Favorite "Conjuring Universe" Movies?

[The Deadman]

This is the full list of the movies in the franchise, followed up by a poll. Which movies are your favorite?

The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Annabelle (2014)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
The Nun (201
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

[Allio]

First two are easily the best. But I am a sucker for the second one. Edd and Lorrain are just so sweet together

[IMJ]

I love the Ed and Lorraine centered movies, but honestly the Nun was the closest to having truly scary and compelling content.

In general though, the Conjuring franchise is terrific.

[newfan]

I like a number of these, over all I prefer the Conjuring movies over the Anabelle movies, of those I think I prefered the second one.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

In general though, the Conjuring franchise is terrific.

Huh. I've generally meant to try and watch these but I can never quite muster up sufficient interest to do so. I started the first one on Netflix maybe 3 months ago but about 20 minutes in realized I wasn't really paying attention to it much, nothing was really going on, and I went and did other stuff. Your commendation of them does move the meter a bit.

*I DID see the very first Annabelle movie. Dreadful.

[Turo602]

I love scary movies and I love that they've manage to create a cinematic universe out of a horror franchise, but this series is very hit or miss for me. The first 2 Conjuring films feel the safest in execution as they're both your typical Amityville style family being terrorized by demons type of movies and they both work really well even with the 2nd one going off the rails a bit.

However, I think Annabelle: Creation is my favorite for how it plays around with that formula by making the victims orphan girls, with the protagonist being disabled and requiring assistance to go up and down the stairs, heightening the tension and dread. But outside of these 3 films, I don't really feel any of the others were any good outside of maybe The Nun and Annabelle: Comes Home which aren't as bad as the rest but not as good as the other 3 either.

The first Annabelle was easily the most disappointing film in the series as it was the first Conjuring spin-off about the standout creepy doll and failed miserably to live up to the doll's hype. All people really wanted to see was the doll f*ck some sh*t up, but instead we got a long drawn out bore fest about the most uninteresting vanilla couple with problems nobody cares about.

And if that wasn't bad enough, The Conjuring 3 was yet another massive disappointment as the Ed and Lorraine films are what basically carries this franchise and delivered a completely underwhelming nonsense story. I was never a big fan of how they treated the Warrens like superheroes and having them at the center of the film as opposed to outsiders coming in made their phony bullsh*t harder to watch when the whole point of why these films are "scary" and fun to watch is because they're based on "true case files" and when they're given so much BS drama and superpowers, you're immediately pulled out of it.

And then there's The Curse of La Llorona, which was not only boring, but hardly qualifies as a Conjuring Universe film as the only tie it shares is a priest character who briefly appears just so they could get away with marketing it as a Conjuring Universe film. Outside of a pointless cameo, this film doesn't require a viewing and could easily be skipped over if you value your time.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Huh. I've generally meant to try and watch these but I can never quite muster up sufficient interest to do so. I started the first one on Netflix maybe 3 months ago but about 20 minutes in realized I wasn't really paying attention to it much, nothing was really going on, and I went and did other stuff. Your commendation of them does move the meter a bit.

*I DID see the very first Annabelle movie. Dreadful.

They vary in quality but I think what happens with that franchise is that it was solid early on. And so because of the intriguing continuity you sort of keep going with them to see how the puzzle fits. And then they get a rewatch but this time in chronological order, so in some ways if you got roped in early the multiple viewings are almost built in even through a few of the weaker movies.

Because of that I'd guess the best way to watch them the first time is in release order and not chronologically by story or piecemeal here and there. The other neat thing is that the continuity between each seemingly unconnected "story" becomes clearer and clearer as time goes on, so the "universe" weaving they've done is neat because the continuity moves across time and event rather than through an ensemble cast.