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The conjuring.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 62 Reviews
• Kids Say 327 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Terrifying paranormal horror movie based on a true story.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Conjuring is a truly scary horror movie that's based on a true story about a haunted house, a demon possession, and an exorcism. It's more frightening than gory; no characters die (except a dog), and not much blood is shown, except during an intense demon-possession scene at the…

Why Age 16+?

Not much visible death or gore, but what is shown is terrifying, life-altering,

Infrequent language includes one "s--t," plus the occasional "goddamn," "damn,"

A man is shown to be asleep at his desk with an unfinished glass of whisky nearb

A married couple is shown to be comfortable with one another in the bedroom. The

Any Positive Content?

The characters take on terrifying challenges, work together, solve problems, and

The Warrens selflessly put themselves in harm's way to help a family in need. Lo

Violence & Scariness

Not much visible death or gore, but what is shown is terrifying, life-altering, and not for the faint of heart. The movie's most intense imagery comes from pure terror. The most disturbing sequences occur during the demon possession sequence. There's a great deal of screaming and fighting and some minor gore, such as a woman vomiting blood while wearing a sheet over her head (a red stain suddenly appears on the sheet). A demon scratches a cop's face, with some blood shown. One character (a dog) dies, and characters are sometimes battered around the room by demons.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent language includes one "s--t," plus the occasional "goddamn," "damn," "oh my God," and "hell." A character says, "son of a --- " but doesn't finish the phrase.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A man is shown to be asleep at his desk with an unfinished glass of whisky nearby.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A married couple is shown to be comfortable with one another in the bedroom. There's some innuendo around their sex life, such as "christening the new house" and "do it again."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The characters take on terrifying challenges, work together, solve problems, and triumph over the odds. They also show empathy for stressed characters in tense situations.

Positive Role Models

The Warrens selflessly put themselves in harm's way to help a family in need. Lorraine, in particular, is in physical danger, but doesn't hesitate to help. They're based on real-life paranormal investigators who apparently helped many people.

Parents need to know that The Conjuring is a truly scary horror movie that's based on a true story about a haunted house, a demon possession, and an exorcism. It's more frightening than gory; no characters die (except a dog), and not much blood is shown, except during an intense demon-possession scene at the climax. But even though it's mostly based on suggestion, the scary stuff is terrifying. Language includes one "s--t" and a few other words but is infrequent. Sex isn't an issue, other than that a married couple is shown to be comfortable with each other in the bedroom (with a little mild innuendo). One character is shown to have drunk some whisky and fallen asleep at his desk. The main characters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were real-life paranormal investigators. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (62)
• Kids say (327)

Based on 62 parent reviews

Terrifying theme

What's the story.

In THE CONJURING, in the early 1970s, the Perron family -- Roger ( Ron Livingston ), Carolyn ( Lili Taylor ), and their five daughters -- move into a new home in the Rhode Island countryside. Before long, they start encountering strange noises and smells, stopped clocks, slamming doors, and figures lurking in dark corners. So the Perrons approach paranormal investigators Lorraine ( Vera Farmiga ) and Ed Warren ( Patrick Wilson ) for help. The Warrens believe a demon is causing the trouble, and when Carolyn becomes possessed, they must get approval from the church for an exorcism. Unfortunately, Lorraine's clairvoyant abilities have taken quite a toll on her physical strength, and Ed worries that she might not survive their latest adventure.

Is It Any Good?

This horror film provides a treasure trove of typical haunting tricks that seems fresh and terrifying once again. Best known for co-creating Saw , expert horror director James Wan has happily advanced into more sophisticated tales with Insidious and now The Conjuring . Rather than gore, Wan goes for a more old-fashioned, character-based movie here. What's more, Wan plays with the "based on a true story" motif in interesting ways. Rather than remaining stuck on facts, he uses the story in more metaphysical ways, suggesting that both demons (and angels) could actually exist.

The movie's inspired music score is key: it's a collection of edgy, discordant tones that works beautifully with the images. Wan's choice of actors also adds a level of class. Taylor and Farmiga in particular are two of our finest current actresses, and they bring an intense sense of empathy to the screen. Wilson matches them, making it hard not to hope that a series of true-story horror movies based on the Warrens is in horror fans' future.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Conjuring 's violence and how it's presented. How much is actually shown? What's scarier -- lots of gore and blood, or "suggested" scares? Why?

What makes this movie scarier or less scary than other horror movies you've seen?

What do you think about the real-life aspects of the movie? Does the movie make you believe in ghosts and demons? Does it make you want to learn more about the Warrens?

Are the Warrens role models? How do they help out the Perron family?

What's the appeal of demon possession/exorcism movies? What do they have to say about the world?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 19, 2013
• On DVD or streaming : October 22, 2013
• Cast : Lili Taylor , Patrick Wilson , Vera Farmiga
• Director : James Wan
• Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Female actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 112 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : sequences of disturbing violence and terror
• Last updated : August 5, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

Poltergeist

The Innkeepers

Best Horror Movies

Scary movies for kids.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Film Review: ‘The Conjuring’

A sensationally entertaining old-school freakout and one of the smartest, most viscerally effective thrillers in recent memory.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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The mere sound of two hands clapping will have audiences begging for mercy in “ The Conjuring ,” a sensationally entertaining old-school freakout and one of the smartest, most viscerally effective thrillers in recent memory. Dramatizing a little-known account from the 1970s case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, director James Wan ‘s sixth and best feature is pull-out-the-stops horror filmmaking of a very sophisticated order, treating the story’s spiritual overtones with the utmost sincerity even as it playfully mines all manner of apparent cliches — creaky doors, cobwebbed cellars, toys you’d have to be just plain stupid to play with — for every last shiver of pleasure. What’s a moviegoer to do but join with the demons and applaud?

Having moved the New Line production up from February to a July 19 release date on the basis of through-the-roof test-screening reactions, Warner Bros. would appear to have an estimable mid-summer hit on its hands. That the MPAA opted to give the picture an R rating, claiming it was simply too scary for a PG-13 despite having met the basic content qualifications, should do little to hinder its tremendous word-of-mouth potential in theatrical and ancillary play.

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While it owes an obvious debt to the likes of “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist” and “ The Amityville Horror ” (itself inspired by the Warrens’ most famous case), this exuberantly creepy supernatural shocker is in many ways the film Wan has been working toward his whole career; it not only incorporates elements from his 2007 demon-doll thriller “Dead Silence” and his 2010 haunted-house saga “Insidious,” which felt like a warm-up exercise by comparison, but also taps into the sly, self-aware vein of humor that has long been one of Wan’s trademarks. And coming from the director who helped push indie horror toward ever more dubious torture-porn extremes with “Saw” 10 years ago, “The Conjuring” feels all the more remarkable for being a relatively gore-free piece of mainstream craftsmanship, the work of a B-movie maestro in full command of his studio-given resources.

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A prologue quickly establishes the picture’s weird combo of straight-faced religiosity and genre-savvy irreverence as it introduces Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) and his clairvoyant wife, Lorraine ( Vera Farmiga ), who have devoted their lives to studying, warding off and sometimes directly battling the forces of evil. Together these Connecticut-based demonologists project a down-to-earth folksiness that belies the seriousness of their convictions and the hair-raising intensity of their spiritual warfare. Their understanding of the occult world is so rigorous and methodical (they debunk several misconceptions early on) as to inspire immediate confidence in the scripting smarts of brothers Chad and Carey W. Hayes (who also collaborated on 2007’s less effective Bible-thumping thriller “The Reaping”).

The story was inspired by an alleged case of demonic possession so horrifying that the Warrens kept it under wraps for years, despite having been quite open about their work in their numerous books, lectures and TV appearances. It’s 1970 when Carolyn and Roger Perron ( Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston) and their five daughters move into their dream home in Harrisville, R.I., only to swiftly realize they are not the sole inhabitants of this secluded lakeside farmhouse. The demonic manifestations seem fairly routine at first: doors opening and slamming of their own accord, an obligatory spot of animal cruelty, the girls feeling a strange presence tugging at them in their sleep, and dark bruises appearing on Carolyn’s legs and back. Yet it takes almost no time for “The Conjuring” to immerse the viewer in its spell, as it teases seemingly minor jolts into frissons of terror, and turns a simple game of hide-and-seek into a tour de force of sustained excitement.

Impressively, the film achieves its most startling effects through motion, not stasis. Wan’s command of horror technique isn’t just virtuosic; it’s borderline rhapsodic, playing the audience like Hitchcock’s proverbial piano (a literal example of which is shown collecting dust in the Perrons’ extremely frightening cellar). Cinematographer John R. Leonetti’s widescreen compositions are forever in flux: The handheld camera pursues the characters from room to room in long, patient tracking shots, shifting from one uneasy perspective to the next and prowling every inch of the house’s cavernous, ramshackle interiors (brilliantly conceived by production designer Julie Berghoff).

In terms of what he does and doesn’t show, Wan strikes an ideal balance between the power of suggestion and the satisfaction of a good, in-your-face scare, and he and editor Kirk Morri expertly modulate the film’s dramatic rhythms, allowing the audience an occasional breather between setpieces without losing the momentum. Crucially, the sense of danger only accelerates when Ed and Lorraine temporarily move in with the Perrons and seek out answers, delving into the house’s chilling history of witchcraft, possession, suicide and satanic ritual murder. Along with an investigative assistant (Shannon Kook) and a skeptical but helpful cop (John Brotherton), they even set up film cameras hoping to catch some glimpse of the apparitions at work, like something out of an analog prequel to the “Paranormal Activity” franchise.

Ultimately the sort of relentless, expertly tricked-out scarefest that leaves one feeling happily drained rather than deeply, permanently unsettled, the film nonetheless heightens its impact by playing the material utterly straight where it counts. The two lead actresses rep the major casting coups here, both maxing out their scream-queen potential without skimping on dramatic heft: Taylor gamely submits to all kinds of physical and emotional extremes as the loving wife and mother on whom the house exacts its most frightening toll, while Farmiga movingly conveys Lorraine’s astounding courage as well as the enormous sacrifices her sixth sense requires. She and Wilson (also in “Insidious”) achieve a rock-solid rapport as two eccentric but authoritative individuals who selflessly and unapologetically view their marriage as a force for good in the world.

Loosely approximating the mildly funky fashions and longish haircuts of the period, the film reinforces its ’70s orientation with stylized homemovie footage and the occasional use of a paranoid zoom lens. “Insidious” composer Joseph Bishara supplies another deranged symphony of screeching strings, working in nerve-shredding counterpoint to the film’s inventive soundscape of bumps, creaks, whispers and pauses.

Reviewed at Los Angeles Film Festival (Special Screenings), June 21, 2013. (Also in Edinburgh Film Festival — Night Moves.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 111 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a New Line Cinema presentation of a Safran Co./Evergreen Media Group production. Produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran, Rob Cowan. Executive producers, Walter Hamada, Dave Neustadter.
• Crew: Directed by James Wan. Screenplay, Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes. Camera (Technicolor, widescreen), John R. Leonetti; editor, Kirk Morri; music, Joseph Bishara; production designer, Julie Berghoff; art director, Geoffrey S. Grimsman; set decorator, Sophie Neudorfer; costume designer, Kristin M. Burke; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat/SDDS), Carl Rudisill; sound designer/supervising sound editor, Joe Dzuban; re-recording mixers, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker; special makeup effects, Fractured FX; special effects supervisor, David Beavis; visual effects supervisor, Ray McIntyre Jr.; visual effects, Pixel Magic; stunt coordinators, Joel Kramer, Norbert Phillips; assistant director, Albert Cho; casting, Anne McCarthy, Kellie Gesell.
• With: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor, Joey King, Shanley Caswell, Haley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy, Kyla Deaver, Sterling Jerins, Marion Guyot, Steve Coulter, Shannon Kook, John Brotherton.

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence. Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence. Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabs and murders his landlord, claiming to be under demonic possession while Ed and Lorraine Warren investigate the case and try to prove his innocence.

• Michael Chaves
• David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
• Patrick Wilson
• Vera Farmiga
• Ruairi O'Connor
• 1.3K User reviews
• 292 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore

Top cast 58

• Lorraine Warren

• Arne Cheyenne Johnson

• Debbie Glatzel

• David Glatzel

• The Occultist

• Sergeant Clay

• Father Gordon

• Father Newman

• Judy Warren

• Carl Glatzel

• Judy Glatzel
• All cast & crew
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Did you know

• Trivia Lorraine Warren , played by Vera Farmiga in the The Conjuring movies, died a natural death aged 92 on April 18 2019. She had been a head consultant on all of The Conjuring projects, and an avid follower of the series.
• Goofs (at around 11 mins) When Ed had his heart attack the doctor told then they have to put a stent into the artery. Doctors were not placing stents, much less balloon angiography in 1981. The treatment would've been major open heart by-pass surgery.

Arne Cheyenne Johnson : Being brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you are scared but you hang in there.

• Crazy credits During the closing credits, there is a news interview with the real Ed Warren & Lorraine Warren from during the trial, along with photos of scenes from the movie and dialog from an audio recording of David Glatzel 's exorcism.
• Alternate versions The UK release was cut, the distributor chose to reduce bloody injury detail in a suicide scene in order to obtain a 15 classification. An uncut 18 classification was available.
• Connections Featured in Faith & Fear: The Conjuring Universe (2020)
• Soundtracks Baby Hold On Written by Jimmy Lyon (as James Lyon) and Eddie Money Performed by Eddie Money Courtesy of Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 1.3K

• May 25, 2021
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• June 4, 2021 (United States)
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• Official site
• The Conjuring 3
• Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• New Line Cinema
• Atomic Monster
• The Safran Company
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $39,000,000 (estimated)
• $65,631,050
• $24,104,332
• Jun 6, 2021
• $206,431,050

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 52 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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The Conjuring Review

02 Aug 2013

112 minutes

Conjuring, The

James Wan arrived on the horror scene in 2004 with the original Saw, but while the Jigsaw killer continued through six trap-happily tortuous sequels, Wan himself largely left gore behind in his own follow-up projects. Dead Silence channelled the ventriloquist dummy scares of the likes of Dead Of Night, The Twilight Zone and Magic, while Insidious riffed on the haunted house. But where the latter veered off into the loonier territory of further dimensions and string-puppet demons, The Conjuring is a more straight-ahead take on well-worn ghost story tropes. It’s at once eerily familiar and devastatingly effective. It would feel like Wan drawing a classy line under the horror phase of his career (he’s off to direct Fast & Furious 7 next) if Insidious: Chapter 2 were not due shortly afterwards.

“Based on a true story” (of course), The Conjuring involves real-life supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were involved in the Amityville saga (and were convinced it wasn’t a hoax). Like 1979’s The Amityville Horror and its many sequels, imitators and progenitors, Wan’s film sees a family (the Perrons; cry for them) moving into a new old home in which various historical traumas — child murders, witch trials — are manifesting as spooky phenomena. The Conjuring fills its exhausting run-time with a cauldron of stirred echoes from any number of its similarly-themed predecessors: a period 1970s setting; doors that open and close on their own; things under the bed; a dog that won’t enter the house; crawl spaces; a cellar; a doll; a music box; ghosts; possessions; exorcisms; secrets uncovered. Even the bird-strike set-piece has unfortunately already been seen this year, in the inferior Dark Skies (with which The Conjuring shares composer Joseph Bishara).

Yet rather than feeling stale, these ingredients in Wan’s hands combine into a classic, classical horror: you get the feeling that this must finally be the film Lili Taylor hoped Jan de Bont’s 1999 remake of The Haunting would be. Played absolutely straight, the performances are uniformly effective and affecting, whether from Taylor, Ron Livingston, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the couples on either side of the spectral divide (Wilson is also in both Insidiouses — Insidii?), or Mackenzie Foy, Joey King, Hayley McFarland, Shanley Caswell and Kyla Deaver as the Perrons’ five beleaguered daughters. The supporting cast are strong too, down to the doll-bothered girlfriends who open the film with a largely unconnected prologue.

The Conjuring revels in great scares well placed: a witch on a wardrobe and a clapping game of hide-and-seek being particularly nerve-jangling examples. The paranormal activity here is about more than the occasional loud noise, however. It’s a cliché to call the house a character in the film, but suffice to say the production design is impeccable enough to render every nook and cranny both homely and dangerous. Regular Wan collaborator John R. Leonetti’s cinematography too is particularly worthy of mention, painting American Gothic textures on both interiors and exteriors, and rendering the difficult moments with a terrible beauty that only emphasises their ugliness. The slow reveal that there are different spirits with different agendas at work in the house is masterfully handled, and even the lurch into screaming exorcist territory feels like a natural crescendo rather than an onslaught of overwrought effects.

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'The Conjuring' review: the return of true horror

The director of 'insidious' and 'saw' ups the ante in his latest ghost story.

By Bryan Bishop on July 18, 2013 09:01 am 72 Comments

In 2004 director James Wan helped launch an entire subgenre of horror with Saw . Dubbed “torture porn” — a derisive label used by cultural critics that confused catharsis with titillation — it became the gory norm for years, with the Saw franchise creaking out sequel after sequel. Starting with 2010’s Insidious , however, Wan himself has been exploring different, more nuanced ground: bringing the classic ghost story back in terrifying fashion.

His latest effort is The Conjuring , based on a case from Ed and Lorraine Warren — the real-life ghost hunters behind The Amityville Horror investigation. While the “true story” premise adds an additional layer of allure, the film goes far beyond that sort of one-note trickery, providing Wan the opportunity to take the techniques he’s learned in his previous outings and turn them up to 11. It’s a movie that doesn’t quite leap into the pantheon of genre classics it’s riffing on, but it proves James Wan is able to do one thing better than almost any filmmaker working today: scare the hell out of you.

It's the early 1970s, and Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor) are moving into an old Rhode Island farmhouse along with their five daughters. Right off the bat things seem a little off: the family dog refuses to enter the home, and the Perrons discover a cobwebbed basement behind a false wall in the closet. At night things only get worse. Clocks mysteriously stop, strange knocking echoes down the halls, and one of the Perron’s daughters starts sleepwalking — with a particular fixation on the creepy wardrobe they found abandoned in the home.

Carolyn eventually contacts renowned demonologist Ed Warren (a chilly Patrick Wilson) and his clairvoyant wife Lorraine (Vera Farmiga), begging them to investigate. And once the Warrens arrive, they realize there’s something very, very wrong.

It’s all standard-issue setup, but it’s clear Wan knows that just as much as the audience. The film is littered with references to genre classics — Poltergeist , The Changeling , Robert Wise’s The Haunting — but they’re never foregrounded. They’re passing nods; a filmmaker acknowledging what excites him, and letting the audience know he’s a fan, too. Instead, Wan uses the familiar plot as a canvas for his own bravura performance in genre filmmaking.

From his cinematographer (longtime collaborator John Leonetti) to his editor and sound designer, Wan uses every creative ally and cinematic tool at his disposal to maximize tension. The look of the film and its affinity for slow zooms places it squarely in a lived-in, realistic 1971. Clever composition misdirects the eye like an expert magician, setting up scares from the most unexpected places.

The film has its share of classic jumps, but in a refreshing departure few actually rely on the cheap gag of music stings (one particularly unsettling jump scare uses nothing but framing alone). In fact, during the first half of the film Wan is content to let long passages play with almost no sound or score. The longer he holds on to the silence, the more the audience squirms, knowing that something is coming. It makes every creak of the house a shriek; every groan a demonic howl.

The Conjuring is the kind of movie that knows exactly when it has you — and then decides to push you even further. It gets inside your head. So much so that I was instinctively sinking down in my chair in the theater. Enough that the empty back seat in my car had me rattled on the drive home. That may sound extreme, but if you like horror movies and being scared these are very good things.

Despite its effectiveness, the film does fall short of some of the greats it’s so clearly inspired by. Part of it is simply the way the film resolves. When you get into the realm of the supernatural, it’s hard to wrap things up in a way that feels both dramatically satisfying and realistic — even within the expanded boundaries of a supernatural world. The Exorcist arguably did it best, but the reason that film was able to pull it off was because it spent half its running time focusing on Father Karras; the film was about his journey, not Regan MacNeil’s.

Screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes try to do something similar in The Conjuring . The horrible haunting happens to the Perron family, but the emotional spine of the movie belongs to the Warrens. Unfortunately, that aspect of the film fails to click the way it needs to. Wilson’s Ed comes off strangely detached, never blending into the period landscape, and when the film requires Ed and Lorraine’s relationship to bring things home it can’t quite follow through.

Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor, on the other hand, both shine. Livingston expertly draws Roger as a straightforward man who suddenly finds himself in a world that’s anything but, while Taylor keeps Carolyn grounded and real — no matter how crazy her circumstances get.

Of course, in a world of found-footage retreads, not besting some of the best horror films of all time is hardly a crime. Leaving slashers behind for the murky uncertainties of the supernatural, Wan has found a way to expand his talents while driving yet another modern genre shift — and he’s still got a sequel to Insidious coming this September. It’s all the more notable given that so many of his torture porn brethren have since stalled out or otherwise failed to deliver on the promise of their early films. James Wan has made one of the scariest movies of 2013 — the only question is, will he top himself with Insidious: Chapter 2 ?

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‘the conjuring: the devil made me do it’: film review.

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, wrestling once again with demonic possession and satanic curses in the seventh film in the 'Conjuring' universe.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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James Wan ’s 2013 haunted house spine-tingler The Conjuring  kick-started a $1 billion horror franchise — one of the most lucrative and popular series in recent history. Digging into the sensational case files of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, the director dialed up the dread with a thrilling command of atmosphere, a bewitching bag of ‘70s-style practical effects, a balance of familiar tropes with the power of suggestion and an attention to character that’s too often lacking in the genre. His sequel jumped from New England to working-class North London and remained mostly effective by making us care about the family in peril and share the anxieties of the compassionate couple who come to their aid.

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But even in that 2016 follow-up, relative narrative simplicity had begun to cede ground to chaotic clutter, a weakness that steadily hobbles the third entry after a promising start that will have you jumping out of your seat.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Release date : Friday, June 4 Cast : Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble Director : Michael Chaves Screenwriter : David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by James Wan, Johnson-McGoldrick, based on characters created by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the seventh film in the “Conjuring Universe,” and regrettably, it takes its cue not from the predecessors with which it shares a title but from the less sophisticated spinoffs — the three Annabelle movies and The Nun . Like those films, this one offers plenty of lurid fun and some genuine scares. But the grounding in dark spirituality that made the previous entries focused on the Warrens so compelling gets diluted, despite the reliably dignifying double-act of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson .

Part of that seems due to Wan handing off directing reins to Michael Chaves, whose feature debut, The Curse of La Llorona , was tenuously connected to the Conjuring world though with none of the nuance. An even bigger issue is the work of solo screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who collaborated with Wan on The Conjuring 2 and Aquaman . While Wan shares a story credit, the absence of original scripters Chad and Carey W. Hayes is felt in the failure to build out the plot from a solid center.

The powerful emotional bond between Ed and Lorraine, and the united integrity they bring to their fight against evil have always been the heart of the Conjuring movies. Here, that element is spelled out in a sentimental flashback to the origins of their romance, echoed later in syrupy dialogue about dark forces believing love is their weakness when it’s their strength. Johnson-McGoldrick keeps hurrying Ed and Lorraine off on increasingly murky supernatural tangents, resulting in too many busy elements fighting for attention. By the time they pin down the source of all the evil — think the farmer’s wife from Grant Wood’s American Gothic with a hint of Geraldine Chaplin — the movie has spiraled into silly excess.

That’s too bad, because the opening sequence is a ripper. It’s 1981 and the Warrens have been called to document the exorcism of 8-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard). The officiating priest (Steve Coulter) arrives just in time to witness the kid going full-tilt Regan, calling for an urgent intervention on the kitchen table. Accompanied by the nerve-shredding roar of Joseph Bishara’s score and some tasty visual homages to the William Friedkin classic, the scene is an assault on the senses that induces a major heart attack in Ed as the inhuman spirit jumps from David to his older sister’s boyfriend, Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor).

Oddly, only Ed seems to have noticed that transference and by the time he regains consciousness in hospital, it’s too late to warn anyone about Arne, whose sleep has been troubled and his waking hours plagued by startling visions. At the boarding kennels where Arne’s girlfriend Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook) works, Blondie’s “Call Me” blasts from the stereo and the dogs are barking like hellhounds as Arne loses control. Soon after, he’s found by a cop wandering along the road drenched in blood, muttering, “I think I hurt someone.” With the support of the Warrens, his case becomes the first American murder trial to claim demonic possession as a defense.

So far so blood-curdlingly good. But the deeper the Warrens delve into the history of David Glatzel’s possession and similar mysteries connecting back to a satanic curse passed on through macabre totems and the home-furnishing felony of the waterbed, the more contrived Johnson-McGoldrick’s screenplay becomes. While the fictional developments reportedly are composites of actual interactions Lorraine Warren had over the years, the pile-up of supernatural mayhem becomes numbingly preposterous.

Ed’s medical condition sidelines Wilson from the physical action for much of the running time, making Lorraine’s clairvoyant gifts the investigative key, more so than in earlier installments. Watching Farmiga front and center is always rewarding, though as Lorraine drifts in and out of all-too-real visions of evil in her matronly blouses and headmistress hairdo, she starts to seem like a psychic Miss Marple. (It’s admirable that costumer Leah Butler honors the real Lorraine’s personal style, but it seems unfair to mortify Farmiga with flouncy frills while Wilson’s Ed gets groovy retro polo shirts and flattering dad suits.)

The movie starts seriously going over the edge when Ed and Lorraine break into a morgue at night and find themselves in reanimated company. Revelations concerning a retired priest known for his occult research (John Noble) tip it even further into overwrought genre bunkum. Are we really still doing horror movies where someone flips through a Renaissance witchcraft text and says something dumb like, “My Latin is rusty?”

Through all this, Arne seems frequently forgotten — a shame, since lean and haunted O’Connor has a striking screen presence. Arne languishes in a prison right out of the Ryan Murphy school of stylistic overstatement, ravaged from within and regularly rattled as the originator of the curse gets closer to claiming his life. I did chuckle at one ghoulish manifestation sitting up in the medical ward droning Blondie lyrics at him. But Arne’s big levitation finale competes with The Ed and Lorraine Show across town, sapping the tension from both. It doesn’t enhance the gravity to have confused Debbie ask, Scary Movie -style, “Honey, what are you doing?” as Arne spider-walks off the bed in rubber-limbed contortions amid a storm of flying debris.

In terms of craftsmanship, The Devil Made Me Do It is certainly slick. DP Michael Burgess’ camera adopts unnerving angles and prowls insidiously through one sepulchral-looking space after another, and the groaning soundscape works in tandem with Bishara’s big scary-ass score to creep under the audience’s skin. But the palpitating storytelling loses its way while trying to do the same.

Full credits

Distributor: Warner Bros./HBO Max Production companies: New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, The Safran Company Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hilliard, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Shannon Kook, Keith Arthur Bolden, Steve Coulter, Vince Pisani, Sterling Jerins, Paul Wilson, Charlene Amoia, Paul Wilson, Ingrid Bisu, Andrea Andrade, Ronnie Gene Blevins Director: Michael Chaves Screenwriter: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick; story by James Wan, Johnson-McGoldrick, based on characters created by Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes Producers: James Wan, Peter Safran Executive producers: Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Victoria Palmeri, Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Michelle Morrissey Director of photography: Michael Burgess Production designer: Jennifer Spence Costume designer: Leah Butler Music: Joseph Bishara Editors: Peter Gvozdas, Christian Wagner Sound designers: Jon Title, D. Chris Smith, Doobie White Visual effects producer: Eric Bruneau Visual effects supervisor: Robert Nederhorst Casting: Anne McCarthy, Kellie Roy

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Where to watch.

Watch The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It with a subscription on Max, Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

The Devil Made Me Do It represents a comedown for the core Conjuring films, although Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson keep the audience invested.

It may not contain many surprises for fans of the franchise, but this threequel more than makes up for it with another scary, tense adventure for the ghostbusting Warrens.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Michael Chaves

Patrick Wilson

Vera Farmiga

Lorraine Warren

Ruairi O'Connor

Arne Cheyenne Johnson

Sarah Catherine Hook

Debbie Glatzel

Julian Hilliard

David Glatzel

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After 51 movies, mark wahlberg still hasn’t paid off his $20 million villain role from 28 years ago, “no, no, no, impossible”: disney’s sci-fi comedy with 40% rt score leaves vfx artists stunned 32 years later, the conjuring is a very satisfying horror movie outing, but when it's done - beyond the trauma of a freaky moviegoing experience - there is little to ponder or reflect upon..

The Conjuring   transports us into the world of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), the famous real-life couple who for decades studied, combated and documented supernatural occurrences. Teased by the promise that this is the Warren's most frightening case of all, The Conjuring  follows the plight of the Perron family - Carolyn (Lili Taylor), her husband Roger (Ron Livingston) and their five daughters - who move into a remote farmhouse, only to discover it is inhabited by a fearsome demonic presence.

Ed and Lorraine agree to help the Perrons exorcise their home, but the case quickly proves to be more dangerous than they could've ever imagined. With Lorraine (a talented physic) vulnerable to the dark forces haunting the Perrons, and a ghostly adversary that's as cunning as she is evil, the Warrens soon find that they have become the hunted, instead of the hunters.

The Conjuring  comes our way courtesy of horror director James Wan ( Saw , Insidious ) and twin brother horror/thriller writing duo Chad and Carey Hayes ( The Reaping ,  House of Wax ). While the script has  the usual "passable" quality of the Hayes brothers' B-movie signature, it is Wan's uncanny ability to create simple, creative and very effective scare sequences that elevates this movie above just about every other ghost story horror flick of the last few years. In short: this is the scariest movie of 2013 (so far).

It's a small miracle that the movie achieves the nonstop, hair-raising tension that it does. Wan is used to making the utmost out of a micro-budget ( Saw  and Insidious  both had budgets averaging out at about $1.3 million) and  The Conjuring  is the best application of his low-budget formula to date. Instead of CGI creatures and fancy visual effects used in so many other films today,  The Conjuring  takes things back to the '70s/'80s era of horror movies, using simple filmmaking techniques like camera angles, keen concepts and fantastic sequencing to create a truly terrifying horror experience that is mostly free of  blood and/or gore, making its frightful nature an even more impressive achievement.

Admittedly, the film is built on pretty familiar horror movie tropes - but again, it's the way these familiar moments (bumps in the night, something lurking in the shadows or behind a door) are staged that makes them more impressive and effective than so many other films. It's all about the craftsmanship, and James Wan, working at the top of his game, truly knows how to scare us. Practical makeup and visual effects help to sell the  scary show in a tactile and real way (a welcome respite from the barrage of CGI monsters and VFX seen in so many horror movies these days) rather than nagging the mind with the distracting notion of non-reality that often comes with digital effects work.

Aiding in the creation of a convincingly frightening world are a cast of talented performers who help sell the scares with grounded and believable performances. Wilson and Wan (who worked together on Insidious  and its upcoming sequel ) are comfortable enough with one another to allow Ed to be a charming enough straight-faced leading man, while Farmiga ( Up In the Air , Bates Motel ) once again demonstrates why she is such solid and reliable actress, making Lorraine a fascinating and very human character, despite the fantastical nature of her "powers" and the supernatural world she inhabits.

The same dynamic works for Roger and Carolyn Perron: Livingston ( Office Space ) is a sympathetic, straight-faced male protagonist, while Taylor ( Hemlock Grove ) uses her talents in a wide range of emoting to create the believable and well-rounded character needed to pul off the film's climatic third act.

The child actors are also skilled at selling the idea of real fear and emotion, thanks to talented youngsters like Mackenzie Foy ( Breaking Dawn ), Hayley McFarland ( Lie to Me ), Joey King ( Dark Knight Rises ), Kyla Deaver and Shanley Caswell ( Vegas ) - who all work well together selling the chemistry and bond of tight-knit sisters. Even bit characters played by Shannon Kook ( Degrassi: The Next Generation ) and John Brotherton ( One Life to Live ) get standout moments and are likable enough to relate to, and because we actually care about all of the people involved in this battle against evil, it's easy to be invested in each moment and sequence in which their lives (or souls) are put in danger. On a character level, there are no weak links or throwaways.

No film is without nitpicks, however, and the only reason  The Conjuring  isn't (necessarily) worthy of five-star classic status is due to the fact that the Hayes brothers' script - while blessedly tight and efficient at a lean 112 minutes - still manages to dangle a few threads (mostly concerning the Warrens' personal life) that are not really necessary and distract from the main narrative. Of course, now that a  Conjuring  sequel has been approved, those dangling threads could conceivably be tied into future films exploring the Warrens' long career; but in this standalone film, they feel extraneous.

One further nitpick: although this film is excellent, its simple, self-contained and anecdotal nature doesn't necessarily give it the same ability to hang around in mind like, say,  The Shining , a film whose deep levels and themes stay with you long after the credits roll.  The Conjuring  is a very satisfying horror movie outing, but when it's done - beyond the trauma of a freaky moviegoing experience - there is little to ponder or reflect upon. Of course, the intention is to tell an anecdotal story - and for better or worse, the filmmakers do just that.

If you are a horror movie fan, go see  The Conjuring . Even if you're the type who is too tough and rugged to be scared by a movie (or if you have that "seen it all" attitude of a hardcore horror connoisseur), you'll have to at least give it up to Wan and Co. for bringing things back to a bygone era of filmmaking and proving that progress and technological advances will never be suitable replacements for good old-fashioned creativity and know-how. That statement alone is worthy of applause by the time the credits roll - that is, if you aren't too busy trying to calm your rattled nerves.

Check out the trailer for  The Conjuring  if you're still on the fence:

[poll id="643"]

The Conjuring   is now in theaters. It is 112 minutes long and is Rated-R for sequences of disturbing violence and terror (translation: it's too scary).

The Conjuring

Based on the real-life case files of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring chronicles the haunting of the Perron family after moving into a Rhode Island farmhouse. The film went on to kickstart the Conjuring franchise, a series of supernatural horror films.

• Movie Reviews
• 4.5 star movies

The Conjuring 2

What scares you? It’s pretty easy to see what scares James Wan . The director’s sense of cinematic fear was clearly formed by the horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, his work often recalling hits of the era like “The Omen” and “Poltergeist.” In many ways, “The Conjuring 2” is the “ultimate James Wan film,” allowing the filmmaker to play with styles of the era in the retelling of one of its most notable paranormal activities: the notorious Enfield poltergeist. Being able to tie the “true story” behind another horror classic from his youth to this one (“ The Amityville Horror ”) only sweetens the deal. Wan is a kid in a haunted candy store with “The Conjuring 2” and his talent (and that of his team) make this kind of ride enjoyable, even if it doesn’t have the visceral, confident impact of the original. 

“The Conjuring 2” opens with notorious ghostbusters Ed ( Patrick Wilson ) and Lorraine Warren ( Vera Farmiga ) investigating the aftermath of the murders that became known as “The Amityville Horror.” Lorraine has a unique ability to communicate with supernatural beings and has been asked to confirm that what happened at Amityville was demonic in nature and not just a homicidal patriarch. While sitting around a table in the DeFeo dining room, Lorraine has an out-of-body experience that allows her to see the shotgun murders that took place in the house and a “Demon Nun” ( Bonnie Aarons ), which is literally how the recurring vision is listed in the credits, who will haunt Lorraine throughout the film, and issue a warning that Ed’s days are numbered.

After the Amityville prologue, the action jumps to Enfield, England (we know we’re in England because Wan, never a particularly subtle director, uses “London Calling” on the soundtrack, an obvious choice more playful than annoying). We meet the Hodgson family, led by single mother Peggy (Frances O’Connor) and including four children. One of the girls is Janet ( Madison Wolfe ), and she starts to have much bigger problems at home than when she was caught smoking by her teacher. It begins with sleepwalking, progresses to sounds in the middle of the night, and ultimately ends up in possession. A man named Bill Wilkins ( Bob Adrian ) seems to have the ability to take over the poor girl’s body, even speaking through her, resulting in some infamous recordings in which a young girl sounds decidedly like an old man. And that’s nowhere near as scary as the crosses that turn upside down or the visions of the “Crooked Man.” The local authorities get in touch with the Warrens, who make the trip to England to determine whether or not the Hodgsons are faking the haunting or stop them from becoming the next Amityville.

Children in jeopardy, a put-upon mother, an old house. Sound familiar? It should. Wan and his screenwriters very purposefully hit many of the same beats as the first film, presenting us with a set-up that often feels too similar, and disappoints by comparison because O’Connor’s character isn’t given nearly the depth of Lili Taylor ’s in the original. Taylor’s underrated work in that film helped ground the fear tactics in something real. The characters in “The Conjuring 2” are secondary, introduced with minor definition (mom worries about money, one of the boys stutters, etc.) and then put-upon enough that the Warrens have to save the day. Despite very solid work by Wolfe to capture the fear of a girl who has no idea what’s going on (as well as to be truly scary when she needs to be), the characters in “The Conjuring 2” don’t resonate, so we don’t care as much about what happens to them.

Which is not to say that Wan has entirely lost his ability to scare us. Working with ace cinematographer Don Burgess (a regular collaborator of Robert Zemeckis on everything from “ Forrest Gump ,” for which he won an Oscar, to “ Flight ”), Wan and his team have an incredible ability to produce fear with camera tricks and forced perspective. They’ll start with a shot of a room, zoom in on a face, and then quick-zoom out to reveal something crucial has changed. They avoid traditional, jump-scare edits, knowing that it’s much scarier to stay in one shot as the normal world becomes terrifying around and in it. And they love playing with supernatural POV (that floating camera above the action in the house) and with what they allow us to see. There’s a fantastic scene in which Janet may or may not be possessed by Bill in the background but Wan and Burgess stay tight on Ed Warren’s face, allowing our imaginations to work on what’s going on behind him. At its best, Wan’s incredible camera skills blend with his playfulness—the sound of someone (or something) whistling “This Old Man,” a fire engine toy moving on its own, a dog bell that every modern horror viewer knows will eventually signal menace—to create the kind of thrill ride the director is so clearly trying to replicate. He didn’t just make a film set in the ‘70s, he employs tricks of the era cinematically, recalling movies like “The Omen” and “ The Shining ,” but with a modern eye.

“The Conjuring 2” doesn’t live up to the films that inspired it (or the original) not because of the filmmaking laziness we so often see in horror (especially sequels), but almost because Wan and company are having too much fun to streamline their film. The movie runs amazingly long, and could have lost at least 15 minutes to make for a tighter, scarier ride. At times, the non-stop haunting becomes numbing, lessening its ability to scare. The commitment by Wan and his team—and Farmiga and Wilson, who completely devote themselves to their sometimes-goofy roles—makes the ride worth taking, but “The Conjuring 2” can be too recognizable to get under our skin. It is an incredibly robust piece of filmmaking on a technical level, and that alone will be enough for many Wan fans (and those of us exhausted by Hollywood horror films that often show no filmmaking prowess at all), but ghost stories don’t have the same impact the second time you hear them. Even the scary ones.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Sterling Jerins as Judy Warren
• Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren
• Simon McBurney as Maurice Grosse
• Bob Adrian as Bill Wilkins
• Franka Potente as Anita Gregory
• Patrick Wilson as Ed Warren
• Madison Wolfe as Janet Hodgson
• Frances O’Connor as Peggy Hodgson
• Carey Hayes
• David Johnson

Writer (story)

Cinematographer.

• Don Burgess
• Joseph Bishara
• Kirk M. Morri

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‘The Conjuring’ Review: Homeownership Has Its Perils

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By Manohla Dargis

• July 18, 2013

The dread gathers and surges while the blood scarcely trickles in “The Conjuring,” a fantastically effective haunted-house movie. Set largely in 1971, it purports to tell a story based on “true case files” about a family of seven whose pastoral dream became a nightmare soon after they moved into a Rhode Island farmhouse. One day, Mom, Dad and the girls are settling into their conveniently sprawling, creaking, squeaking two-story house — the rooms quickly become a disorienting maze — and the next, they’re playing hide and creep with a mysterious, increasingly malevolent force.

The director James Wan plays much the same game with you. Written by the brothers Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes, the movie opens with a jittery, funny prologue involving a couple of pretty nurses right out of a Roger Corman quickie, a devil doll named Annabelle (shades of Rod Serling and Chucky) and a pair of married paranormal experts, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). The Warrens quickly take care of business, and Mr. Wan does the same. With shock cuts, gliding camera movements, muted colors that evoke David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and tricks learned from “The Twilight Zone,” Mr. Wan — whose first sly shot is of a cracked, smiling face — sets a relentlessly uneasy tone that imperceptively shifts between intense seriousness and lightly mocking.

The real Ed and Lorraine Warren, lifelong investigators of the paranormal — their Web site calls him a demonologist and her a trance medium — established the grandly named New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952 but are most famous for their exploits in another house, in Amityville, on Long Island. (Mr. Warren died in 2006 ; Ms. Warren was a consultant on “The Conjuring.”) The Warrens declared that Dutch Colonial demonic, a diagnosis that led to more than a dozen “Amityville” movies and stoked the market for haunted-house tales. What happened when the Warrens entered the Rhode Island home in “The Conjuring” hasn’t received the same attention, although one of the daughters, Andrea Perron, has published a memoir.

The movie takes off with Carolyn (an excellent Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston, very good), moving their family into their new home. He’s a truck driver, while she runs the house and five girls ranging from preschool age to high school. They’re appealingly real, with an easy intimacy that’s strikingly different from the canned version briefly seen in a clip from “The Brady Bunch.” The only perceptible crack in the facade is that they’re struggling financially, a fissure suggested by Carolyn’s quietly tense demeanor, Roger’s knotted forehead and the house’s smudged, unpainted walls. Once they move in, they can’t move out, a bad situation that speaks as much to today as to the story’s inflation-plagued period . Things are rocky even before they go bump in the night.

When Mr. Wan lingers on Carolyn’s crumbling smile it’s obvious that it isn’t only the Perron house that’s troubled. It’s been estimated that 75 percent of Americans believe in the paranormal, while only 54 percent believe global warming has begun. Evidently it’s easier to believe in the terrors that can’t hurt us than to believe in those that can, which may partly account for why so many vampires, zombies and their paranormal ilk are running amok in the popular imagination. Each era brings its own allegorical terrors, and in the 1970s, a golden age of horror cinema, the aftershocks of the 1960s found expression in stories about diabolically terrifying spawn who, with their swiveling heads and annihilating violence, were grotesque embodiments of a generational anxiety.

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The Conjuring Universe, Ranked

For a franchise that spans three interconnected series, with six directors and seven screenwriters between nine movies, the Conjuring Universe’s lore is remarkably consistent. Annabelle wants souls, demons possess you by puking into your mouth, and no powers of darkness are stronger than the love between spooky mom and dad , Ed and Lorraine Warren. Less consistent, however, is the quality of the films.

The first film in the series, 2013’s The Conjuring , was directed by James Wan, whose straightforward-yet-stylish approach to horror is responsible for some of the most successful franchises in the genre’s history. (He’s also the creator of the Saw and Insidious series.) Wan left the director’s chair after helming The Conjuring 2 in 2016 but stayed on as a producer for the multiple follow-ups and spinoffs that followed. None come close to reaching the heights of Wan’s vision, but there are a few gems and a few real stinkers in the bunch. With the latest entry in the franchise, The Nun 2 , in theaters now, we’re ranking the Conjuring Universe from scary (bad) to scary (good).

9. The Nun (2018)

It’s disappointing that The Nun is so bad, because the premise has so much promise. The origin story of the evil spirit Valak from The Conjuring 2 , The Nun stars Taissa Farmiga (sister of Vera) as Irene, a young novitiate and clairvoyant summoned to a convent to investigate a fellow nun’s suicide. Given her similar psychic abilities and clear resemblance to her sister, it seemed obvious that Irene would turn out to be related to Lorraine Warren in some way. But nope! The Nun ends on a flashback to a scene from The Conjuring , revealing that Ed and Lorraine performed an exorcism on Maurice, the man who helped Irene defeat Valak but ended up getting secretly possessed in the process.

This strange stunt casting that wasn’t aside, The Nun has other issues. There is so much fun stuff you can do with a demon nun in a convent! There are lots of big, spooky spaces and the uniformity means anyone in a habit could be a threat. In fact, the most chilling images in The Nun are of sisters gathered together in an enclosed sanctuary or a black-robed figure ambling down a shadowy hallway. Is that Valak or just a nun going about her business? Unfortunately, director Corin Hardy doesn’t use that imagery to build any real tension, resulting in the biggest sin a horror movie can commit: It’s just not scary.

8. The Curse of La Llorona (2019)

Two horror films on the legend of La Llorona, the “weeping woman” from Mexican folklore who drowned her children in a jealous rage after discovering her husband’s affair, were released in 2019. One of them was a slow-burn, atmospheric meditation on the Guatemalan genocide that now sits in the Criterion Collection . The other was a slight-but-somehow-also-ham-fisted movie about a social worker named Anna (Linda Cardellini) who inadvertently allows a client’s children to be killed by La Llorona, an evil spirit who then comes after Anna’s family because of a bargain the mother made to swap Anna’s kids for her own. This one is the latter.

The social politics of these movies have never been great — the real-life Warrens were, by all accounts, pretty shitty people and not the gorgeous, benevolent forces portrayed by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson — but that’s easily dismissed in the name of movie magic. Building a story around a white family using a curandero to fend off a grieving Mexican mother on welfare is a pretty bad look. At least La Llorona is scary.

7. Annabelle (2014)

It’s a testament to the charisma of Patrick and Vera that the Conjuring Universe became the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time after this dud of a spinoff. There are a few fun scares (one particular set piece uses a familiar Wan trick of hiding jump scares behind swinging doors that is effective if a tad derivative) but Annabelle is bogged down by a postpartum anxiety metaphor that’s trying and failing to be a Rosemary’s Baby homage. The Conjuring has a ’70s supernatural-horror vibe so it makes some sense that the follow-up would go for a throwback as well. But where Wan borrows techniques from films like The Exorcist and Poltergeist to create his own style , director John R. Leonetti (Wan’s cinematographer since 2007’s Dead Silence ) doesn’t bring any new ideas to the table, simply leaving you wishing you were watching a better movie.

6. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

If there’s one thing this franchise loves, it’s putting Vera Farmiga in a ruffled blouse. If there’s one other thing this franchise loves, it’s referencing ’70s horror. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It does both in spades. The 2021 film, which opens with a direct homage to The Exorcist , is based on the 1982 trial of Arne Johnson, who was the first person in the U.S. to claim demonic possession as a defense. As the only entry in the main Conjuring series not to be directed by Wan, it’s the weakest of the three, but director Michael Chaves has a lot more to work with here than he did in The Curse of La Llorona .

Namely, Ed and Lorraine are here! The supernatural power of their chemistry casts a warm glow over everything around them, which is the key element to what makes the series work. Their love is presented as a talisman against the forces of evil, which The Devil Made Me Do It makes explicit in heavy-handed dialogue. It’s cheesy, but Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga sell it so well, with her stoic fragility playing off his gentle strength, that it still rings true.

5. The Nun 2 (2023)

Blessedly, the follow-up to The Nun improves on the original in every way. At its best, the Conjuring series plays like a sexy, Catholic Supernatural ; paranormal investigators look into reported demonic activity and eventually defeat the evil. It’s formulaic, but the formula works! The Nun 2 returns to that formula — Sister Irene is tasked with looking into a string of suicides that seem to be the handiwork of Valak — with a much better sense of pacing and tone than its predecessor. Where The Nun suffered from a complete and utter lack of tension, director Michael Chaves uses some classic horror standbys to build suspense. He holds on closed doors, slices through darkness with a flashlight beam, and there’s a particularly fun bit of business with a magazine stand which was shown in the trailer . His kills are also a bit more splatter-y than this franchise tends to get. It all works to make The Nun 2 scarier and, just as crucially, funner! A joke and a scare can serve the same purpose — punctuating tension — and the weaker entries in the franchise skip over its humor entirely.

However, The Nun 2 suffers from a dilemma befalling many a midquel: It’s boxed in by canon. The audience knows that Maurice will be possessed by Valak at least until he comes into contact with Ed and Lorraine. That dramatic irony works in Chaves’s favor when it comes to pulling off scares early in the film, but the ending doesn’t engage with that contradiction at all. The Conjuring films often have a final shot that indicates the evil is never really dead. But here, when it would make the most sense to do so, we get no such reveal. It’s a strange choice that makes it seem like the screenwriters just didn’t know what to do with the Conjuring Universe’s increasingly elaborate storylines.

4. Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

This directorial debut of screenwriter Gary Dauberman comes closest to emulating James Wan’s style. It’s also the movie outside of the main Conjuring series that features the most Ed and Lorraine. (Patrick Wilson wears a little party hat, which automatically knocks it up a ranking.) Both of those elements make Annabelle Comes Home one of the strongest spinoffs in the franchise. Dauberman, who also wrote the script, is playing in the subgenre of babysitter horror a la Halloween or When a Stranger Calls . Ed and Lorraine are called to investigate a haunting, leaving their daughter, Judy, at home with her babysitter, Mary Ellen. While they’re away, Mary Ellen’s friend accidentally releases the demonic Annabelle in an attempt to contact her dead father. The three of them — plus Mary Ellen’s crush Bob — are then tormented by the spirits raised by Annabelle.

The best scenes in the movie are obviously Dauberman’s horror set-pieces, which feel like Wan ideas (complimentary). A spinning color wheel shows creepy shadows growing and moving across Judy’s bedroom wall. A TV seems to show events happening a few seconds in the future. One scene, featuring a ghost with silver dollars over its eyes, is nearly as good as the hide-and-clap scene in The Conjuring . The actors are all charming enough to get us through the necessary dialogue until we get to the next scare. Plus, did I mention Patrick Wilson wears a little party hat?

3. Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Following in this franchise’s now-established tradition of the sequel being better than the original, Annabelle: Creation has the most defined style of the non-Wan films. It’s directed by David F. Sandberg, who is best known for the “Lights Out” short that terrified everyone who was on Facebook in 2014. (He later adapted it into a feature.) Sandberg takes this film a little grungier than the rest of the franchise, which matches the 1950s dust bowl setting. The film opens with a technique used to great effect in more prestige-y horror movies like The Quiet Place and Hereditary : the sudden death of a child. It’s effectively shocking, and sets a grim tone for the rest of the film, which takes place several years later when the girl’s father opens his home to a group of displaced orphans. Naturally, the orphans start being tormented by a demon, who was summoned after the girl’s parents prayed to whatever entity would bring their daughter back. (If you haven’t guessed by now, her name was Annabelle and the demon possessed one of her dolls.)

The “Lights Out” short made clear that Sandberg is very good at long, drawn-out scares. He uses those tricks throughout Annabelle: Creation , including one very creepy scene in which two girls hide under a blanket fort while a presence draws closer to them. Another set piece involving a malfunctioning chair lift is excruciatingly tense. Without Ed and Lorraine as our emotional anchor, though, there isn’t much to care about between the scares.

2. The Conjuring (2013)

The first film in the Conjuring Universe does an incredible job of introducing us to (the movie version of) the Warrens and their whole deal. It opens on the Annabelle case, with Ed and Lorraine explaining to some terrified roommates that the doll is possessed by a demon and extremely dangerous. Right away we see how seriously they take their work, but also how well they play off of each other. They’re charming, gracious, and beautiful. It’s no wonder that everyone, both onscreen and off, wants to hear them talk about demons!

The Perron family certainly wants to hear what they have to say, and they ask the Warrens to investigate their farmhouse, where they have been experiencing unexplained phenomena. Wan teases out those scares slowly, with a meandering handheld camera that lulls us into feeling like we’re just hanging out with the family. He shows Ed checking out the house’s framework and pipes, explaining that sometimes there are perfectly rational explanations for the things that go bump in the night. When the scares do hit, they’re perfectly calibrated. The hide-and-clap scene is probably the most iconic image in the franchise, and for good reason. It’s built up so well, with little moments of relief that ratchet right back up again.

But what makes The Conjuring perhaps the tightest film in the franchise is how it fits together thematically. The Warrens are, ultimately, tragic heroes, who see in the Perrons a life they want but cannot have because of their calling. Leaving their daughter and risking their lives to protect others isn’t an easy job, the movie posits, but someone’s gotta do it.

1. The Conjuring 2 (2016)

The Conjuring ends by teasing the Warrens’ most famous case, the Amityville Horror, but The Conjuring 2 smartly doesn’t focus on that. We’ve already covered that case extensively, with over 20 increasingly ridiculous takes on the story set to film. Instead, The Conjuring 2 opens on that case much like The Conjuring did, with Annabelle. It’s a phenomenal scene, with Lorraine Warren walking through the house in a trance, acting out the brutal murders with an invisible shotgun. (This technique was used again, to lesser effect, in The Devil Made Me Do It .) The bulk of the action, however, concerns a lesser-known Warren haunting, which gives Wan more room for interpretation and surprise.

The sequel doubles down on everything that worked about The Conjuring . Ed and Lorraine are the beautiful, tragic saviors of a terrified family confronted with a deep evil, strengthened by the power of their love for each other. This time the devil’s in the U.K., and children and ghosts are both scarier and funnier with British accents. Wan’s eye for spooky set pieces is even sharper here; The Conjuring 2 boasts the most chilling scene in the franchise. When the spirit of an old man possessing a little girl makes everyone turn around before he’ll talk to them, Wan focuses his lens on Patrick Wilson’s face. He calmly asks questions while over his shoulder, just out of focus, the girl’s face contorts into a mask of contempt as the ghost speaks through her. Once it’s done, the girl spits out the water she’d been holding in her mouth. It’s a less memeable scene than hide-and-clap, but it’s a more apt symbol for the franchise in the way it illustrates the sinister banality of evil in the Conjuring Universe. The devil has rules, but they don’t make any sort of sense. Ed and Lorraine are our guides to that twisted code, and we couldn’t do it without them.

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All Conjuring Universe Movies Ranked

The first Conjuring movie descended with one of the great marketing hooks: That the MPAA had slapped it was an R rating for simply being too scary. And, for once, the movie itself lived up to the marketing hype: With nary any blood or boobs, The Conjuring jammed audiences into a non-stop claustrophobic horror thrill ride, as Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated paranormal activity in the ’70s. A Certified Fresh rating (a first for director James Wan) helps in securing a sequel, a $300 million worldwide box office haul all but guarantees it – and the  Conjuring 2  was almost as scary as the original.

Years later, the Conjuring Universe is in full-swing, having now expanded into one direct sequel and many spinoffs that have whisked audiences to locales like London, Rome, and Mexico. Since then, we’ve seen a third sequel ( The Devil Made Me Do It) and a full expansion spin-offs with The Curse of La Llorona , and two times The Nun. Plenty of confess and keep you up at night, and with that we’re ranking all the Conjuring movies by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first!

The Conjuring (2013) 86%

The Conjuring 2 (2016) 80%

Annabelle: Creation (2017) 70%

Annabelle Comes Home (2019) 64%

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) 55%

The Nun II (2023) 52%

The Curse of La Llorona (2019) 28%

Annabelle (2014) 28%

The Nun (2018) 24%

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Movie Review: The Conjuring (2013)

• Dan Gunderman
• Movie Reviews
• 17 responses
• --> July 20, 2013

Something wicked approaches.

Every now and then, there comes a film that reaffirms our quelling desire to be at the movies, or to watch as we sit back on the couch with an addictive bag of popcorn. The Conjuring is one of those films. With old-school scares, stellar camerawork and commendable acting, this film — though formulaic — confirms our love of a good horror flick; it also leaves us feeling exceedingly frightened of anything identified with the Salem Witch Trials.

The story, said to be based off of true events, involves the same demonologists that investigated the Amityville Horror case. At its heart, though, it revolves around the Perrons — Roger (Ron Livingston, “ The Odd Life of Timothy Green ”) the patriarch of the family, his wife, Carolyn (Lili Taylor, “ Public Enemies ”) and their five daughters (including Mackenzie Foy, Joey King, Hayley McFarland, Shanley Caswell and Kyla Deaver) — a family that has just taken strides to make a new start for themselves by purchasing an old farmhouse auctioned off by the bank.

That right there should be enough of a tell-tale sign, as shortly thereafter they begin to experience supernatural occurrences in the old, internally-dilapidated house.

But The Conjuring gets better than just disembodied female ghost whispers, shifting furniture and bangs in the barren basement. There is a demonic presence slowly latching itself to the family and as any horror-guru can tell you without watching, possession seeks the form of the most vulnerable. And after home remedies fail to stop the situation from worsening, the Perrons finally seek the help of professionals, that’s right, it’s ghost busting time.

Enter demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, “ Insidious ” and Vera Farmiga, “ Safe House ”), two acclaimed hunters of the paranormal, who have had a widely successful but controversial career together. They soon realize the scope of the Perrons dilemma and quickly move in with a small crew armed with (now archaic) cameras and thermal technology. But are they too late to save yet another family (and audiences to a lesser extent) from eternal damnation?

Clue inspection.

Saving the audience, at least, is the acting of Vera Farmiga. As usual, she delivers a formidable performance in a genre that seems to fit her best (now showcased weekly on the TV show, “ Bates Motel ”). She commands the screen with a sense of deserved authority, but also with high vulnerability. Patrick Wilson is no slouch either (having worked with James Wan prior no doubt a benefit); he is believably stern and generous, and the young actresses portraying the Perron daughters thankfully stray from the normally arid line readings by teenaged actors.

It was also a wonderful idea for the production team to shoot in North Carolina. The locale provided an exceedingly creepy farmhouse and some wonderful landscape shots.

Fine points aside The Conjuring , unfortunately, doesn’t carry with it the overwhelming scares, the character development or the ingenuity to put it on a level playing field with classics like “ The Exorcist ” or “ Poltergeist .” True, few horror movies can get there but it would be nice to see a contender finally arrive on the scene. The Conjuring with some extra effort could have been that contender.

Tagged: demon , ghost , investigation , possession

Dan is an author, film critic and media professional. He is a former staff writer for the N.Y. Daily News, where he served as a film/TV reviewer with a "Top Critic" designation on Rotten Tomatoes. His debut historical fiction novel, "Synod," was published by an independent press in Jan. 2018, receiving praise among indie book reviewers. His research interests include English, military and political history.

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'Movie Review: The Conjuring (2013)' have 17 comments

July 20, 2013 @ 8:31 pm brainload

It’s only a matter of time before James Wan puts all the pieces together to make a classic horror film.

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July 20, 2013 @ 8:50 pm David Meyer

Sounds great but I think I’ll rent this closer to Halloween.

July 23, 2013 @ 10:10 pm Joe

Why wait? Halloween won’t make it any scarier.

July 25, 2013 @ 7:38 pm OnceTwisted

Waiting for Halloween has no merit but you may be right in waiting to rent it. Experiencing this in the pitch dark, alone, in your own home is probably the better choise than seeing it in a theater with a bunch of kids talking about how scared they are or aren’t.

July 20, 2013 @ 9:14 pm Heat

I’m in for a good scare!

July 21, 2013 @ 1:09 pm Brockton

You’re in for much more than a good scare. It had me jumping out of my seat more than i care to admit.

July 20, 2013 @ 9:58 pm Aldoraine

Easily the best horror movie I have seen in many years.

July 20, 2013 @ 10:33 pm NightmareX

It is full of basic horror tropes and cliches but damnit if they still didn’t work! My ass cheeks were firmly clamped from beginning to end!

July 21, 2013 @ 4:29 am Slackjaw

Wan’s Insidious was scarier.

July 21, 2013 @ 9:30 am Hummer54

Creepy. And if this really is based on true events its even creepier.

August 2, 2013 @ 3:59 pm Windowless

I think the fact that the movie was based off true events held it back. The conclusion should have ended completely differently – in a way that would have really sent shockwaves through the audience…

July 21, 2013 @ 4:46 pm Draiko

I don’t follow the reviewer’s train of thought.

He starts with “With old-school scares, stellar camerawork and commendable acting, this film — though formulaic — confirms our love of a good horror flick” but he ends his review with “The Conjuring, unfortunately, doesn’t carry with it the overwhelming scares, the character development or the ingenuity.”

Seems he suffered from a bout of amnesia…

July 24, 2013 @ 2:25 am Dan Gunderman

What you seem to leave out is: “to put it on a level playing field with classics like The Exorcist and Poltergeist.” Trust me, it had its moments, albeit moderately cliche. But it was still a nice theater experience.

July 22, 2013 @ 3:41 pm Reed

I’m not easily scared but Conjuring left me with an empty pit in my stomach.

July 30, 2013 @ 11:52 am Rock

I hate everything about SAW series. Good on Wan for getting to better scary pictures.

July 31, 2013 @ 9:25 pm Mike Linch

I’m throwing in the trash every doll my daughter owns.

August 6, 2013 @ 8:52 pm 737 Down

There wasn’t a damn thing frightening about this movie.

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