What began as a modest haunted house story, inspired by the real-life paranormal investigations of controversial figures Ed and Lorraine Warren, has grown into one of the most lucrative horror franchises in years. “The Conjuring” and its sequels, prequels and spin-offs are blockbuster horror movies, but they are not all created equal.
As “The Conjuring: Last Rites” hits theaters, we run down every “Conjuring” movie ranked from worst to best.
11. “Wolves at the Door” (2016)
There are two films in the “Conjuring” series that have been disavowed by Warner Bros. They were both clearly intended to be part of the franchise but, for one reason or another, they aren’t considered an official part of the franchise anymore. In the case of John R. Leonetti’s “Wolves at the Door,” it’s easy to see why. Despite an early cameo from Eric Laden, who plays the same detective he played in “Annabelle,” the film has little to do with the rest of the franchise. It isn’t even supernatural. Heck, it isn’t even in good taste. Katie Cassidy stars as Sharon Tate, whose real-life tragedy has been turned into a lazy, brainless home invasion thriller with nothing to say about Manson Family murders. It may be short (a scant 73 minutes) but it feels interminable.
10. “Annabelle” (2014)
A evil doll named Annabelle was introduced in the first “Conjuring” as the most wicked trinket in the Warren Family vault of horrors, but you wouldn’t know it from watching her first solo film. “Annabelle” takes place in the apartment an incredibly boring family, where the struggling housewife (Annabelle Wallis, “The Mummy”) gradually realizes their newest collectible doll is evil. It’s a film devoid of genuine dread, which relies entirely on predictable “boo” scares to get a rise out of the audience.
9. ‘The Curse of La Llorona” (2019)
The second disavowed “Conjuring” spinoff was, unlike “Wolves at the Door,” a smash hit, grossing over $123 million off a paltry $8 million budget. So why Warner Bros. doesn’t want it associated with the rest of the franchise is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s because it isn’t very good. Linda Cardellini plays a social worker who accidentally picks up the iconic Mexican ghost from one of her clients, so she enlists an unconventional former priest (Raymond Cruz) to expel the invading spirit. “The Curse of La Llorona” has a few good scares, but they’re repeated ad infinitum, and the story all but flees from the religious and cultural themes that might have given it weight.
8. “The Nun II” (2023)
Michael Chaves’s sequel to “The Nun” arrives not with a bang, but with a wimple. The mostly inert sequel finds Taissa Farmiga returning as Sister Irene, on a mission to clean up the mess she left after the first film, facing off once again with Valak, who’s now haunting a boarding school. A wan storyline (all puns intended), peppered with occasionally startling but most silly jump scares, culminating in an amusingly ridiculous finale. Despite Farmiga’s expert performance, this alternately nonsensical and insipid entry in the “Conjuring” franchise nun-derwhelms, succeeding only in making the absurd original look better — or at least more entertaining — by comparison.
7. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (2025)
The allegedly final installment of the “Conjuring” franchise (let’s just say we’ll believe it when we don’t see it) finds the Warrens returning for one last job, after their psychic daughter gets pulled into a demonic mystery involving a spooky haunted mirror. “Last Rites” phones in most of its scares, competently presenting all the spooky images and startling noises we’ve come to expect of this franchise, but it’s presented without any passion. This is a proper sendoff to the characters “Conjuring” fans have grown to care, and on that level it mostly works. It’s just not a great horror movie in its own rite. (Ahem.)
6. “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021)
Michael Chaves took over the “Conjuring” franchise proper with “The Devil Made Me Do It,” a classy, handsomely photographed, but somewhat forgettable installment that finds the Warrens defending a young man accused of murder, who’s demonic possession as his implausible “not guilty” plea. Although the story spirals off in too many directions, Chaves wisely sticks to the old-fashioned detective genre, decorating an already intriguing whodunit with eerie supernatural elements and creepy set pieces. It may not be a great “Conjuring” movie but it’s a decent change of pace, since the films about the Warrens were getting pretty samey by the time “The Devil Made Me Do It” came along.
5. “The Nun” (2018)
Corin Hardy’s “Conjuring” spinoff features nifty monster effects and spooky locations, but it plays more like a gothic theme park ride than a serious horror movie. So we can forgive “The Nun” for wobbling haphazardly between gross, goofy and grim. It’s all part of the wild, albeit sloppy ride. Demián Bichir and Taissa Farmiga star as agents of the Vatican, investigating the mysterious death of a nun, only to discover that her isolated convent was actually a prison for an ancient evil. “The Nun” is fast-paced, and certainly never boring, but even in the “Conjuring” franchise it’s laughably blunt. Which, looking back on it now, is more of a selling point than a critique.
4. “The Conjuring 2” (2016)
Sequelitis struck the Warrens in “The Conjuring 2.” James Wan’s effective but bloated sequel features more demons, more domestic strife, and more audacious shocks. Once again, Ed and Lorraine Warren find themselves in a based-on-a-true-ghost-story: The Enfield Poltergeist, which tormented a working-class family in the late 1970s. It’s a nail-biter, with some standout set pieces and terrifying villains, but director James Wan crams so much content into one film that the pacing can’t help but suffer.
3. “Annabelle Comes Home” (2019)
All the demons from the Warrens’ creepy artifact room are unleashed, and it’s scary as hell, and those are just two of the great selling points in “Annabelle Comes Home.” Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman and Katie Sarife take center stage as intriguing, complex, often melancholic teens whose soul-searching slumber party gets interrupted by fantastic and inventive nightmares. Those demons are obviously set-ups for future spinoffs, but the film is satisfying on its own, thanks to a smart script by Gary Dauberman, who also makes his directorial debut. The worst you can say about “Annabelle Comes Home” is that it drags a bit in the middle, but the bravura third act more than compensates.
2. “Annabelle: Creation” (2017)
The prequel to the first “Conjuring” prequel — ugh, it go so complicated, so quickly — is a rollercoaster of a horror movie, a scary and surprising crowd-pleaser that finally does the creepy doll proud. A group of orphans move into a home with a strange family, whose daughter died tragically, and after one of the young girls discovers a spooky doll in the deceased child’s bedroom, all hell breaks loose. David F. Sandberg knows how to build suspense and how to pay off all that eeriness with unexpected, popcorn-spilling explosions of nightmare fuel.
1. “The Conjuring” (2013)
The original “The Conjuring” is still the classiest, spookiest, most satisfying film in the franchise. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are wholly believable as real-life supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who take on a terrifying new job when a troubled, working-class family moves in with an evil spirit. “The Conjuring” subtly builds a mythology while telling a satisfying, terrifying, self-contained ghost story, with a standout performance from Lili Taylor as the matriarch whose pent-up anxieties become disturbing realities. James Wan took the operatic style he developed for the “Insidious” movies, and this time uses it as a counterpoint to plausible, dramatic subtlety. It’s still Wan’s best film, and a modern horror classic.
