9 Years Ago, a Spine-Chilling Horror Prequel Redeemed a Movie No One Liked

The Conjuring Universe began in 2013 with a single haunted house story and has since grown into a nine-film franchise built around the reported case files of paranormal investigators Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. James Wan directed that first film, The Conjuring, on a $20 million budget, and its worldwide gross of more than $319 million turned a modestly budgeted ghost story into one of the most profitable horror releases of the decade. Wan returned three years later for The Conjuring 2, sending the Warrens to England to investigate the Enfield case and replicating his box office miracle with a result of $321 million. In between, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema began building outward from the mainline story, and their first attempt at a shared universe centered on Annabelle, the porcelain doll that appears briefly in the opening minutes of The Conjuring.

Annabelle arrived in theaters on October 3, 2014, positioned as the origin story for that doll. Critics were overwhelmingly unimpressed, describing the film as a rehash of scares that had already worked better in its predecessor, pointing to thin characterization and a plot that leaned on abrupt jump cuts and loud musical stings. The movie did haul in $257.6 million at the box office, against a $6.5 million budget, making it a tremendous commercial success. However, in the days and weeks after its release, online discourse revealed that horror fans were equally frustrated, arguing that the spinoff traded the original’s patient buildup for cheaper shock tactics. It seemed clear that the Annabelle franchise was doomed from the start, as there’s only so much the Conjuring brand could do to convince disappointed fans to return to theaters. However, all doubts vanished on August 11, 2017, when Annabelle: Creation returned the doll to theaters and reversed the narrative.

Annabelle: Creation Made the Devilish Doll Scary Again

Warner Bros. handed the Annabelle sequel to David F. Sandberg, whose 2016 feature Lights Out had thrust him into international recognition after years of building amazing horror shorts on YouTube. Returning Annabelle writer Gary Dauberman abandoned the predecessor’s modern-day setting entirely, moving the sequel to 1955 and building a new cast of characters. Sam Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and Esther Mullins (Miranda Otto) played a grieving toymaker and his wife who take in a nun and six orphaned girls following the death of their own young daughter, also named Annabelle. Janice (Talitha Bateman), a polio survivor who struggles to move around on her own, leads the group of orphans, growing increasingly suspicious of a locked room in the farmhouse. While the idea of making an origin story set before an origin story seemed weird on paper, Annabelle: Creation focuses on human drama and, by doing so, gives the doll’s evil an origin that feels earned.

The creative gambles of Annabelle: Creation paid off with critics, who treated the sequel as a genuine course correction. Reviewers praised Sandberg’s patience, noting his willingness to let dread build in empty hallways and half-lit rooms instead of relying on abrupt jump scares. The praise also extended to the young cast, whose performances grounded the horror story with believable reactions. Bateman’s Janice, in particular, is mesmerizing in the prequel, with her character’s disability becoming central to the plot. The film also tied its final minutes directly into the opening sequence of Annabelle, giving the spinoff a sense of narrative purpose and helping the first movie to feel like part of something better and bigger. The movie was also embraced by audiences, with a total box office of $306 million. Finally, Annabelle: Creation showed the Conjuring Universe had great stories to tell beyond the mainline movies.

9 Years Later, the Conjuring Universe Keeps Expanding

Annabelle: Creation‘s success gave Warner Bros. the confidence to keep building outward from the Warrens’ original casework. The Nun arrived in 2018, followed by Annabelle Comes Home in 2019, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in 2021, and The Nun II in 2023. Farmiga and Wilson returned one final time for The Conjuring: Last Rites in September 2025. The film broke the record for the biggest global opening weekend ever for a horror release, outpacing the debut of It, and helped push the Conjuring Universe’s combined worldwide total past $2.7 billion.

Despite that send-off, the mainline story ending does not mean the franchise itself is finished. New Line Cinema president Richard Brener described Last Rites as the close of the story’s first phase, with a second phase already being planned. Warner Bros. is already developing a television series for HBO Max, with writer Nancy Won attached as showrunner, and a new theatrical prequel titled The Conjuring: First Communion will explore the Warrens’ early years under director Rodrigue Huart, from a script by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg. Garrett Wareing and Amanda Fix have been cast as the young Ed and Lorraine Warren for that prequel, taking over the roles Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga have played since 2013. Nine years after a doll named Annabelle rescued a struggling spinoff, the Conjuring Universe is still finding new corners of its mythology to explore.

The Conjuring: First Communion is scheduled to open in theaters on September 10, 2027.