Remembering the Golden Days of The Conjuring
Do you recall the time when The Conjuring movies were not just good, but genuinely exceptional? When they were the talk of the horror genre and had fans eagerly anticipating new sequels? It may seem like a distant memory, but it was only five years ago that we were treated to a truly great Conjuring film. However, since then, the larger Conjuring franchise has struggled to maintain that level of quality, with only one out of five movies living up to the original’s reputation.
Franchise Fatigue and the Struggle for Quality
It’s quite surprising, considering that long-running franchises are the backbone of the film industry. Horror franchises, in particular, have a tendency to be run into the ground. Yet, even in the most criticized franchises, there are usually more than just one good movie, especially when you get this far in.
For example, Friday the 13th remained consistently good until its fifth entry, and even then, the sixth was a franchise-defining high note. A Nightmare on Elm Street had its first, third, and meta-fictional seventh installments, not to mention the excellent 2010 remake. Hellraiser had its first 3 ½ movies, plus two underrated recent entries. Child’s Play had movies one, four, six, and seven.
The only high-profile franchise with a comparable good-to-bad ratio is the DCEU. Despite ventures into Batman, Superman, and the full-on Justice League, the only standout movie to date is Wonder Woman. However, even the DCEU has a trio of promising-looking prospects on the horizon that might lift it out of its slump: Aquaman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman 1984.
The Conjuring Universe: A Downward Spiral
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the increasingly tiresome releases in The Conjuring cinematic universe. The first movie, released in 2013, is rightly judged as excellent. Easily director James Wan’s best work to date, it combined unsettling tension, likable characters, and effective, punchy jump scares to tell one of the best tales of haunted homesteads since Poltergeist (1982). Sure, they shoehorned in a creepy doll for some needless stakes-raising and the real-life Warrens at the center of the narrative were con artists who profited off gullible rubes, but taken on the whole, The Conjuring is one of the best horror movies from a decade that’s increasingly defined by incredible horror movies.
But then came the listless dribble of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs that have come to define the franchise today: not a single one of them worth the time or money it costs to sit through them. No, not even Annabelle: Creations, which isn’t nearly as good as its better-than-expected reputation seeks to claim.
Annabelle (2014), though better than it’s generally given credit for, is a pretty subpar prequel about the least interesting aspect of the first movie that is at least partially redeemed by a few good scares and some workmanlike tension that occasionally works its way into the narrative. Its own direct prequel, Annabelle: Creations (2017), was only marginally better, but nevertheless falls short compared to any other equally notable modern horror film.
The Conjuring 2 (2016) was almost good. The Crooked Man was a nightmarish creation that just about elevated the entire movie surrounding it. But between shoehorning in the Nun Valak in post-production and working double-time to drum up potential spin-offs at the expense of telling the story we paid to see — the exact same problem that Spider-Man 2 had — it was just too bloated and unfocused to amount to much more than a somewhat amusing (and entirely disposable) distraction. And now The Nun (2018), its direct prequel and easily the worst of the entire franchise, is in the midst of plundering unsuspecting theaters of everything they’re worth.
Can The Conjuring Universe Be Redeemed?
But Warner Bros isn’t done with the franchise yet. Who can blame them, really, when The Nun is cleaning up so readily at the box office? We have another direct Conjuring sequel, another direct Annabelle prequel, and even a Crooked Man spinoff that I can’t even begin to contemplate. Plus, with The Nun raking in as much money as it is, I can’t imagine it will be too long before a direct prequel to it is announced. They’d just be leaving money on the table otherwise. However, one can’t help but wonder if the franchise can ever return to its former glory and deliver a film that truly captivates audiences like the original did.