All the Conjuring movies, in order of how to watch them

The Nun II is the latest entry in the mostly great Conjuring movie universe, which means now is the perfect time to revisit one of the best modern horror franchises — or jump in for the first time if you’re a newcomer. But one thing that makes these movies particularly challenging isn’t the demons or jump scares, but the extremely confusing continuity.

The series started out in 2013 with James Wan’s The Conjuring, which turned out to be so fantastically successful that Warner Bros. and Wan decided to expand it into a sweeping franchise that covers decades of history, several countries, and all manner of evil monsters and deadly demons. To help you make sense of how to best check out these many sequels and spinoffs, we have a full Conjuring watch order for you, complete with three different options.

All of the Conjuring movies are available to watch on Max — except The Nun 2, which is currently only in theaters.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

This is probably the simplest order to watch these movies in. Sure, the mainline Conjuring movies are the best of the bunch by a long shot, but nothing in the franchise is straight-up bad (with the exception of the original Annabelle). This means watching the Conjuring series for the first time by starting with the prequels is actually a pretty enjoyable choice — unlike some other franchises.

This watch order gives you a strong backstory on the weird and extremely cursed world of The Conjuring, and sets up Valac, the creepy nun from The Nun, and Annabelle, the cursed doll, as terrifying villains who eventually meet their match with the Warren family. It’s a demon-first approach to the series, which makes for a good time and manages to obscure the hack exorcists the Warrens, which is definitely not a bad thing.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

This is by far the most conventional order to watch the movies. It won’t totally make sense, and it will feel like watching a surprise-hit horror movie getting spawned into any spinoff it could, but then again, that’s exactly what happened. The real downside is you have to watch the first Annabelle movie early, but at least that means everything after is going to be pretty fun.

This order is a little bit more direct than the chronological one, but the chronological order is a lot more fun, so if you’re deciding between these two, pick that one.

• The Conjuring
• Annabelle
• The Conjuring 2
• Annabelle: Creation
• The Nun
• The Curse of La Llorona
• Annabelle Comes Home
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
• The Nun 2

Image: Warner Bros.

This order is essentially nonsense if you’re watching the series through for the first time. But if you’re watching it again, try out this extremely silly version. The goal is for each movie to introduce some aspect of the next movie. The Conjuring introduces Annabelle the doll, then we get her backstory in Annabelle, which then introduces Father Perez, who shows up in The Curse of La Llorona.

Honestly, there’s limits to what you can accomplish within this rather disconnected series (not much connects The Curse of La Llorona to The Conjuring 2, so think of that like a reset), but it’s at least a fun way to revisit some very entertaining horror movies.

• The Conjuring
• Annabelle
• The Curse of La Llorona
• The Conjuring 2
• The Nun
• Annabelle Comes Home
• Annabelle: Creation
• The Nun II
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It