There is only one good movie in “The Conjuring Universe” and it is the first one. This blog is actually less of a recommendation to watch The Conjuring (2013) and more of a warning against watching anything else connected to it. I endured The Nun (2018) so that I can bear witness to you and say No, you don’t need to watch a film called Annabelle Comes Home.
Last September, as the newest and final The Conjuring film was released, my wife and I watched all four mainline films in 24 hours. We had previously watched all ten Saw films within ten days, so I was familiar with the fatigue you can get from a feat like this. Even considering that, I still don’t think any of the other movies are worth shit. The second one is particularly miserable, as it is set in London and lacks any of the beauty of the first, and to a lesser extent, the other films.
I could select a screenshot that better demonstrates my point, but this is sick as hell.
To its credit, The Conjuring 2 (2016) does have a particularly creepy element called The Crooked Man, based off an English nursery rhyme. But even that scene, while initially terrifying, as what you think was the dog transforms into a spindly demon, ultimately falls flat because they cannot maintain the initial fright. The third film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), is probably the second best in the franchise, but there is still an enormous gulf between it and the original. I really like that it takes a big swing and makes it an actual human practicing the occult versus a traditional haunting. It also does a great job depicting the corpses in the morgue. I had fun seeing The Conjuring: Last Rites in theaters, but it really was a stinker too. Incredible casting for the family though. They all really looked like blood. So, there are things you can find to like about the other films, but for the most part it is just rehashing of scares that worked better in the first film or clumsy analogues to successful emotional beats and character arcs.
Ain’t no one coming close to this.
I really do recommend the first film. It is filled with interesting shots, the story and characters are compelling, and it genuinely has some incredible scares. It suffers a little from CGI and showing the ‘monster’ too much, but I think it does enough other stuff really well to offset it. The scene where the daughter’s foot gets grabbed in the night can send shivers down my spine just thinking about it. And when she is just looking at the dark corner!?
