When The Conjuring first premiered back in 2013, audiences all around the world flocked to the theaters to see the supernatural horror film that was supposedly based on true investigations by Ed and Lorraine Warren. However, after watching how the Perrone family was tormented by a demonic spirit and how Ed and Lorraine were able to rid them of their attacker, plenty of people went back home a little uneasy. The idea that vengeful spirits could affect anyone at any moment — if they found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time — was (and still is) utterly horrifying, but, in Hollywood, genuine terror sells.
With the momentum going after the success of the first movie, two more Conjuring films were made, along with several spin-offs: the Annabelle trilogy, The Nun and its sequel, and The Curse of La Llorona. Now, with some of these storylines happening decades before the Warrens met the Perrons, and others taking place afterward, it has become somewhat difficult to keep everything in order. A few films are obviously connected with their storylines, but others are much more subtle in their connections. Before things get too crazy, and before the upcoming fourth and final film in the franchise The Conjuring: Last Rites, is released, it would do viewers some good to get these stories in order.
Here is The Conjuring Universe, in both release and timeline order.
Update September 2, 2025: This article has been updated in preparation for the release of The Conjuring: Last Rites.
A woman strikes a match in The Conjuring
Warner Bros. Pictures
While the religious horror movie franchise kicked off in 2013 with The Conjuring, which saw the demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, barely scratching the surface of the Annabelle storyline and focusing more on supernatural experiences with the Perron family. From this point, the franchise grew into various spin-offs, prequels, and sequels. Much like how Iron Man is a good entry point for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Conjuring is a starting point for first-time watchers as it lures audiences in and teases the exciting spin-off elements like Anabelle, which might not seem as scary when watched without the context of The Conjuring.
Yet be warned. The Conjuring universe’s intertwining storylines and the franchise feature multiple prequels, which can sometimes cause confusion regarding how some events and films connect with one another in a release order viewing. It caused confusion for audiences who saw them in theaters; however, newcomers can avoid this by watching them in chronological order.
The Conjuring Universe Movies
Release Date
The Conjuring
July 19, 2013
Annabelle
October 3, 2014
The Conjuring 2
June 10, 2016
Annabelle: Creation
August 11, 2017
The Nun
September 7, 2018
The Curse of La Llorona
April 19, 2019
Annabelle Comes Home
June 26, 2019
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
June 4, 2021
The Nun 2
September 8, 2023
The Conjuring: Last Rites
September 5, 2025
Warner Bros.
For more experienced viewers, ones who have every entry or at least one, a chronological order is a fun viewing experience. Like the flow of history, a chronological viewing of the films has events build upon one another, leading into the next entry and cross-referencing with other films in the franchise. If you wish to follow along on a proper timeline to see how these demons and possessed objects came to be and how they have affected many people, here is the franchise’s chronological order. However, be warned that some of these movies begin or end with a time jump, so information may overlap.
The Conjuring Universe Movies in Chronological Order
When the Movie Takes Place
The Nun (2018)
1952
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
1955
The Nun 2 (2023)
1956
Annabelle (2014)
1967
The Conjuring (2013)
1971
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
1971-1972
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
1973
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
1976-1977
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
1981
The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
1986
‘The Nun’ (2018)
Two years after fans watched Lorraine Warren fight off a sinister demon named Valak in The Conjuring 2, the hateful being would come back with a bit of backstory in The Nun. In the early 1950s, two decades before the Warrens were even worried about such a spirit, Valak was wreaking havoc on a monastery. Valak was locked away for many years by Christian soldiers, but during the World War II bombings in Romania, the rift was broken, and Valak found helpless people to torture and possess.
Why You Should Watch ‘The Nun’ First
While audiences do not get a complete origin story of the vengeful demon in The Nun, it is nice to know a bit about where it came from and who had dealt with it before the Warrens. Plenty of small and subtle details can be found throughout The Nun that connect it to the other films in the franchise, but fans must be very vigilant when identifying the connections.
‘Annabelle: Creation’ (2017)
After Samuel and Esther Mullins lose their seven-year-old daughter in a tragic accident in Annabelle: Creation, they pray to any entity that is willing to listen and ask that they see their daughter’s spirit again. Unfortunately, the thing that comes to them (which they believe is their beloved daughter) ends up being a manipulative demon looking for a human host. 12 years later, Sister Charlotte and six orphaned girls take refuge in the Mullins’ home, and one of them becomes a vessel for the demon.
Connections to ‘The Nun’
While it seems like Annabelle: Creation and The Nun deal with entirely different stories, there are actually several connections between the two demonic possession films. For instance, when Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman) looks at a picture of herself and three other nuns at the convent in Romania, she notices a fifth nun, Valak, lurking in the shadows. In the post-credits scene of Annabelle: Creation, there is a nun walking through the candle-lit halls of a Cathedral, and for just a second, audiences can identify the individual as the vengeful demon from The Nun. The fact that The Nun and Annabelle: Creation are just three years apart shows how terrifying this shared universe history is.
‘The Nun II’ (2023)
Sister Irene makes a comeback in The Nun’s sequel, The Nun 2, as she has to track down and try to vanquish Valak once and for all. She and Sister Debra travel to Tarascon, France, and discover that Valak is actually a fallen angel who is trying to kill all the descendants of St. Lucy to acquire a powerful relic. When the Sisters are attacked by a possessed Maurice, Irene discovers that she is one of the holy descendants, and Valak cannot burn her. She then is able to banish the demon (or so she thinks) and free her friend from possession.
Connections to ‘The Conjuring’
After realizing that the actresses who play Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) from The Nun and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) from The Conjuring were real-life sisters, fans knew the franchise had to make a connection between the characters. Fortunately, the writers shared the same sentiment. In The Nun 2, when Sister Irene discovers that she is a descendant of St. Lucy, she has a vision of the others in the bloodline, and Lorraine is one of them. It then makes sense as to why Valak seeks out and attacks Lorraine years later, as this is a conflict that is decades in the making.
‘Annabelle’ (2014)
In the proper timeline, the last time we saw the Annabelle doll was when the police took it out of the Mullins’ house as evidence at the end of Annabelle: Creation. It likely spent some time locked away, and then it must have made its way into an antique store, as John Form buys it for his pregnant wife in Annabelle. The original demon reattached itself to the doll while in the Forms’ possession, so it can get close to John’s wife, Mia, and inhabit her body. After many lives are lost and the doll, as well as the demon, disappear, the true story of Annabelle is briefly introduced.
Growing a Franchise
Annabelle is a fascinating film within the larger franchise. It was rushed into production following The Conjuring’s surprise box office success and came out just 13 months later, showing that Warner Bros. could get new entries in this shared universe out quickly. While the reaction to Annabelle was far from perfect (it is the second-worst-reviewed entry on Rotten Tomatoes, behind only The Nun), it did set the stage for its own trilogy within the larger franchise. One that has a confusing timeline, as the second entry is the prequel, Annabelle Creation. Then Annabelle leads into The Conjuring, with the third Anabelle film, Anabelle Comes Home, being set between the first and second Conjuring films. It’s this confusing release order that makes the chronological order so helpful.
‘The Conjuring’ (2013)
The movie that started it all, The Conjuring, was honestly a bit confusing in the beginning, as it started off with the Warrens dealing with the Annabelle case, and then the timeline jumps three years later to the Perrons moving into a new house and dealing with a malicious spirit. For the most part, the film focuses on Ed and Lorraine’s efforts to help the Perron family exorcise the demon Bathsheba from their lives. Between human possession, speaking in tongues, and Carolyn trying to sacrifice her own daughter, there is a lot to fear and unbox in the very first film of the franchise.
The Birth of a Cinematic Universe
Directed by James Wan, hot off horror films like Saw and Insidious, The Conjuring was a blockbuster smash hit that grossed $137 million domestically and $320 million worldwide against a budget of $20 million. While Warner Bros. had invested heavily in Man of Steel to kick off a shared universe of films, it was the smaller horror movie The Conjuring that would yield the most fruit for the studio over the next decade. Given the franchise’s immense success, it feels refreshing to revisit The Conjuring and appreciate its simplicity. It becomes more impressive that a seemingly one-off haunted house film evolved into something much grander, like this ten-film picture epic.
‘Annabelle Comes Home’ (2019)
After the creepy doll Anabelle is finally in the Warrens’ possession, one would think that all paranormal activity would cease because they know how to properly handle the object as well as the entity attached to it, right? Well, that would be the case, but unfortunately, other people enter their house and touch things they are not supposed to. In Annabelle Comes Home, Judy, Ed, and Lorraine’s daughter, and her babysitter, Mary Ellen, are forced to face Annabelle and other evil spirits on their own after Mary Ellen’s friend sneaks into the house and releases Annabelle from her locked cabinet.
Connection to ‘The Conjuring’
Annabelle Comes Home throws a slight wrench into The Conjuring universe because of a single object in a couple of shots. The music box from The Conjuring can clearly be seen in the Warrens’ room full of cursed objects, but there is also the idea that this storyline happened just before the events of The Conjuring due to the first film’s opening scenes. Regardless, the two are perfect back-to-back films, but you can choose which comes first.
‘The Curse of La Llorona’ (2019)
There have been plenty of films made based on horrifying folklore and legends, but The Curse of La Llorona creeps to the top of those charts with its fear factor. The “Weeping Woman” comes to life as her restless spirit cannot cope with what she has done to her own children in her human life, so she seeks out other women’s children to give them the same fate. This is a tale of terror as well as forgiveness, and surprisingly, it actually is a part of The Conjuring universe.
The Unofficial Official Entry in the Franchise
While it seems like The Curse of La Llorona is its own standalone film, there are a few subtle hints that remind us of the connection to the Annabelle series. For instance, Tony Amendola, who played Father Perez in Annabelle, reprises his role in The Curse of La Llorona when Anna (Linda Cardellini) seeks him out to help her deal with the evil spirit. He even mentions that he’s had some experience with this sort of thing when he had to work with a haunted porcelain doll. Even though The Curse of La Llorona isn’t acknowledge as part of the main franchise timeline, the presence of Father Perez and the fact that the movie shares so many creatives folds it into the franchise, the same way that Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow has been retroactively folded into the Fast & the Furious franchise since it is the origin for the character of Han.
‘The Conjuring 2’ (2016)
While the beginning of The Conjuring 2 briefly touches on the Amityville murders, the majority of the film focuses on Ed and Lorraine helping a family in London rid themselves of a spirit that is actually being manipulated by the malevolent demon Valak. This is the time when Lorraine learns that the demon has been clouding her visions, and she is fearful that if her husband helps with the case, he will meet a horrible fate.
Setting Up ‘The Nun’ Franchise
Valak has been trying to kill every descendant of St. Lucy for quite some time — we learned this back in The Nun 2, along with the fact that Lorraine Warren is part of the Saint’s bloodline. Although The Conjuring 2’s The Crooked Man was originally intended to receive a spin-off film, the movie never materialized, as The Nun became the breakout horror character. This makes it all the more interesting that she was added last-minute during the movie’s reshoots, just three months before The Conjuring 2 hit theaters.
‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ (2021)
In The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Ed and Lorraine Warren are called upon once again to investigate supernatural situations, but this time, human-on-human murder is actually involved. Arne Johnson, a young man who was with the Warrens when he accepted a demon into his body to save his girlfriend’s brother, is accused of murder, but he claims he was possessed at the time. Another murder, in the exact same fashion, takes place, and the Warrens dig deep to realize who is controlling the demon as well as the helpless attackers who meant no harm.
A Shift in the Franchise
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is a notable shift in the series, particularly as it is the first Conjuring movie not centered on a haunted house. It is the first mainline Conjuring film not directed by James Wan, as The Curse of La Llorona’s Michael Chaves is at the helm. Chaves, having directed The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, makes him one of the key architects of the franchise. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do also moves the franchise into the 1980s. It was released following the COVID-19 pandemic and was part of Warner Bros.’s controversial Project Popcorn initiative that saw the studio’s entire 2021 slate released in theaters and on Max simultaneously.
‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ (2025)
The Conjuring: The Last Rites is set five years after the events of The Devil Made Me Do It, and 15 years after the events of The Conjuring. Ed and Lorraine Warren take on what appears to be another paranormal haunting. Yet they must confront a mysterious force that is far more dangerous than anything they’ve faced before. What began as a case like the others eventually morphs into the final adventure for the Warrens.
The Epic Conclusion to ‘The Conjuring’ Universe
Even though The Conjuring: Last Rites is billed as the final film in The Conjuring series, there has been a lot of uncertainty around the franchise’s future. Originally, it was believed to be the final film in the mainline series focusing on the Warrens, but later reports have said it is the final film in the entire Conjuring franchise. New Line Cinema CCO Richard Brener said, “While this [The Conjuring: Last Rites] is the last of what we call phase one, we are hopeful that we can make more,” but also said, “Phase Two is TBD.”
With no further Conjuring spin-offs in development, it appears that The Conjuring: Last Rites truly is, for now, the final film in the Conjuring Universe franchise. It will wrap up a story that spans from 1952 to 1986, a grand 34-year horror epic told over the span of twelve years. The Conjuring Universe might not feel as grand as the Infinity Saga or the Skywalker Saga, but Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have crafted a tapestry of horror that spans ten films. Whatever the future holds for The Conjuring Universe, or a potential Phase 2, remains to be seen. Yet it feels safe to say this will be a fan-favorite series for years and a new Halloween staple alongside the likes of Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, and Paranormal Activity.
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