The Conjuring: All Eight Movies in Franchise Ranked

8) Annabelle

The first Annabelle film is easily the worst entry in the entire Conjuring franchise.

The direction by John R. Leonetti was film-school bad, with the movie barely fitting together as a coherent story or set of scenes. It was often mundane and boring rather than scary – and even the frights didn't follow any clear logic or "rules," to help bolster the Annabelle doll's lore.

In fact, Annabelle's entire prequel story was ultimately deemed such a failure that the next film in the Annabelle trilogy (Annabelle: Creation) actually jumped further back in time, to establish a better, more frightening version of the haunted doll's origin.

7) The Nun

The Nun barely edges out Annabelle simply because Valak (the demonic nun) is a more active and scary antagonist than the Annabelle doll and its unseen machinations. Still, the first Nun movie was directed by Corin Hardy, who has found his calling as showrunner of Gangs of London but has never again directed a feature film after The Nun – with good reason.

6) The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is clearly the worst entry in The Conjuring trilogy. It didn't help that the film was released unceremoniously on HBO Max the same day it was released in theaters (during the COVID-19 pandemic), but it also just felt out of step with the two Conjuring movies that had come before.

Still, The Devil Made Me Do It gets some points for pitting a human antagonist against franchise heroes Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren. It was at least something different. At the very least, director Michael Chaves directed the film with the same competent hand he brought to The Nun 2.

5) The Nun II

The Nun 2 falls squarely in the middle of the Conjuring rankings. It's a definite improvement on the first Nun movie – but unlike the first Annabelle sequel, The Nun sequel doesn't add enough twist on the lore of Valak to avoid feeling like one of the most unnecessary chapters of the franchise.

4) Annabelle Comes Home

The third Annabelle movie was like a mini Conjuring event film, as the dreaded demonic doll unleashes a collection of Ed and Lorraine Warren's worst demonic foes on a night when their daughter is home alone with the babysitter.

Annabelle Comes Home isn't the best of the spin-off trilogy, but it is one of the more solid Conjuring universe films.

3) The Conjuring 2

The Conjuring 2 had the massive challenge of having to follow up on the breakout success of the first film. A more complicated haunting storyline and deeper lore leave room for more nitpicks, but overall The Conjuring 2 is one of the better horror franchise sequels out there, and still remains one of the best entries of the franchise, seven years after its release.

2) Annabelle: Creation

Annabelle: Creation had the monumental task of doing right what the first film had done so wrong. Director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Shazam!) clearly understood that assignment, and delivered what is arguably the only film in The Conjuring franchise to match the practical haunted-house scares of the first Conjuring film. Like other top-ranked entries on this list, Annabelle: Creation also benefits from a talented young cast providing the gravitas.

Finally, Annabelle: Creation did the work of creating a truly horrifying (and sensical) origin story for the demon doll, and a lot of fans will probably debate whether or not it deserves to top the list, in terms of scariness.

1) The Conjuring

The original The Conjuring became such a breakout hit that it spawned the entire franchise that we're now talking about.

The Conjuring did something antithetical to most horror movies of the 2010s: it shook off heavy CGI or ultra-violence to offer horror fans a throwback haunted house story, built on practical effects and smart sequencing of scary moments and scenarios (on a very modest budget, to boot).

Not only did the actual horror movie experience win over fans, but Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga cemented the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren as horror icons, and director James Wan and his team created an entire universe of creepy ghosts and demons to play in. How many other horror films can say that?