written as a series of interview transcripts by Gerald Brittle, who isn’t the most critical raconteur. Some of the cases would have been more effective in the telling had they been fully narrated in the first person by Ed Warren. (Note that Lorraine Warren, clairvoyant and Ed’s wife, is as much a part of the interviews, but there’s only one demonologist in the title.)

At certain points one wishes Brittle -- and indeed, there’s not much of him in the book, which is why The Demonologist reads more like dictation -- would interject with questions of his own. Ed Warren would interpret, with seeming authority, a demon’s utterances -- and then turn around a page later and remind the interviewer that “demons are master liars” and that nothing they say -- ostensibly the basis for Warren’s pronouncements -- should be trusted. Or Warren would expound at length on the demonic realm, for instance, then glibly provide the caveat “I’m a practicing demonologist, not a theologian.”

What makes The Demonologist particularly interesting is how it stands as a kind of template / blueprint for just about every haunted house / demon possession cultural artifact in the past few decades -- far more so, I would argue, than William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. (I mentioned something similar in my blog entry on The Conjuring; it’s no different from previous movies, but that’s because of the source material.) Every film staple you’ve seen -- doorknobs that won’t turn, people that levitate, furniture that moves, mysterious knocks on the walls, footsteps in the middle of the night -- they’re all enumerated here as evidence of an “inhuman presence.” Even waking up the same time in the middle of the night (I felt the proverbial shiver down my spine just now, re-reading the passage below):

Most notably, the individual in an infested environment will have an unshakeable feeling of another presence in the house. This sense of presence will develop to a point where the individual… may begin waking up at fixed times of the night, or at precisely three o’clock in the morning.

And yes, I woke up at three in the morning for two successive nights after reading this book.
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I found at times that the book was up repetitive but overall the book was original and an excellent read. ( )

100% fascinating. ( )

While I have never believed in possession, and this book does nothing to change my mind, it was a fun book. The cases they highlight are creepy as hell. In fact, listening to this on audiobook while vacationing at a cottage, I found I could not listen to parts of it when I was out walking at night. Listening to the narrator recreate some conversations with the demonic completely creeped me out and had me scrambling for the pause button.

So, for me, I treated the book as a work of brilliant fiction and had fun with it. Yes, there's some religion in there, yes, there's the typical supernatural mumbo-jumbo quasi-scientific speak (such as "spirit vibrations" and so on), but overall, just to go through some of the cases is absolutely worth the read. Though, the case that formed the basis of the film The Conjuring (an excellent and terrifying movie, by the way) is never mentioned in this book. ( )

Eles enfrentaram os mistérios mais sinistros dos últimos sessenta anos, sempre em busca da verdade. Agora é a sua vez de entrar em contato com o sobrenatural. Você tem coragem? Então leia ED & LORRAINE WARREN: DEMONOLOGISTAS, a biografia definitiva dos mais famosos investigadores paranormais do nosso plano astral.Não é de hoje que os fãs do terror conhecem Ed Warren e sua esposa, Lorraine. O casal foi retratado em filmes de grande sucesso, como Invocação do Mal, Annabelle e Horror em Amityville. Mas basta folhear as páginas de ED & LORRAINE WARREN: DEMONOLOGISTAS para constatar que, muitas vezes, a vida pode ser bem mais assustadora que o cinema. Principalmente para aqueles que não têm a pretensão de negar fenômenos que nem mesmo a ciência é capaz de explicar.Em ED & LORRAINE WARREN: DEMONOLOGISTAS, Gerald Brittle desvenda alguns dos principais casos reais vividos pelos Warren. Ed e Lorraine permitiram ao autor acesso exclusivo aos seus arquivos sobrenaturais, que incluem relatos extraordinários de poltergeists, casas mal-assombradas e possessões demoníacas. O resultado é um livro rico em detalhes como nenhum outro.Lançado originalmente em 1980, e até então inédito no Brasil, ED & LORRAINE WARREN: DEMONOLOGISTAS é, sem dúvida, o mais completo dossiê sobre os exorcistas/caçadores de fantasmas mais famosos do mundo. Virou o livro de cabeceira do diretor James Wan (Jogos Mortais, Invocação do Mal 1 e 2, Annabelle), além de servir de fonte de inspiração para Vera Farmiga, que interpreta a Sra. Warren no cinema.Nas páginas do livro, o leitor acaba se tornando um pouco mais íntimo de Lorraine Rita e Edward Warren Miney. Duas almas gêmeas que se completavam ao dividir, entre tantas coisas, a mesma vocação: oferecer ajuda espiritual aos possuídos e atormentados.OS WARREN APOSTARAM NO ESCURODesde 2006, Ed Warren não se encontra mais neste plano físico. Contudo, é fácil imaginar que Lorraine permaneça conectada a ele até os dias de hoje. Talvez até de sua mediunidade, mas certamente pela paixão de uma vida inteira juntos.Como responsável em manter o legado que ela e Ed construíram, Lorraine não poderia estar mais satisfeita com o lançamento de ED & LORRAINE WARREN: DEMONOLOGISTAS no Brasil. Só mesmo a DarkSide® Books para entregar uma edição à altura dos maiores investigadores paranormais de todos os tempos aos seus leitores possuídos, que chega para comemorar o aniversário da editora, em outubro de 2016.