LIST

Every Conjuring Universe Movie, Ranked (and in Order)

By Matt Oakes · October 17, 2026

With ten films, six directors and more than $2.5 billion at the global box office, the Conjuring Universe is the biggest horror franchise ever made. It’s really several series stitched together: the four mainline Conjuring films following real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the Annabelle trilogy, The Nun duology and the loosely connected The Curse of La Llorona. James Wan launched it all and directed the first two Conjuring films, with John R. Leonetti, David F. Sandberg, Corin Hardy, Gary Dauberman and Michael Chaves (who has directed four entries, more than anyone) taking turns since.

If you want to watch them in story order, the timeline begins in 1952 with The Nun, then runs through Annabelle: Creation, The Nun II, Annabelle, The Conjuring, Annabelle Comes Home, The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring 2 and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, before wrapping in 1986 with The Conjuring: Last Rites.

Last Rites was billed as the Warrens’ final chapter, but after it became the franchise’s highest-grossing entry with nearly half a billion dollars worldwide, a prequel is already in the works. Don’t expect the lights to stay off for long. For my money, the original The Conjuring is still the scariest and best of the bunch, while The Curse of La Llorona is the one to skip. Here’s every Conjuring Universe movie, ranked.

Quick list:

The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Nun II (2023)
The Nun (2018)
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
Annabelle (2014)
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

1. THE CONJURING (2013)

The Conjuring (2013) still
The Conjuring represents that rare breed of horror that’ll actually have you wary of bumps in the night for days to come. Rather than a repetitive one-and-done game of “where’s the [insert evil entity here] going to appear next?” James Wan has crafted something rich in atmosphere, thriving not on jump-scares but within the DNA of its underlying psychological horror.

All in all, The Conjuring is just an incredibly effective creeper that is much more likely to linger with its patrons than much of the horror fare of the recent past. As such, it’s a flag-bearer of horror as homage and fear as a genuine experience. While the early claims of this being one of the scariest movies of all time may be a little forced, it does sit high up on the shelf.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

2. THE CONJURING 2 (2016)

Horror sequels have an unfortunate tendency to exude contempt for their audience. More often than not, the same formula is conscripted, wrangling selfsame plot lines (often in a new location or with new characters) that encompass similar beats and familiar frights. 9 Nightmare on Elm Street movies, 10 Halloween films and 12 Friday the 13th flicks can speak to the process. Rinse, repeat, rank in the cash.

The Conjuring 2 ‘understands the virtue of patience in a way that most studio horror films do not and the result is all the scarier for it. Building on the mythology of the Warrens while upping the ante in terms of pure body-shaking frights, The Conjuring 2 shows James Wan confidently steering the best horror franchise that exists today into familiar, but nonetheless bloodcurdling, waters.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

3. ANNABELLE: CREATION (2017)

No need to beat around the bush, Annabelle: Creation is both significantly better than the 2014 Annabelle, a fast-money gambit courtesy of hack director John R. Leonetii, and not nearly as good as The Conjuring (or the surprisingly still terrifyingThe Conjuring 2 for that matter).

A notable step up from its predecessor, Annabelle: Creation is definitely still not on par with the haunting Conjuring franchise. More fun and silly than legitimately scary, this daffy spin-off houses a bevy of effective jump scares but fails to leave any lasting impression.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

4. ANNABELLE COMES HOME (2019)

The Conjuring Universe’s most purely fun entry plays like a haunted house sleepover. With Ed and Lorraine away for the night, their daughter Judy (McKenna Grace), her babysitter and a grief-stricken friend accidentally unleash Annabelle on the Warrens’ room of cursed artifacts, setting a whole menagerie of ghouls loose. Writer-director Gary Dauberman keeps it light on mythology and heavy on creaky-floorboard set pieces. Low stakes, high spook factor, and a cozy Halloween watch.

5. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (2021)

The Conjuring extended universe is one of the – if not the most – preeminent examples of a modern horror franchise done correctly. And yet with three separate offshoots, including a full-fledged Annabelle trilogy, and more on the way, the haunting force of the series that began in 2013 comes sputtering to a decidedly indifferent halt with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is an underwhelming sequel that pales in comparison to its impressively haunting predecessors. It has its moments and tries out some new tricks but feels like a downgrade on too many fronts to ignore.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

6. THE NUN II (2023)

Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) returns to hunt down Valak, the demon nun, across 1950s France, leaving a trail of dead clergy in its wake. Director Michael Chaves stages a handful of genuinely creative scares, and the boarding school setting gives it more texture than its predecessor. It’s still built on the franchise’s familiar jump-scare scaffolding, but as sequels to weak originals go, it’s a modest step up.

7. THE NUN (2018)

The Nun (a. k. a. ‘Bad Habit’) is a handsome twinkle of a horror movie that’s never developed into a full-bodied anything. It’s a movie that dangles on the precipice of actually being half-decent for quite some time without ever making the effort to, you know, actually be good.

Frustratingly flabby and flabbergastingly frightless, The Nun boasts an eerie setting, strong performers, some well-timed comedic beats and various strokes of great potential only to flatline into a bunch of horror movie trope nothingness. In sum, this Bad Habit submits over and over again to horror movie bad habits.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

8. THE CONJURING: LAST RITES (2025)

Ed and Lorraine Warren have been at the center of WB’s expansive Conjuring franchise for its entire 12-year run. They’ve appeared, or at least been mentioned, in all nine of the core entries and spin-offs. With The Conjuring: Last Rites, allegedly the final film featuring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the married paranormal investigators finally get a sendoff.

The Conjuring universe wraps up Ed and Lorraine’s story with a disappointingly flat coda that focuses more of their family drama than it does actual haunting. Not scary, way too long, and rather rote in terms of its filmmaking, The Conjuring: Last Rites is only haunted by its past successes.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

9. ANNABELLE (2014)

When all it took to turn a harmless doll into a demon possessed conduit was a drop of blood, I had already written off Annabelle. Poised as a spinoff of the critically acclaimed and totally terrifying The Conjuring, this fast-tracked prequel is, like most dolls, the product of industrialization. It’s horror by assembly line; an unholy congregation of uninspired pieces.

The added disappointment of serializing a film whose horrors were without bound, Annabelle sullies the good name of the Warren’s demonology franchise. Peddling in doll stares and wanna-be ominous monotony, it’s a total waste. Leonetti’s makeshift product is a fundamentally defunct follow-up that squanders what could have been in order to churn out a low-budg crowd pleaser of the basest variety.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

10. THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA (2019)

The Curse of La Llorona is why people say they don’t like horror movies. In an age of Us, Hereditary, The Babadook, The Witch, Get Out, Raw, It Follows and so so many more outstanding horror movies, it’s why some still think they don’t like the genre. Why they falsely assume it’s inferior cinema.

The Curse of La Llorona promises to inject a Latin-X flavor into the Conjuring universe but barely even manages that. Nothing more than a dreadful fit of overdone cliches, it’s the kind of lowest-wrung horror movie that gives the genre a bad name while providing absolutely zero scares.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

How to Watch Them in Order

Release order:

The Conjuring (2013)
Annabelle (2014)
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
The Nun (2018)
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Nun II (2023)
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

Chronological (story) order:

The Nun (set in 1952)
Annabelle: Creation (1955)
The Nun II (1956)
Annabelle (1967)
The Conjuring (1971)
Annabelle Comes Home (1972)
The Curse of La Llorona (1973)
The Conjuring 2 (1977)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (1981)
The Conjuring: Last Rites (1986)

FAQ

What is the best Conjuring movie?

By my ranking, The Conjuring (2013) is the best film in the franchise, followed by The Conjuring 2.

What is the worst Conjuring Universe movie?

The Curse of La Llorona (2019) sits at the bottom of my ranking.

What order should I watch the Conjuring movies in?

In release order, start with The Conjuring (2013) and end with The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025). Chronologically, the story begins with The Nun (set in 1952) and ends with Last Rites (set in 1986).