From The Nun To The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

The Conjuring contains what’s essentially a terrifying Annabelle short film, so it’s no surprise to see how this evil doll quickly became a fan favorite. The Conjuring explains how the Warrens come in possession of the Annabelle doll, but Annabelle sets out to show some of the doll’s carnage before she gets locked up. Annabelle is set a mere four years before The Conjuring and it follows Mia and John Form, two fresh parents who unfortunately come in contact with the doll who’s eager for a human host. It’s worth pointing out that Annabelle begins with the death of Annabelle Higgins, aka Janice from Annabelle: Creation. It’s her death in the proximity of the Form’s doll that sets in motion the disturbing series of events that destroy their lives.

The desperate Forms turn to the church and the idea of an exorcism as their last resort. This is ultimately what gets Annabelle in the orbit of the Warrens. Father Perez even makes a sly reference to the Warrens (albeit not by name) as one of his solutions to the Annabelle problem, although he can’t reach them in time.

Annabelle concludes with a tag that’s set six months after the events of the film and cleanly leads into the incident seen in The Conjuring’s prologue. Both Rick and Debbie from The Conjuring make a brief appearance as Debbie’s mom buys the doll from an antique shop and the rest is history.

The Conjuring

1971

The Conjuring series excels at the creepy factor, but what makes the main Conjuring films such a success is that Ed and Lorraine Warren are such an incredible, loving couple. They bring a humanity to these films that can be absent in the other offerings. While the Warrens are alluded to in Annabelle and appear in The Nun through recycled footage, The Conjuring marks their first appearance as they try to help the Perron family with their supposedly haunted home.

Set in 1971, The Conjuring tells a fairly to the point haunted house story that checks off most of the expected boxes and culminates in a terrifying exorcism sequence. Wan and company were just trying to make a good horror film with the first Conjuring, not launch a layered horror universe, so it doesn’t try to set up a handful of other properties. The film doesn’t even feature Valak, but instead opts for an isolated evil spirit known as Bathsheba. The Conjuring benefits from not trying to overextend itself and the Warrens’ creepy curio of haunted antiques leaves plenty of inspiration.