When considering the general direction of major studio moviemaking over the course of the 21st century so far, the success of the Conjuring franchise seems like a no-brainer. Universal has attempted, several times, to kickstart a horror-themed cinematic universe based around their classic monster movie icons and, with the ever-rising talent of director James Wan behind the camera, Warner Bros. found another billion-dollar franchise.
While the Conjuring Universe is yet to produce a real dud at the box office, critics have shown more varying levels of enthusiasm for the individual entries within the series. From the spinoffs to the main Conjuring movies themselves, here is every movie in the franchise so far, ranked by its score on Metacritic.
7 Annabelle (2014) - 37
Spinning off from the first of the many stories of the Warrens that were introduced in the original Conjuring movie only a year prior, Annabelle was one of the least successful movies of the franchise with critics, by all calculations, despite starting its own very profitable trilogy of movies that reached the hat-trick mark before the mainline Conjuring movies did.
Providing somewhat of an origin story for the titular demonic doll, that would be expanded on further in another prequel movie that goes further back, Annabelle may not be considered a favorite of the series by either critics or fans but it has a relatively huge financial success when taking its low budget into account.
6 The Curse of La Llorona (2019) - 41
It's fitting that the second lowest-ranking movie on this list should be from the Conjuring movie that is only connected to the universe by a secondary character from the lowest-ranking movie on the list.
Loosely based on South American folklore, The Curse of La Llorona may not have been a critically well-received feature debut for director Michael Chaves, and it's so far the lowest-grossing entry in the Conjuring Universe, but it was still enough of a hit with fans and producers that Chaves would be entrusted to direct the third mainline Conjuring movie when flagship director James Wan stepped aside.
5 The Nun (2018) - 46
Another origin story, this time for a demon seen in the first mainline Conjuring sequel, The Nun is set in the early 1950s at a secluded convent in Romania that houses a dark secret.
In a noticeably odd casting choice, Taissa Farmiga (the sister of Vera Farmiga, who plays Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe) takes the lead role as a young nun who's yet to take her vows. Sent by the Vatican to investigate a mysterious death at the convent, the plot is ultimately much more setpiece driven than any of the other movies so far and it evidently wasn't a strategy that really paid off with critics. Nevertheless, it was still a big hit at the box office relative to its budget, and talk of its own sequel still persists.
4 Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - 53
The third movie in the Annabelle spinoff series within the Conjuring Universe, Annabelle Comes Home connects itself to the original movie much more strongly than any of the spinoffs before it and even incorporates Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren to quite a large degree, whilst still not featuring them as the main characters.
The movie is instead lead by the Warrens' young daughter, Judy, who appears in the earlier Conjuring movies and must now survive a night of demonic pandemonium in the Warrens' family home when the parents leave for the weekend and the babysitter's friend unwittingly unleashes the full fury of the titular doll.
3 Annabelle: Creation (2017) - 62
The second Annabelle movie, itself another prequel that was set even further into the franchise's past, was by far the most successful, both with critics and at the box office, and provided a much richer origin story for the demonic doll than the original movie whilst also comfortably tying back into it at the end.
The career of director David F. Sandberg, starting with a standout horror short adapted into a successful high-concept first feature before joining the series, would mirror that of many directors within the Conjuring Universe, with him taking on a DCEU blockbuster afterward as James Wan did also. That sense of tentpole level scope was something that had been missing outside of Wan's mainline movies in the series, and a majority of critics applauded its return here.
2 The Conjuring 2 (2016) - 65
James Wan returned as director for the franchise's first real sequel after the first Annabelle prequel in 2014, this time moving the story mainly to England for a retelling of the famed 'Enfield poltergeist' case.
When considering the main Conjuring movies as being the Avengers movies of the Conjuring Universe, The Conjuring 2 acts as most cinematic universe sequels should by telling a compelling story whilst providing numerous opportunities for spinoff stories. The movie introduces The Nun character, who got their own movie in 2018, and The Crooked Man, whose standalone movie is still in development, but doesn't forget about the dramatic elements that made the original movie such a hit with critics.
1 The Conjuring (2013) - 68
As is the case with many franchises, horror or not, nothing quite defeats the original movie in the eyes of critics. The Conjuring furthered director James Wan's impressive progression into more and more complex projects. He would follow The Conjuring with the billion-dollar success of Fast & Furious 7, followed by The Conjuring 2, and then his other billion-dollar box-office hit, Aquaman.
The movie demonstrated a commitment from Wan to not only get bigger but, most importantly, better. His affinity for long takes and noticeably stylized camera usage, in general, were utilized for more realistic scenarios and characters that were typically seen in his genre-heavy movies and that element of realism became the franchise's most popular quality, despite the less well-received entries in the series deviating further and further from it. The Conjuring is very much the type of horror movie where the scares come from what the audience doesn't see, rather than what it does, and that relatively uncommon degree of restraint is perhaps what makes this movie still Wan's highest-rated movie to date amongst critics.
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