Conjuring vs Insidious: Are Wan's Universes Connected?
No. The Conjuring and Insidious are separate franchises with no shared story. Both were shaped by the director James Wan and both star Patrick Wilson, but The Conjuring Universe belongs to Warner Bros. and New Line, while Insidious is a Blumhouse series. Their worlds, demons and timelines never meet on screen.
I have been reviewing horror films since 1990, and I remember a time when a haunted-house movie was a one-off, not the start of a franchise. James Wan changed that. In barely three years he launched two of the most profitable horror series of the century, Insidious in 2010 and The Conjuring in 2013, and he used many of the same tools: the same lead actor, the same composer, the same patient camera creeping down a hallway. No wonder so many viewers believe they are watching one big universe. In this article I put the two side by side: who made them, how to watch each in order, which stories are "true", which demons are scarier, and which franchise won the box-office war through 2026.
Are The Conjuring and Insidious Connected?
Category: franchise comparison, James Wan, Conjuring Universe, Insidious
Not in the story. No character, demon or event from one franchise appears in the other. The connection is behind the camera: James Wan, the actor Patrick Wilson and the composer Joseph Bishara worked on both, which gives the films a shared look and sound.
Different studios, different owners
The Conjuring (2013) and its spin-offs, Annabelle and The Nun, are made by New Line Cinema and released by Warner Bros., which owns the characters. Insidious (2010) was produced by Jason Blum's Blumhouse with the Paranormal Activity creator Oren Peli, and its sequels have been released mainly by Sony. Because the rights sit with rival companies, a true crossover would require a business deal that has never been announced.
Different creators, too
Wan directed the first two films in each series, but the writing came from different hands. Leigh Whannell, Wan's partner since Saw, wrote all of the Insidious films and directed Insidious: Chapter 3. The Conjuring was written by the twins Chad and Carey W. Hayes, and the later entries by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and others. Whannell has never written a Conjuring film, which is why the two worlds feel related but run on different rules.
What the two franchises share
| Link | The Conjuring | Insidious |
|---|---|---|
| James Wan | Directed The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016) | Directed Insidious (2010) and Chapter 2 (2013) |
| Patrick Wilson | Ed Warren, demonologist | Josh Lambert, the haunted father |
| Joseph Bishara | Composer; also played the witch Bathsheba | Composer; also played the Lipstick-Face Demon |
| Studio | New Line Cinema / Warner Bros. | Blumhouse |
| Source | Real cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren | Original fiction: the Further |
Why people think they are one universe
Both series open in suburban family homes, both use a psychic woman as a guide, Elise Rainier in Insidious and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring, and both build to a battle for a possessed parent. The posters, trailers and jump scares were sold in the same style, often in the same year: The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2 both opened in 2013, only weeks apart. The confusion grew in 2024, when Wan's company Atomic Monster merged with Blumhouse. The two producers now share one roof, but the film rights did not move.
My position as a critic
From my years as a festival programmer, I think of the two franchises as siblings raised in different houses. They share a father in James Wan and a family face in Patrick Wilson, but they grew up with different values. The Conjuring is a Catholic battle between good and evil, anchored in supposed true stories. Insidious is pure invention, a dream world with its own maps. Viewers who want the Wan style in a different form should start with his earlier ventriloquist film, which I discuss in ventriloquist horror movies and the evil dummy.
James Wan, Leigh Whannell and Patrick Wilson: From Saw to Two Haunted Houses
Category: filmmakers, James Wan, Leigh Whannell, Patrick Wilson, horror history
The two franchises grew from one partnership. James Wan and Leigh Whannell met at film school in Melbourne, made Saw in 2004, and then turned from gore to ghosts with Insidious in 2010. Patrick Wilson, a Tony-nominated Broadway actor, became the face of both series.
The Melbourne film-school partnership
James Wan was born in Malaysia in 1977 and grew up in Australia. At RMIT University in Melbourne he met Leigh Whannell, a fellow horror fan, and the two decided to make a film they could shoot cheaply in one room. The result was Saw (2004): two men chained in a filthy bathroom by a killer who sets moral tests. Made for little more than a million dollars, it premiered at Sundance and earned over $100 million worldwide, launching a franchise I traced in John Kramer and the Saw franchise.
Dead Silence: the bridge to the supernatural
Wan's next horror film, Dead Silence (2007), traded traps for a vengeful ventriloquist and her puppets. It was a box-office disappointment, but it showed the style that would define his later work: old dolls, creaking houses, a curse from the past and long silences before a shock. The killer doll became one of his signatures, and it returned in Annabelle. I explore that tradition in the twisted history of killer dolls in cinema.
Insidious: proving restraint can sell
After the gore boom of the 2000s, Wan and Whannell wanted to make a scary film with almost no blood. Insidious (2010) was shot in about a month for roughly $1.5 million with Blumhouse, and it earned close to $100 million worldwide. Its success proved that audiences would pay for atmosphere, and it gave Wan the credibility to direct a bigger studio ghost story for Warner Bros. three years later.
Patrick Wilson: the leading man of both worlds
Patrick Wilson, born in Virginia in 1973, came from Broadway musicals such as The Full Monty and Oklahoma!, and from dramas like Little Children. Wan cast him as Josh Lambert, a father who can travel into the spirit world, and then as the real-life demonologist Ed Warren opposite Vera Farmiga. Wilson's calm, decent screen presence makes him believable as the man who stands between his family and evil, and he later directed Insidious: The Red Door (2023).
From horror to blockbusters
The two franchises made Wan one of Hollywood's most bankable directors. He went on to Furious 7 and Aquaman, while producing horror through his company Atomic Monster. Whannell moved into directing with Upgrade and The Invisible Man. Their careers show how a small horror hit can open every door in the industry.
What I learned watching their rise
When Saw arrived, I was film editor at Egypt Today, and I watched a genre that many critics dismissed suddenly become the most reliable business in cinema. Wan's gift was not blood but timing: he knows exactly how long to make an audience wait. That patience, borrowed from older ghost films, is what links his work to classics I discuss in Poltergeist Revisited and the evolution of the horror film genre.
How to Watch the Conjuring Universe in Order
Category: watch order, Conjuring Universe timeline, Annabelle, The Nun
There are nine official Conjuring Universe films, or ten if you count The Curse of La Llorona. Watch them in release order, starting with The Conjuring (2013), to follow the story as audiences discovered it. Or watch them in story order, starting with The Nun, set in Romania in 1952, and ending with The Conjuring: Last Rites, set in 1986.
Release order
- The Conjuring (2013), directed by James Wan
- Annabelle (2014), directed by John R. Leonetti
- The Conjuring 2 (2016), directed by James Wan
- Annabelle: Creation (2017), directed by David F. Sandberg
- The Nun (2018), directed by Corin Hardy
- The Curse of La Llorona (2019), directed by Michael Chaves
- Annabelle Comes Home (2019), directed by Gary Dauberman
- The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), directed by Michael Chaves
- The Nun II (2023), directed by Michael Chaves
- The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025), directed by Michael Chaves
Chronological story order
| Order | Film | Set in | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Nun | 1952 | Romania |
| 2 | Annabelle: Creation | Mid-1950s | California |
| 3 | The Nun II | 1956 | France |
| 4 | Annabelle | Late 1960s | California |
| 5 | The Conjuring | 1971 | Rhode Island |
| 6 | Annabelle Comes Home | 1972 | Connecticut |
| 7 | The Curse of La Llorona | 1973 | Los Angeles |
| 8 | The Conjuring 2 | 1977 | Enfield, London |
| 9 | The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It | 1981 | Connecticut |
| 10 | The Conjuring: Last Rites | 1986 | Pennsylvania |
Guides disagree slightly about the 1950s and 1960s films. Some date Annabelle: Creation to 1955 and others to 1958, and Annabelle is placed anywhere from 1967 to 1970. The order of the Warren films does not change either way.
Is The Curse of La Llorona part of the Conjuring Universe?
Loosely. Warner Bros. marketed The Curse of La Llorona (2019) as part of the series, and it links through Father Perez, the priest played by Tony Amendola, who also appears in Annabelle, and through a brief flashback to the doll. Some reference sources still list it as unofficial. Its sequel, The Revenge of La Llorona, is due on 26 February 2027.
Is Wolves at the Door part of the universe?
No. Wolves at the Door (2016), a home-invasion thriller inspired by the Manson murders, shares a detective character with Annabelle and came from the same director, John R. Leonetti, but it is not part of the Conjuring Universe. I discuss the real story behind those murders in my Meeting Venus profile of Sharon Tate.
Which order should you choose?
For a first viewing, I recommend release order. The spin-offs were made to answer questions raised by the main films: who the demon nun is, where the doll came from. Watching The Nun first spoils the mystery of Valak in The Conjuring 2. Story order works best on a second run, when you can enjoy how the films connect. For more on the nun-horror tradition, see my review of Immaculate and nunsploitation cinema.
How to Watch the Insidious Movies in Order, From Chapter 3 to Out of the Further
Category: watch order, Insidious timeline, the Further, Elise Rainier
There are six Insidious films. In release order they begin with Insidious (2011) and end with Insidious: Out of the Further (2026). In story order, Insidious: Chapter 3 (set in 2007) comes first and The Last Key (set in 2010) second, then the four other films in release order. For a first viewing, release order works best.
Release order
- Insidious (2011, premiered at Toronto in 2010), directed by James Wan
- Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), directed by James Wan
- Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), directed by Leigh Whannell
- Insidious: The Last Key (2018), directed by Adam Robitel
- Insidious: The Red Door (2023), directed by Patrick Wilson
- Insidious: Out of the Further (2026), directed by Jacob Chase
Chronological story order
| Order | Film | Set in | Story |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Insidious: Chapter 3 | 2007 | Elise Rainier returns to psychic work to help a teenage girl |
| 2 | Insidious: The Last Key | 2010, with flashbacks to 1953 | Elise faces the demons of her own childhood |
| 3 | Insidious | Around 2010 | The Lambert family's son Dalton is lost in the Further |
| 4 | Insidious: Chapter 2 | Directly after the first film | Josh Lambert returns possessed |
| 5 | Insidious: The Red Door | About nine years later | Dalton goes to college and his memories return |
| 6 | Insidious: Out of the Further | Prologue in 1999, main story two decades later | A new lead, Gemma Hall (Amelia Eve), with Lin Shaye back as Elise |
Elise Rainier: the thread that holds the series together
The Lambert family carries the first two films, but the series really belongs to Elise Rainier, the psychic played by Lin Shaye. She dies in the first film, so the producers did something unusual: they moved backwards. Chapter 3 and The Last Key are prequels built around her, and Shaye returns again in Out of the Further. Elise's assistants Specs and Tucker, played by Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson, supply the comic relief that the Conjuring films mostly avoid.
What are the Further and the Red Door?
The Further is the dark spirit world that some characters can enter when they leave their bodies during sleep, a gift Dalton and his father Josh share. The red door is the entrance to the lair of the Lipstick-Face Demon, the red-faced figure that haunts the first film. In The Red Door, Dalton paints it from repressed memory as an art student. The Out of the Further post-credits scene puts a new character behind a red door with KeyFace, the demon from The Last Key, which keeps the door open for a seventh film.
Can you skip Chapter 3 and The Last Key?
Yes, if you only care about the Lambert family. The Red Door follows on directly from Chapter 2, and it makes sense without the prequels. You will miss most of Elise's story, though, and that matters for Out of the Further. Unlike the Conjuring Universe, where each spin-off is built around a separate monster, Insidious is one family's story plus one psychic's story, which makes it easier to follow, much like the linked seasons I traced in my guide to the American Horror Story multiverse.
A critic's note on the series
I have watched horror franchises professionally since the early 1990s, first as a critic and then as a festival programmer, and long-running series usually lose their nerve once the original director leaves. Insidious is a rare case where the change of hands produced the more personal films. Whannell's Chapter 3 and Wilson's The Red Door feel like the work of insiders who knew the characters, even if critics never warmed to any entry: according to Screen Rant, every Insidious film has a "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Are These Films True Stories? The Warren Cases vs the Fiction of the Further
Category: true stories, Ed and Lorraine Warren, Perron, Enfield, Arne Cheyenne Johnson, Smurl haunting
The four main Conjuring films are based on real cases investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, though each heavily dramatises the claims. Insidious is not based on a true story. Its spirit world, the Further, was invented by Leigh Whannell and James Wan.
| Film | Real case | Place | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Conjuring (2013) | The Perron family haunting | Harrisville, Rhode Island | 1970s |
| The Conjuring 2 (2016) | The Enfield poltergeist (Hodgson family), with a prologue on Amityville | Enfield, north London | 1977 onwards |
| The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) | The trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson | Brookfield, Connecticut | 1981 |
| Last Rites (2025) | The Smurl haunting | West Pittston, Pennsylvania | 1980s |
| Annabelle films | A real Raggedy Ann doll from the Warrens' collection; the plots are fictional | Connecticut | 1970s onwards |
| The Nun films | Fictional | Romania, France | 1950s |
| All six Insidious films | Fictional | United States | 1953 to the 2020s |
The Perron farmhouse
The first film follows Roger and Carolyn Perron and their five daughters, who said a spirit haunted the Rhode Island farmhouse they moved into in 1971. The film blames Bathsheba Sherman, a real 19th-century local woman, and turns her into a Satan-worshipping witch played by Joseph Bishara. No historical record supports the claim that she was a witch, and that is the clearest example of how the series turns local legend into a monster.
Enfield and Amityville
The Conjuring 2 moves to the Enfield poltergeist in north London, where the Hodgson family, especially the daughter Janet, reported knockings, moving furniture and a voice from the 1970s. The case was investigated mainly by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair of the Society for Psychical Research. The Warrens' real part in it was much smaller than the film suggests, and the girls later admitted to faking some of the activity. The prologue revisits the Amityville house, which the Lutz family fled in 1976, a year after the DeFeo murders.
"The Devil made me do it": a murder trial
The third film is based on a real criminal case. In 1981 Arne Cheyenne Johnson killed his landlord, Alan Bono, in Brookfield, Connecticut. His lawyer tried to argue demonic possession, linking it to an exorcism the Warrens had attended for a young boy, David Glatzel. The judge refused to allow the defence, and Johnson was convicted of manslaughter. The film's occult-cult villain is an invention, though it reflects the "Satanic Panic" of the era, which I examine in my comparison of satanic cults in documentaries and feature films.
The Smurl haunting
The Conjuring: Last Rites closes the Warren saga with the Smurl family of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, who reported a demonic presence in their duplex in the mid-1980s. It was one of the Warrens' last widely publicised cases, which is why the filmmakers chose it as their farewell.
Is Insidious based on a true story?
No. Insidious borrows from the folklore of astral projection, the belief that the soul can leave the body during sleep, but the Further, the Lipstick-Face Demon, KeyFace and Elise Rainier are all invented. Its closest model is another film, not a real case: the "lost child in the spirit world" story of Poltergeist (1982).
A critic's note on "based on a true story"
I spent seven years in film marketing for Fox, Warner and UIP in Egypt in the 1990s, and I learned how effective the words "based on a true story" are on a poster. The Conjuring uses them better than any franchise of its time. Viewers should remember that the Warrens' claims were promoted by the Warrens themselves, and sceptical investigators, such as the writer Joe Nickell, have challenged many of them. I treat the films as dramatised legends, not documented history, and that makes them no less frightening.
Is Annabelle Real? The Raggedy Ann Doll, the Warren Museum and Salem 2026
Category: Annabelle doll, Warren Occult Museum, Haunted Warren Museum Salem, killer dolls
Yes, there is a real Annabelle doll, but it is a soft Raggedy Ann rag doll, not the porcelain figure from the films. It belonged to the Warrens' collection of supposedly haunted objects and is on show at the Haunted Warren Museum, 259 Essex Street, Salem, Massachusetts, until 25 December 2026.
The real doll vs the movie doll
According to the Warrens, the doll was a gift to a nursing student around 1970 and soon seemed to move by itself and leave notes. They took it away and kept it in a locked glass case with a sign warning visitors not to touch it. When New Line made Annabelle in 2014, the filmmakers replaced the smiling rag doll with a cracked, vintage-style porcelain doll, because a Raggedy Ann does not frighten anyone on a cinema screen. That redesign is now the image most people picture when they hear the name.
From the Warren Occult Museum to Salem
For decades the doll sat in the Warren Occult Museum at the couple's home in Monroe, Connecticut. Ed Warren died in 2006 and Lorraine in 2019, and the museum closed to the public in 2019 over zoning issues. The collection, now run by Elton Castee and the comedian Matt Rife, reopened as a temporary exhibit, the Haunted Warren Museum in Salem, at the end of August 2026. It is scheduled to close on 25 December 2026, so anyone planning a visit should check the museum's site for tickets and hours.
The Dan Rivera rumours
In July 2025, Dan Rivera, an investigator with the New England Society for Psychic Research who toured with the doll, died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the "Devils on the Run" tour. Social media quickly blamed the doll. Police reported that he died of natural causes, and the coroner said the doll was not in the room. The rumour shows how strongly the films' marketing has merged with the legend.
Annabelle and the killer-doll tradition
Annabelle belongs to a long screen tradition, from the ventriloquist dummies of Dead of Night (1945) to Chucky and Wan's own Billy in Saw and Dead Silence. Wan has a habit of hiding dolls in his films, and fans have spotted the Dead Silence dummy in the trailer for Insidious: The Last Key, one of the few playful nods between his two universes. I trace this lineage in the twisted history of killer dolls in cinema.
A critic's note on the doll
The Annabelle films have the lowest reviews in the Conjuring Universe, apart from The Nun and La Llorona: the first Annabelle scores 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet the series made more than $795 million worldwide from three films. In my years of film marketing, I saw that an iconic face on a poster can sell a weak script, and Annabelle's cracked porcelain face is the strongest piece of branding in modern horror.
Valak vs the Lipstick-Face Demon: Which Universe Is Scarier?
Category: scariest horror franchise, Valak, Lipstick-Face Demon, Conjuring vs Insidious reviews
The Conjuring is the better-made and more consistently frightening universe, with its two best films scoring 86 and 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Insidious delivers the bigger jump scares and the stranger nightmares, but no film in the series has earned a "Fresh" score. The answer depends on whether you fear slow, believable dread or sudden shocks.
Two styles of fear
| The Conjuring Universe | Insidious | |
|---|---|---|
| Setting | Period pieces, 1950s to 1980s | Contemporary suburban homes and the Further |
| Source of evil | Demons, curses and cursed objects, fought with Catholic faith | Spirits in an astral world, fought with psychic powers |
| Main technique | Long camera takes, slow build-ups, "true story" framing | Sudden appearances, screeching strings, surreal imagery |
| Signature monster | Valak, the demon nun (Bonnie Aarons) | The Lipstick-Face Demon (Joseph Bishara) |
| Best-reviewed film | The Conjuring, 86% on Rotten Tomatoes | Every entry rated "Rotten", per Screen Rant |
| Weakest-reviewed film | The Nun, 24% and a C CinemaScore | Varies by entry; none are Fresh |
Valak and the Conjuring's Catholic horror
Valak first appears in The Conjuring 2, hidden in one of Lorraine Warren's paintings, and is one of the most effective images in modern horror. The demon was so popular with audiences that it got two spin-offs, The Nun and The Nun II, with Taissa Farmiga, Vera Farmiga's younger sister, as Sister Irene. The Conjuring's fear comes from faith under siege: crucifixes turning upside down, exorcisms, priests and nuns. That links it to the long tradition of nun horror I discuss in my review of Immaculate, and to the televised possession story of Late Night with the Devil.
The Lipstick-Face Demon and Insidious's dream logic
Insidious has no religion at its core. Its horror is the fear of a child who will not wake up, and of what follows him back from the dark. The red-and-black-faced demon that suddenly appears behind Patrick Wilson's head in the first film is the series' best-known scare. The Further itself, a foggy, frozen version of the family home full of motionless ghosts, owes more to Poltergeist and to dream logic than to any church.
Why critics rate the Conjuring higher
The first two Conjuring films are made with old-fashioned care: period sets, patient camera moves and performances by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson that make the Warrens feel like a real married couple. Insidious was made faster and far more cheaply, and its sequels lean on noise and backstory. The Conjuring's weak point is its spin-offs: The Nun (24 percent) and The Curse of La Llorona (26 percent) are among the worst-reviewed films in either series.
My verdict as a critic
I have reviewed horror for more than three decades and served on festival juries where genre films competed with drama, and I judge a franchise by its best films and by how well it ages. By that measure the Conjuring wins: The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are the two strongest films across both universes. Insidious wins one category, the single scariest moment, and its first film remains a model of what a filmmaker can do with a $1.5 million budget. If you want the most frightening night, start with The Conjuring. If you want the strangest, start with Insidious. For more choices, see my list of the top 10 horror films of all time in the US.
Box Office Battle: $2.8 Billion vs $915 Million
Category: Conjuring box office, Insidious box office, horror franchise grosses, budget vs gross
The nine official Conjuring Universe films have grossed about $2.78 billion worldwide on combined budgets of about $263 million, making it the highest-grossing horror franchise in history. The six Insidious films have grossed about $915 million on just $60.5 million. The Conjuring earns more money, but Insidious earns more per dollar spent: about 15 times its budget against about 10.6 times for the Conjuring.
The Conjuring Universe at the box office
| Film | Year | Budget | Worldwide gross | Gross ÷ budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Conjuring | 2013 | $20M | $320.4M | 16.0× |
| Annabelle | 2014 | $6.5M | $257.6M | 39.6× |
| The Conjuring 2 | 2016 | $40M | $322.8M | 8.1× |
| Annabelle: Creation | 2017 | $15M | $306.6M | 20.4× |
| The Nun | 2018 | $22M | $366.1M | 16.6× |
| The Curse of La Llorona* | 2019 | $9M | $123.2M | 13.7× |
| Annabelle Comes Home | 2019 | $27M | $231.3M | 8.6× |
| The Devil Made Me Do It | 2021 | $39–40M | $206.4M | 5.2× |
| The Nun II | 2023 | $38.5M | $269.7M | 7.0× |
| The Conjuring: Last Rites | 2025 | $55M | $499.3M | 9.1× |
| Total, 9 official films | $263M | $2.78B | 10.6× |
*Not counted in the official total. With La Llorona, the universe passes $2.9 billion.
Insidious at the box office
| Film | Year | Budget | Worldwide gross | Gross ÷ budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insidious | 2011 | $1.5M | $100.1M | 66.7× |
| Insidious: Chapter 2 | 2013 | $5M | $161.9M | 32.4× |
| Insidious: Chapter 3 | 2015 | $10M | $120.5M | 12.1× |
| Insidious: The Last Key | 2018 | $10M | $172.8M | 17.3× |
| Insidious: The Red Door | 2023 | $16M | $189.1M | 11.8× |
| Insidious: Out of the Further | 2026 | $18M | $170.3M | 9.5× |
| Total, 6 films | $60.5M | $914.7M | 15.1× |
Figures are worldwide theatrical grosses from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, rounded. They are not profits: marketing costs and the cinemas' share of ticket sales are not included.
Last Rites vs Out of the Further
The two latest films show how far apart the franchises now are. The Conjuring: Last Rites, the Warrens' farewell, earned $499.3 million worldwide, the best result in the franchise, and according to Deadline it had the biggest worldwide opening ever for a horror film. Insidious: Out of the Further opened in August 2026 with $25.1 million in the US and has reached $170.3 million worldwide, a solid return on $18 million, but below The Red Door's franchise record of $189.1 million.
What the numbers say
The Conjuring spends like a studio franchise and earns like one: its budgets have nearly tripled since 2013, and its returns per dollar have fallen accordingly. Insidious has stayed close to the Blumhouse model of small budgets and dependable profits. The most profitable film in either series is still the first Insidious, which earned about 67 times its $1.5 million cost.
A former distributor's view
From 1993 to 2000 I worked in film marketing for Fox and Warner and then for UIP, which distributed Paramount, Universal and MGM films in Egypt, so I read these tables the way a distributor does. A horror film that earns ten times its budget is a hit; one that earns 30 or 60 times is a phenomenon. Both franchises keep studios interested because horror travels well abroad and does not depend on expensive stars. The same economics drove the earlier boom I described in my guide to the Halloween film franchise.
What's Next: First Communion, La Llorona 2, the HBO Max Series, Unspoken and Insidious 7
Category: upcoming Conjuring movies, The Conjuring: First Communion, Insidious 7, Conjuring HBO Max series, The Conjuring: Unspoken
The Conjuring Universe has two films dated: The Revenge of La Llorona on 26 February 2027 and the prequel The Conjuring: First Communion on 10 September 2027, with an HBO Max series still in development. No Insidious 7 had been announced as of October 2026, and the spin-off Thread: An Insidious Tale has no release date.
Upcoming projects at a glance
| Project | Franchise | Format | Status as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Conjuring: Unspoken | Conjuring | Netflix interactive game | Released 13 October 2026 |
| The Revenge of La Llorona | Conjuring (spin-off) | Film, directed by Santiago Menghini | US release 26 February 2027 |
| The Conjuring: First Communion | Conjuring | Film, directed by Rodrigue Huart | US release 10 September 2027 |
| Conjuring series | Conjuring | HBO Max series | In development; no cast or premiere date |
| The Crooked Man | Conjuring (spin-off) | Film | Stalled since 2022 |
| Thread: An Insidious Tale | Insidious (spin-off) | Film | In development; no date |
| Insidious 7 | Insidious | Film | Not announced |
The Conjuring's second phase
The Conjuring: Last Rites ended the run of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Ed and Lorraine Warren. In April 2025, at CinemaCon, New Line announced that the universe would continue with a second phase, and James Wan has suggested that future stories could follow the Warrens' daughter Judy. The first new film, The Conjuring: First Communion, is a prequel about the young Warrens, written by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing. Before that, The Revenge of La Llorona brings back the weeping-woman spirit from Mexican folklore.
The HBO Max series and the Netflix game
A Conjuring television series has been in development at HBO Max since 2023. In September 2025 Nancy Won was announced as showrunner, with Peter Cameron and Cameron Squires writing, but by October 2026 there was still no cast, no premiere date and no confirmed series order. The franchise has instead reached a new medium through The Conjuring: Unspoken, an interactive game made by Supermassive Games with WB Games, released on Netflix on 13 October 2026. In it, the demonologist Francesca Noakes investigates the Red Lion Inn in England.
Will there be an Insidious 7?
Not yet. Insidious: Out of the Further reached home video on 6 October 2026, and its director Jacob Chase has said he has "some ideas" for another film. Its post-credits scene, which leaves a character trapped behind a red door with KeyFace, sets up a sequel. Sony and Blumhouse have not announced one. The spin-off Thread: An Insidious Tale, written and directed by Jeremy Slater, has had Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani attached since May 2023, but it remains in development with no release date.
Could the two universes ever cross over?
Not as things stand. Warner Bros. and New Line own the Conjuring, while Sony's Screen Gems and Blumhouse control Insidious. The 2024 merger of Blumhouse and Wan's company Atomic Monster brought the creative teams closer, but a crossover would need the two studios to agree, and neither has suggested it.
A programmer's view of the future
As a festival programmer, I watch where horror audiences are moving, and the next chapter of both franchises will test whether they can survive without their original faces. The Conjuring is betting on prequels, television and games; Insidious is betting on a new heroine in Gemma Hall. Horror franchises that last, like the ones I traced in my history of Halloween horror films through the ages, are the ones that find a new generation of viewers. Both series still have that chance.
Conclusion: Two Haunted Houses, One Architect
The Conjuring and Insidious are not connected, but they were built by the same hands, and watching both shows how James Wan reshaped mainstream horror in the 2010s. The Conjuring is the bigger, more polished and more profitable universe. Insidious is the cheaper, stranger and more personal one.
The Conjuring took the Warrens' case files, gave them period detail and Catholic faith, and grew into a universe of nine official films and $2.78 billion. Insidious took one family's nightmare, invented a spirit world called the Further, and turned $60.5 million in budgets into more than $900 million. One sells the promise that it really happened; the other sells the fear of what we see when we close our eyes.
I have watched horror as a critic since 1990, marketed Hollywood films in Egypt in the 1990s and judged genre films at international festivals, and few filmmakers have built two lasting franchises at the same time. For first-time viewers, my advice is simple: start with The Conjuring (2013) for the best film, then Insidious (2011) for the most daring one, and watch each series in release order. If you enjoy this kind of comparison, read my analysis of The Ninth Gate vs Eyes Wide Shut and my history of Hammer Films, the studio that built the first great horror franchises.
FAQ: The Conjuring vs Insidious
Are The Conjuring and Insidious connected?
No. The Conjuring and Insidious are separate universes with no shared story, characters or crossover. They are linked only behind the camera: James Wan directed the first two films of each, Patrick Wilson stars in both, and Joseph Bishara composed both scores. Warner Bros. owns the Conjuring, while Sony and Blumhouse control Insidious.
Should I watch Insidious or The Conjuring first?
Either works, because the stories are unrelated. Insidious came first, premiering at Toronto in 2010 and opening in 2011, so watching it first lets you follow how James Wan developed his style. The Conjuring, released in 2013, is the better-made film and the stronger starting point if you want the most frightening introduction.
Which is scarier, The Conjuring or Insidious?
The Conjuring is more consistently frightening and better reviewed, with scores of 86 and 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for its first two films. Insidious relies more on jump scares and surreal imagery, and its Lipstick-Face Demon delivers one of modern horror's best-known shocks. Prefer slow dread? Choose the Conjuring. Prefer sudden shocks? Choose Insidious.
How many Conjuring movies are there?
There are nine official Conjuring Universe films as of October 2026: four main Conjuring films, three Annabelle films and two Nun films. Counting The Curse of La Llorona, which Warner Bros. marketed as part of the series, there are ten. The Revenge of La Llorona and The Conjuring: First Communion are due in 2027.
What is the correct order to watch the Insidious movies?
In release order: Insidious, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, The Last Key, The Red Door and Out of the Further. In story order, Chapter 3, set in 2007, comes first and The Last Key, set in 2010, second, followed by the other four in release order. Release order is best for first-time viewers.
Is Insidious based on a true story?
No. Insidious is entirely fictional. Leigh Whannell and James Wan drew on the folklore of astral projection, the belief that the soul can leave the body during sleep, but the Further, Elise Rainier and the demons are invented. The Conjuring films, by contrast, are dramatised versions of real cases investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Is the Annabelle doll real?
Yes. The real Annabelle is a Raggedy Ann rag doll from Ed and Lorraine Warren's collection, not the porcelain doll seen in the films. It was kept for decades at the Warren Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, and is on show at the Haunted Warren Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, until 25 December 2026.
Will there be an Insidious 7?
No Insidious 7 had been announced as of October 2026. Out of the Further, released in August 2026, ends with a post-credits scene that sets up a sequel, and director Jacob Chase has said he has ideas. The spin-off Thread: An Insidious Tale remains in development with no release date.
