The Conjuring Universe

[Silver Nemesis]

Anyone interested in Ed and Lorraine Warren might also like to check out the 1991 TV movie The Haunted, which is based on the Smurl haunting they investigated in 1986. Ed and Lorraine appear in the movie played by Stephen Markle and Diane Baker. It's not as good as The Conjuring, but it's a decent chiller nonetheless. You can watch it free on YouTube.


I wonder if Wan will adapt this story for a future Conjuring movie.

The Smurl haunting is indeed the basis for The Conjuring: Last Rites. Scheduled for release on September 5th, this will be the final film in the main series focusing on Ed and Lorraine Warren. There are however plans for a Conjuring TV show and further spin-off films to follow. Here are some new images from Last Rites.

[Silver Nemesis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAz556s0fM

[thecolorsblend]

If this truly is the end of the line, then it looks like the creative team is once again going to prove that The Conjuring is a better franchise than Insidious.

Part of me laments the fact that the series is ending. As I understand the Warrens' career, they had dozens of movie-worthy cases. While it makes sense that not everything can or should be adapted, there's still a lot of gas in the tank with The Conjuring's premise and formula. The age of the actors shouldn't be much of a factor in terms of continuing the series.

Maybe the crew is just trying to quit while they're still ahead?

Whatever the case may be, I do believe that The Conjuring Universe is sadly underrated among horror fans.I'll be checking this out in September.

[Silver Nemesis]

Part of me laments the fact that the series is ending. As I understand the Warrens' career, they had dozens of movie-worthy cases.

I don't know if you saw Annabelle Comes Home (2019), but they referenced a number of the Warrens' other investigations in that movie. Ed and Lorraine play a more substantial supporting role in that one than they do in the other spinoff films, making it feel a bit like The Conjuring 2.5. It's my favourite of the spinoffs and the one that feels most closely connected to the main series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apJOBtBz5n4

James Wan had previously said he wanted to make The Conjuring 3 based on a werewolf case the Warrens investigated, but instead the filmmakers ended up using the werewolf along with several other entities in Annabelle Comes Home. Wan then deferred directorial duties on the third film to Michael Chaves and the result was The Devil Made Me Do It. Not a terrible film, but a definite step down from the first two. I can't help wondering what Wan's werewolf-themed Conjuring 3 might have been like.

Maybe the crew is just trying to quit while they're still ahead?

It's probably best that they don't overstay their welcome. The Conjuring and John Wick franchises premiered within fifteen months of each other, and both have offered cinemagoers an alternative to the older and more stale IPs that Hollywood's milked dry over the past decade. But neither franchise is new anymore – The Conjuring is nearly 12 years old, John Wick almost 11 – and both could potentially become stale zombie franchises if mismanaged. The last few movies set in The Conjuring universe haven't been as good as the earlier instalments, so maybe now's a good time to end the main series. I just hope the Warrens go out on a high note and that Last Rites can recapture the superior scares of the earlier films.

I doubt Warner Bros will let The Conjuring brand rest entirely, though. It's the highest-grossing horror movie franchise of all time, and the last entry, The Nun II, made $269.5 million on a production budget of $38.5 million. As long as even the lesser movies in the franchise are turning that kind of profit, the studio will keep milking their cash cow.