There are several ways to watch The Conjuring movies in order. The horror franchise is one of the most consistently successful cinematic universes, having spawned several high-grossing individual series amid an expanded canon that continues to grow. Following The Curse of La Llorona, inspired by a Mexican legend, and Annabelle Comes Home, the third Annabelle feature, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the third movie in the franchise and the latest overall. This will be followed by The Conjuring: Last Rites.
As the list of entries gets longer with The Conjuring 4 on the way, the ideal watching order becomes a greater question. Watching The Conjuring movies in order is tricky because the actual timeline is scattered across a number of sequels of prequels. Some are filled with crucial information, while others only contain the slightest hint they’re part of something greater in the story of the Warrens and the demonic entities they’ve encountered. To help audiences make the most out of their horror viewing experience, here are three distinct watch orders for The Conjuring movies, with each having its own advantage in terms of understanding the complete Conjuring universe timeline.
Conjuring Movies In Release Order
- The Conjuring (2013)
- Annabelle (2014)
- The Conjuring 2 (2016)
- Annabelle: Creation (2017)
- The Nun (2018)
- The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
- Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
- The Conjuring 3/The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
This is the order many fans will have already seen the films in, at least on first viewing. While the actual story-telling here is scattered – The Nun is an origin story for the villain in The Conjuring 2, for example – there is a steady flow that’s easy to follow. Viewers can see everything expand outward from The Conjuring and all the hints and callbacks between the various movies are placed with this progression in mind, which is the main advantage of watching The Conjuring movies in order of release date. This is the way the writers intended viewers to experience the complete Conjuring universe timeline.
Conjuring Movies In Chronological Order
- The Nun
- Annabelle: Creation
- Annabelle
- Annabelle Comes Home
- The Conjuring
- The Curse of La Llorona
- The Conjuring 2
- The Conjuring 3/The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Though not altogether the best, seeing The Conjuring movies in order of chronology is preferred by franchise purists. The problem with this order lies in the ties Annabelle and The Curse of La Llorona have to The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. The Annabelle trilogy is largely self-contained, and with Annabelle being the thing that bridges The Curse of La Llorona to everything else, audiences essentially get a trilogy and a quadrilogy that are only related because the doll from one is visible in the other. Unfortunately, this lessens the impact and feeling of a larger world.
Our Recommended Conjuring Movies Viewing Order
- The Conjuring
- Annabelle: Creation
- Annabelle
- Annabelle Comes Home
- The Curse of La Llorona
- The Nun
- The Conjuring 2
- The Conjuring 3/The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
The most enjoyable way to watch is book-ended with The Conjuring movies. With how much The Conjuring sets up what comes after, it really has to go first to absorb the narrative in totality. Next is the Annabelle trilogy in chronological order, followed by The Curse of La Llorona, which plants the seed of a multicultural universe waiting for the Warrens, and The Nun, and then the second and third Conjuring movie.
Everything flows from and back to the Warrens and their paranormal studies, until the exorcism of Arne Cheyenne Johnson in The Conjuring 3. Viewing The Conjuring movies in order of both chronology and how they were intended to be released provides the best experience. As The Conjuring: Last Rites is already in the works, Ed and Lorraine Warrens’ battle against the forces of evil has a few more rounds in it before The Conjuring universe will let them rest.
