The Conjuring Universe, untangled

Ten films, thirty-four in-universe years, and almost no relationship between the two.

Horror franchises tend to sprawl rather than plan, and the Conjuring films sprawled harder than most. The first spin-off went backwards four years. The next went back another twelve. By the time The Nun arrived, the series had reached 1952, nineteen years before the film that started it all.

Watched chronologically the shape is much clearer: a haunted convent in Romania, a doll made in the mid-fifties, a pair of investigators who spend the seventies collecting the wreckage, and a final case in the eighties. Cause and effect line up.

What you lose is the escalation. Released in order, the films get louder and stranger as the budgets grow. Released in chronological order, the scariest entry arrives fifth and the rest is aftermath.

Our recommendation is unusual for us: this is one of the rare franchises where we would send a newcomer down the chronological path.