There is nothing scarier than a possessed doll. It’s like a creepy clown, there is just something about that blend of evil and innocence that really amps up the horror in any scary movie. Perhaps that is part of the magic that makes The Conjuring a $2.1 billion franchise. The Conjuring introduced us to the horrifying doll known as “Annabelle,” the Perron family living in a very haunted house, and the Warrens, the demon-fighting couple who came to their rescue. The original movie brought in $319 million, and the franchise took off from there.
The Conjuring debuted in theatres and our nightmares in 2013. The movie is loosely based on actual events from the case files of the “demonologist” duo Ed and Lorraine Warren. Ed and Lorraine Warren are known for going into haunted homes and getting rid of ghosts, spirits, demons, and whatever else may be inhabiting the home. You know, just a normal 9-5, nothing to see here. Many of the movies of the franchise are loosely based on a few of the Warren’s actual cases and spurred an entire genre of paranormal true crime. The films of the “Conjuring Universe,” as it is known, are some of the most popular and highest grossing horror movies of our time. It’s no wonder so many were made. Yet if you are having a hard time keeping up with just how many there are in total, we’ve got you covered. The following are all the prequels, sequels, spinoffs, and originals that make up the movies of “The Conjuring Universe.”
The Conjuring -2013
It’s hard to beat an original, especially since the first Conjuring movie is based on two of the Warren’s most well-known and insidious cases. They were so insidious and mysterious, in fact, that they caught Hollywood filmmakers’ attention, and the rest, shall we say, is history.
The sordid story begins with a haunted doll by the name of “Annabelle” who is terrorizing a group of young college students. Loosely based on a true story, the doll itself did in fact exist, although in the form of a Raggedy Ann doll, as opposed to the horror fest creation displayed in the film. The doll was allegedly haunted by a demonic spirit that tricked the owners of the doll into thinking it was a little girl by the name of “Annabelle.” It was a horrifying story to be sure, made more horrifying by its true origins. The Warrens who caught the case had to come in and confiscate the creepy doll, which now sits in a display case in their home, along with other supposedly possessed artifacts.
The rest of the movie focuses on the Perron family, based on a real-life family of seven (of the same name) who experienced paranormal experiences of the worst kind when their dream home turned into a nightmare. While some events in the movie were fictionalized, the family is real, and the haunting is one of the most well-documented in history. Yikes. The movie features some familiar faces and Hollywood heavy hitters, such as Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson who play Ed and Lorraine Warren, and Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston, who play the Perron parents. The movie was an instant success, and brought in $319 million at the box office. It was such a hit in fact, that the next in the series came right on its heels.
Annabelle-2014
Nope, nope, and more nope. The premise of the Annabelle doll was creepy enough as an intro in The Conjuring, but an entire movie based around it? We aren’t sure we can do it. However, we seem to be in the minority, as the next installment in The Conjuring franchise was also a big hit. Annabelle serves as a prequel to the first film, and gives the backstory as to how Annabelle the doll came to be. Unfortunately, while Annabelle the doll is real, the creation story presented in the movie is not, at least far as anyone knows. Yet it does not make the movie any less terrifying, trust us.
The fictitious story follows the Form family as John Form, a doting husband, gives his pregnant wife a seemingly innocuous gift, a porcelain doll. Yet the doll clearly isn’t what it seems, and misfortune begins to befall the family, including a murder next door the first night of the arrival of the doll. The story continues to follow the family as they try everything to get rid of their bad luck, and eventually, the doll itself. Long story short, the family finds out the doll was used as a conduit by cult members to draw in evil spirits. The movie ends with the doll finding its way to an antique store, where it is bought by a mother as a gift for her college student daughter, linking it to the viewer’s introduction of Annabelle in the first movie.
The movie was also a big success riding on the fame of the original to bring in an additional $257.6 million at the box office. This film was also not short on celebrity casting, as Vera Farmiga makes another appearance, as do Anthony LaPaglia, Mckenna Grace, and Alfre Woodard. The movie set up the next in the series for success, also.
The Conjuring 2-2016
Another film based on a case right out of the Warren family files, The Conjuring 2 centers around a British family whose case quickly became known as “The Enfield Poltergeist.” The true case is arguably the most well-documented haunting case in history, with alleged photographic and audio evidence of the haunting.
The Warrens became involved when the Hogsden family reports strange happenings in their home following their daughter’s game with an Ouija board. The second oldest of four, young Janet begins interacting with the angry spirit of an old man who tells her he died in the home. However, once the Warrens arrive, they discover something far more sinister than merely a confused spirit. They discover the spirit is just a pawn for a darker entity, who takes the shape of a nun (this detail becomes important in subsequent movies) and the Warren family takes on the challenge of trying to rid the home of everything non-living that is residing there.
The movie is a thriller with lots of shocking real-life details and incidents portrayed. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as the Warrens, and Frances O’Connor plays the distressed mother, Peggy Hodgson. The movie like its successors was a huge hit with the horror crowd drawing in $321.8 million in box office sales.
Annabelle: Creation-2017
The fourth installment of The Conjuring series goes even further back in the Annabelle story, all the way back to her creation. The movie starts off with the death of a young girl named “Bee,” short for Annabelle (a piece of the puzzle) who dies in a tragic car accident. She is the daughter of toymaker Samuel Mullins. Fast forward to 12 years later, and Mullins and his wife volunteer to take in six orphan girls and a nun into their California farmhouse. While all initially seems pleasant, the ghost of the dead daughter haunts the house in more ways than one.
Soon all hell (literally) breaks loose when one of the girls stumbles upon the room of the dead girl and discovers a doll. You guessed it, the one and only Annabelle. After the little girl plays in the room for a while, she begins exhibiting bizarre behavior, as she has become possessed by the demonic doll.
Finally, the story comes out as it is revealed that following their daughter’s death, in a desperate plea the family had asked for someone, anyone, to answer their prayer to see their daughter again. Someone — or more accurately, something — answered. It convinced the family to allow it to enter one of Samuel’s creations, a porcelain doll. Before long, they realized their mistake, as the demon haunted their home. As atonement, the family attempted to take in the nun and the orphans, but clearly, things did not turn out the way they had hoped. The story loops back as the surviving orphan is adopted by the Higgins family, who turn out to be the murdered neighbors of the Form family in the original Annabelle movie. Phew! That’s quite a plot, and apparently viewers thought so too, as the movie made a cool $306.5 million in box office sales. Which led producers to decide to move on to the next installment in the series.
The Nun-2018
Haunted dolls, and possessed nuns; The Conjuring universe sure knows how to do horror up right. The fifth installment serves as a prequel to The Conjuring original, and begins when a nun in Romania takes her own life. The Vatican sends a priest and a novice nun (a nun who hasn’t taken her final vows) to investigate the unexpected death, and what they find is more sinister than they could have imagined.
Secrets, lies, and death run rampant within the convent, and soon the priest and the nun have to do battle for their very souls against a demonic nun force. Pretty wild stuff. The plot also loops back to The Conjuring 2, when it is revealed the demon nun is an incarnation of the demon “Valak” as revealed in the second Conjuring installment. While the nun and the priest pray to ward off the demon force, they realize the nuns at the convent pray nonstop in order to keep it at bay — but in a sudden twist ending, it turns out all of the nuns are already dead. A fact that sent shivers down our spine, and apparently viewers agreed. The Nun although the fifth installment, was one of the highest-grossing in the Conjuring universe, pulling in $365.5 million.
Its cast also featured some new faces, with Demian Bichir playing Father Burke, and Taissa Farmiga — Vera’s sister, as it happens — as Sister Irene. It also brought in some familiar faces such as Bonnie Aarons starring as the demon nun, and of course, Vera Farmiga returning as Lorraine Warren. Jonas Bloquet stars as Frenchie, a local groundskeeper whose story becomes important in later (and earlier) installments of the series.
The Curse of La Llorona-2019
The Curse of La Llorona aka “The Curse of the Weeping Woman” makes a debut as the sixth in The Conjuring series. Long story short, the film follows the iconic Latin American folk story of La Llorona, a weeping female entity who is known for stealing children’s souls. As one does. The film’s tale begins with a scene in Mexico in the 1600s, where after a boy gives his mother a necklace, he catches her drowning his brother. The mother catches him and drowns him too, although the reason why still seems a little hazy. The story then picks up in 1970s Los Angeles, as one mother does battle with a demonic spirit in order to save her children.
The modern-day plot follows Anna (Linda Cardellini), a Los Angeles caseworker who goes to the home of a mother named Patricia (Patricia Velasquez) for a welfare check. The caseworker finds the mother has locked her two sons in a room, and when Anna tries to free them, the mother attacks her. Anna sends Patricia away and takes custody of the sons, who strangely beg her to leave them locked in the room. Not heeding their pleas, Anna takes them to the shelter where they eventually wind up drowning and repeating the story of La Llorona.
When Anna is called to the scene, she brings her own children, who quickly become the demon’s next target. Long story short, a battle with the necklace and a burning bush finally put La Llorona back in her place. However, the plot leaves something to be desired, and the story does not tie in particularly closely with the other movies in the series. It became the lowest-grossing of the franchise, bringing in bad reviews and a comparatively humble showing at the box office. The film brought in $123 million, which sounds impressive, but compared to its predecessors, it’s actually less than half. So maybe La Llorona wasn’t quite the crowd-pleasers the other movies were — but look on the bright side, there are still two more in the franchise to go!
Annabelle Comes Home-2019
As you may recall from the first movie, after the Warrens subdued the cursed Annabelle doll, they took it home for safekeeping in their creepy things closet. They assumed that it would be safe there, by as they say “keeping the Genie in the bottle.” Unfortunately, Annabelle is not exactly known for playing by the rules, and in the seventh installment of The Conjuring Universe, Annabelle turns the Warren’s cozy home into a nightmare.
In Annabelle Comes Home, the real Annabelle, I.e. the ghost of the little girl “Bee” introduced in Annabelle Creation, is unleashed. An irresponsible babysitter of the Warrens sneaks in her death-curious friend who, in an attempt to conjure her father, accidentally unleashes Annabelle by leaving her glass case open. The spirit then begins releasing the other spirits trapped in the Warrens’ confiscated-objects room. Soon all dark spirits are attacking The Warrens’ home and visitors, and a ragtag group of the Warrens’ daughter Judy, the babysitter, and friends manage to wrangle the doll back into her case. The movie ends as medium Lorraine Warren gives the babysitter’s clumsy friend a comforting message from her deceased father. So all is well that ends well. …Sort of.
As it turns out, The Conjuring story still isn’t complete, as there is one more movie in the series. Although Annabelle Comes Home did reclaim some of the franchise’s former La Llorena glory by bringing in $231.3 million at the box office, it turns out the story still wasn’t finished.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It-2021
The most recent of The Conjuring franchise takes its inspiration from another case ripped from the headlines, and the Warrens’ paranormal file; The Devil Made Me Do it is based on the real-life case called “The Devil In Connecticut.”
The film’s plot follows the true crime story of a young man who killed his landlord by stabbing him 22 times, blaming it on the devil. The movie begins with an exorcism conducted by the Warrens on an eight-year-old boy. In an act of heroism, the boy’s sister’s boyfriend, Arne, invites the demon from the boy into himself. Arne is the young man soon convicted of stabbing his landlord. The Warrens go on to assist the boy in his trial, and he becomes the first manslaughter defendant to plead “not guilty” on the basis of “demonic possession.” There are some additional witchcraft twists and demonic turns along the way, and the story ends with the Warrens obtaining a brand-new item for their creepy possession objects room.
The film reclaimed the original Conjuring’s glory by bringing in $206.4 at the box office, and also bringing back Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the Warrens. Their original assistant from the very first film, Drew Thomas, played by hunky actor Shannon Kook, also returned. Let us also not forget our favorite demon-possessed nun, Bonnie Aarons, who made a short cameo as well. The film is the most recent and so far, final in the franchise, and fans couldn’t get enough of it.
If you have lost count at this point, we can help you out. In total, there are (so far) eight movies in The Conjuring universe, including the Annabelle movies, and the odd choice of La Llorona. While there continue to be rumblings of additional movies on the way, as of this writing, the universe wraps up at eight. Which, in our humble opinion, is more than enough to haunt our nightmares for years to come. Hopefully one day we will be able to look at dolls the same way we did before we met Annabelle, but we aren’t holding our breath.
