{"id":40964,"date":"2023-09-07T00:03:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T04:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=40964"},"modified":"2023-09-06T00:11:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T04:11:35","slug":"ranking-the-conjuring-universe-from-best-to-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/07\/ranking-the-conjuring-universe-from-best-to-worst\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d Universe From Best to Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m a big fan of James Wan\u2019s \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d movie universe as it\u2019s one of the most effective, fascinating, and scary library of horror movies ever produced. While the legacy of Ed and Lorraine Warren is infamous, the fictional Ed and Lorraine Warren are great cinematic horror heroes, and they\u2019ve been the center of one of the more diverse horror movie series to come along in a while. What with \u201cThe Nun 2\u201d coming to theaters this week, I ranked the whole \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d movie universe from the best to the worst.<\/p>\n

Let me know how you\u2019d rank the movies in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Conjuring (2013)
\n<\/strong>James Wan\u2019s introduction to \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d universe is a master class in plugging the movie going audience right in to a horror film. We meet Elaine and Ed Warren who are already in the midst of a case. We meet Annabelle who would become one of the faces of Wan\u2019s series of films. The movie then emphasizes the sheer terror that we\u2019re about to be subjected to. \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d is still a masterpiece of a horror film, filled with mounting terror, an interesting mystery, and dazzling performances by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Ron Livingston, Joey King, and Lili Taylor, respectively. The latter of whom more makes up for her appearance in Jan DeBont\u2019s awful \u201cThe Haunting\u201d remake. Ten years later it\u2019s still so incredibly influential on modern supernatural horror. It\u2019s also such a watchable horror gem.<\/p>\n

The Conjuring 2 (2016)
\n<\/strong>Whether or not the Enfield Hauntings were or weren\u2019t a complete hoax is neither here nor there. Director and storyteller James Wan\u2019s follow up to \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d is a wonderful sequel. It\u2019s as good as the original and often times I find myself placing it above the 2013 film that started it all. And sometimes it\u2019s a close second in the entire series. It depends on my mood. The sequel is filled with great scares, wonderful new moments of absolute terror, an incredible first appearance by the Crooked Man, and some wonderful twists. Not to mention it sets up what would become one of the more recognizable mascots for \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d movie series: Valak aka The Nun, played with sheer brilliance by Bonnie Aarons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Annabelle: Creation (2017)
\n<\/strong>The best way to sometimes fix a bad direction in a movie series is to give it a soft reboot. It worked for \u201cOuija\u201d and it works well for \u201cAnnabelle: Creation.\u201d This follow up is a prequel, sequel, and soft reboot that take a second shot at instilling the terror in to Annabelle once again. This is basically the origin of the Annabelle doll and how her spirit embodied the doll and what led to her becoming such a horrifying icon. David F. Sandberg\u2019s direction is top notch, and the movie ends on a great finale that perfectly clicks in to the rest of the movie series. It doesn\u2019t make \u201cAnnabelle\u201d any better, but it at least fits in well.<\/p>\n

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
\n<\/strong>Gary Dauberman\u2019s sequel and follow up in the \u201cAnnabelle\u201d series is a very good look in to the wider \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d universe. A lot of fans didn\u2019t like how the movie was more watered down and felt like the springboard for a spin off for the Warrens\u2019 daughter Judy Warren, but I had a great time with it. The movie is just filled with some fun horror gags, some genuinely frightening scenes, and the writers commit a heinous act by trapping one of the characters in the Warrens\u2019 gallery of cursed artifacts. That\u2019s just pure nightmare fuel. \u201cAnnabelle Comes Home\u201d rides on McKenna Grace\u2019s acting skill and she just aces this role. She has gravitas, charm and that every person quality that makes Judy Warren a likable inadvertent heroine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
\n<\/strong>Michael Chaves\u2019s approach toward the third outing in \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d movie series is just fine, it\u2019s just not as great as the first two. As a third film in the central movie series it\u2019s a perfectly good and entertaining dramatization of the infamous possession\/murder case. \u201cThe Devil Made Me Do It\u201d offers up some genuinely good possession scenes, neat scares, and focuses mainly on the relationship of Ed and Elaine Warren. It\u2019s bad enough they face off against supernatural demons, but Ed also has to face his own mortality, which makes their victory harrowing and more difficult than ever. It\u2019s a pretty good movie even if it doesn\u2019t escape the dreaded \u201ccurse of threes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
\n<\/strong>I don\u2019t buy for a minute that \u201cThe Curse of La Llorona\u201d is not a part of \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d universe. Apart from being promoted over and over as an extension of \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d universe, the movie makes a clear, blatant reference to \u201cAnnabelle.\u201d Aside from that, Michael Chaves\u2019 \u201cThe Curse of LaLlorona\u201d is a pretty good horror movie, overall. It\u2019s flawed in some story beats, and with some questionable character decisions, but I had fun with it, plus Linda Cardellini does a great job here. It\u2019s too bad we\u2019re not getting a sequel because La Llorona is a terrifying legend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Nun (2018)
\n<\/strong>I, for one, appreciated Corin Hardy\u2019s take on the nun Valak and her original spin off movie. It felt like pseudo-Gothic dramatic horror a la Hammer Films. The only thing is that the parts of the sum just never really come together and click in the end. There\u2019s even the stunt casting of Taissa Farmiga whose older sister Vera Farmiga is the star of the whole series, and nothing is ever really made of it. She\u2019s just cast as protagonist Sister Irene bearing no real relation to Elaine Warren. It\u2019s just baffling. In either case, while \u201cThe Nun\u201d isn\u2019t exactly scary, it\u2019s spooky, and occasionally eerie, plus it\u2019s tough to hate Bonnie Aarons as Valak. I also kind of liked the twist ending when all was said and done.<\/p>\n

Annabelle (2014)
\n<\/strong>This should have been a slam dunk! \u201cAnnabelle\u201d should have and could have been a truly terrifying horror movie about the now iconic doll. The original legend where \u201cAnnabelle\u201d was inspired from is scary all on its own, so why couldn\u2019t this work? John R. Leonetti\u2019s adaptation of the \u201cAnnabelle\u201d story for this spin off\/prequel is so bad, and so boring, and so bafflingly stupid. It\u2019s also tinged with uncomfortable racist undertones. Everything that should work about this story is just so listless and feels so much like a generic basic cable TV movie, when all is said and done. Annabelle is horrifying by just her mere sight. It\u2019s too bad that the first real outing that should be essential viewing is much better if skipped altogether. You\u2019re not missing anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big fan of James Wan\u2019s \u201cThe Conjuring\u201d movie universe as it\u2019s one of the most effective, fascinating, and scary library of horror movies ever produced. While the legacy of Ed and Lorraine Warren is infamous, the fictional Ed and Lorraine Warren are great cinematic horror heroes, and they\u2019ve been the center of one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,276,409,477,3272,793,922,1008],"class_list":["post-40964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-list-junkies","tag-adaptation","tag-demons","tag-ghosts","tag-horror","tag-james-wan","tag-possession","tag-sequel","tag-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40970,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40964\/revisions\/40970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}