The Conjuring Universe Movies Ranked

I know, I know, I put this above the original Conjuring. And yes, the Conjuring is definitely better in terms of characters and creativity. But actual scariness? Annabelle: Creation runs circles around the entirety of the rest of the Conjuring universe. Like, dang, this film is intense. It has a terrifying blend of great tension, disturbing visuals, and very,very effective jump scares. And yes, jump scares are cheap, but literally every other Conjuring movie fails at using them miserably. Every jump scare in this movie made me jump. Every. Single. One. And that deserves at least a little credit.

Because of its effectiveness coupled with memorable imagery and good performances, Annabelle: Creation is my favorite movie in the Conjuring universe so far.

The first Conjuring has little jump scares, relying solely on real terror. And, long story short, it doesn't work out THAT well. Don't get me wrong, the atmospheric build up is fantastic, but the scares in the film don't deliver. However, The Conjuring is bolstered by surprisingly interesting characters, with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farminga stealing the show as Ed and Lorraine Warren.

If you're looking for a horror movie that chills you to the bone, look elsewhere. But if you want a horror movie that struggles with scares but succeeds with characters and build up, then The Conjuring is for you.

The Conjuring 2 is just a slightly weaker version of its predecessor. It has the same issue of not being that scary, but even more so since this film doesn't have the build up of the original. This problem is made even more glaring because of the film's constant (and I mean CONSTANT) use of jump scares, none of which are remotely effective. However, The Conjuring 2 does do one thing better than the original; the characters. Man, not only do you really feel for the Warrens in this film, but also for the family being haunted. You really feel how stressful their situations are, with the Warrens dealing with skeptics of their paranormal investigation business, and the Hodgesons you know, having a possessed daughter.

Nevertheless, The Conjuring 2, despite its characters, is held back by its complete lack of scariness.

Ah, Annabelle Comes Home. A film that is substantially less scarier than any of the films above it, but that's bolstered by strong performances and interesting characters that the movies below lack. This isn't meant to be a blood-and-guts, scare-you-to-death sort of film. It's more along the lines of a fun, Scooby-Doo type affair. However, the film doesn't fully commit to this, leading me to wonder how scary it was actually meant to be. I would've liked Annabelle Comes Home if it really leaned in to the fun of its premise, but instead we get a movie that can't fully decide whether or not it wants to be genuinely scary or not. And really, I'd be fine if it was a PG-13 "scary" movie". Really, aside from Annabelle: Creation and some parts of The Conjuring, it's a lost cause to try and be scared by Conjuring Universe movies. So why didn't the film embrace this more? Likely because of all of its predecessors attempt to frighten. So what we're left with is a film that's fun, but a definite missed opportunity thanks to being chained up in this cinematic universe. Darn.

Still, the enjoyment of the movie coupled with the surprisingly interesting characters puts Annabelle Comes Home a step above the competition.

The Nun is different from the films that preceded it. Instead of being an outright horror movie, it's more of a Gothic, atmospheric affair. And would be all fine and good if it fully committed to that. But it doesn't and it still tries to be scary. *Sigh*. It's really depressing seeing all these perfectly good ideas being dragged kicking and screaming into the Conjuring Universe, thereby killing pretty much any potential it once had. And don't even get me started on the pointless ending that adds virtually nothing to the movie, nor any other films in the series. What places The Nun above the films below is the faint glimmers of creativity in some brief moments. However, these are both fleeting and sparse.

The Nun is fine in acting, effects, and any other off-screen aspect that comes to mind. However, it falls spectacularly flat in terms of tone, atmosphere, and horror.

It was hard to decide which was worse: this or The Curse of La Llorona. Annabelle struggles in almost every aspect, from scares to acting, but nothing in it is terrible. La Llorona has some aspects that are alright, but are bogged down considerably by some very, very glaring issues. Ultimately, I put Annabelle above it for two main reasons. Reason one, and the lesser of the two, is the elevator scene midway through the movie. The scene manages to effectively build tension much more than anything in La Llorona could ever hope for. Reason two is that Annabelle effectively started the Conjuring universe by proving that the success of The Conjuring wasn't exactly lightning in a bottle. Without it, we wouldn't have Annabelle Creation, or Annabelle Comes Home, or probably even The Conjuring 2. With that said, Annabelle is still a bad movie. The acting's bad, the plot is boring, and above all, it's not scary (save for that elevator scene).

With very little good and a plethora of bad, Annabelle just barely avoids the bottom spot.

Oh, boy. Where do I even start with this one? Should I begin with the story that's such an amalgamation of existing horror tropes it fails to even make sense anymore? The offensively bad characters that have the depth of Care Bears? The jump scares that try so little they're actually aggravating in their laziness? The brief, brief introduction of A SINGLE relatively creative idea in this disaster, only to have it literally never come up again, and in fact be completely contradicted by everything before and after it? You know what, forget it. This movie is terrible, and nobody should watch it. The one new thing about it is the design of the titular villain, but that's so small in comparison to everything that it barely warrants mentioning. I mean, I guess the film has good representation? But again, small.

Look; This movie is bad. It's really, really bad, and I think nothing would have been lost if it didn't exist in the first place. The bottom line is that The Curse of La Llorona is definitely the worst movie in the Conjuring cinematic universe.