The Conjuring Movies in Order: Release and Timeline Guide
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The Conjuring Movies in Order: Release and Timeline Guide

The Conjuring Movies in Order: Release and Chronological Watch Guide

Key takeaways

  • First time watching? Use release order.
  • Following the fictional timeline? Use chronological order, keeping in mind that the dates are approximate.
  • Only want Ed and Lorraine Warren’s main story? Watch the four Conjuring films in release order.
  • Release order is the clearest starting point; chronological order is a useful alternative once you know which parts of the universe you want to follow.

Table of contents

For a first watch, see The Conjuring movies in release order. That’s how audiences first encountered the franchise’s characters and connections, and it avoids making a complicated timeline feel more definitive than it is. If you’d rather follow the stories by when they’re mainly set, use the chronological order below.

There are two ways to define “The Conjuring movies”: the four films centered on Ed and Lorraine Warren, or the wider Conjuring Universe, which adds the Annabelle and The Nun spin-offs. The full release-order list has 10 films. Cinemark’s guide and CableTV’s watch-order guide include The Curse of La Llorona as a connected entry, though its place in the wider universe is less central.

The Conjuring movies in release order

Watch the films in this order if you’re new to the franchise or want to follow the connections as they were introduced:

  1. The Conjuring (2013)
  2. Annabelle (2014)
  3. The Conjuring 2 (2016)
  4. Annabelle: Creation (2017)
  5. The Nun (2018)
  6. The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
  7. Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
  8. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
  9. The Nun II (2023)
  10. The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

Release order is the simplest choice for a first-time viewer. The spin-offs expand the supernatural world around the main films, while the Warren movies provide the central thread. You don’t need to watch every spin-off to understand the main series.

The Conjuring movies in chronological order

For a timeline-based watch, use the films’ main story settings as a guide:

  1. The Nun — 1952
  2. Annabelle: Creation — primarily 1955
  3. The Nun II — 1956
  4. Annabelle — primarily 1967
  5. The Conjuring — 1971
  6. Annabelle Comes Home — 1972
  7. The Curse of La Llorona — 1973
  8. The Conjuring 2 — primarily 1977
  9. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It — 1981
  10. The Conjuring: Last Rites — 1986

This order follows commonly cited timelines, but treat the years as a practical guide—not a scene-by-scene chronology. Some movies include earlier events or span more than one period, and watch-order guides don’t always assign the same single year to each film. CableTV and Radio Times both discuss the distinction between release order and timeline order.

Which order should you choose?

Choose release order for your first watch. The franchise was made to be encountered that way. Connections and recurring elements appear as the films introduce them, rather than being rearranged to fit a timeline. It’s also the least confusing option if you’re not sure which movies count as part of the shared universe.

Choose chronological order if you’ve already seen some of the films or care more about the fictional timeline than the order of discovery. It can help you trace how different supernatural cases and objects fit across decades. But it doesn’t make every continuity detail line up neatly, and it changes the sequence in which the franchise reveals its connections.

Neither is an official viewing rule. They’re two useful ways to approach a series whose films move between different characters, cases and time periods.

The four main Conjuring movies in order

If you want the central Ed and Lorraine Warren story without every spin-off, watch these four in release order:

  1. The Conjuring (2013)
  2. The Conjuring 2 (2016)
  3. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
  4. The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)

This shorter list leaves out the Annabelle and The Nun films, along with The Curse of La Llorona. That’s a good option if your main interest is the Warren investigations rather than the franchise’s wider mythology.

Is The Curse of La Llorona part of The Conjuring Universe?

It’s often included in complete watch lists for the universe, but its connection is looser than the links among the main Conjuring, Annabelle and The Nun films. You can include it in a full franchise watch, as the lists above do, or skip it without losing the main Warren storyline. Cinemark and CableTV both place it among the connected films while distinguishing its less central role.

Where does The Conjuring: Last Rites fit?

In release order, The Conjuring: Last Rites comes after The Nun II as the tenth entry in the wider series. In the timeline-based order above, it comes last, with its main story set in 1986. It’s also the fourth film in the central Warren series.

Quick answer

  • First time watching? Use release order.
  • Following the fictional timeline? Use chronological order, keeping in mind that the dates are approximate.
  • Only want Ed and Lorraine Warren’s main story? Watch the four Conjuring films in release order.

Release order is the clearest starting point; chronological order is a useful alternative once you know which parts of the universe you want to follow.