With the release of “The Nun II” this week, The Conjuring Cinematic Universe grows ever larger, ballooning up to eight sequels and prequels stemming from James Wan’s 2013 horror flick, “The Conjuring,” about paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, largely set in the groovy 1960s and ’70s.
The Warner Bros. property is one of the steadiest and sturdiest recent horror franchises, though it boasts some big highs and big lows among the lineup of spooky stories loosely based on true hauntings and popular lore. One could watch them in release order, or chronological order, but here’s a ranking from the best to the worst. Fortunately, they are all available to stream on Max, except for one.
1. “The Conjuring 2”: It’s a sequel better than the original, though not by much. James Wan returned for “The Conjuring 2,” which sees Ed and Lorraine heading to jolly old England to scare a demon out of a family’s house. Back in 2016, our review said that Wan and cinematographer Don Burgess displayed, “a mastery over the camera as a storytelling tool (to create) evocative, bone-chilling suspense,” and that, “in laying bare of the process of sight, Wan mirrors the interlocked, and sometimes contradictory, themes of vision and belief.” This boasts an 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and is available to rent it on all digital platforms.
2. “The Conjuring”: Ten years ago, our introduction to Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren in the first film was enough to set off a franchise. “The Conjuring” earned an 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with Manohla Dargis saying in The New York Times that, “the dread gathers and surges while the blood scarcely trickles in ‘The Conjuring,’ a fantastically effective haunted-house movie.” Stream it on Max.