The Terrifying Paranormal Series Blowing Away The Netflix Top 10
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It looks like a lot of Netflix subscribers are in the mood for some thrills and chills right about now, because two films from one of the scariest movie franchises of all time are currently tearing it up on the Top 10. The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are among the most-streamed movies in the library right now, and given how truly terrifying those movies are, it's really no wonder audiences are up for revisiting them again and again.
The movies follow real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, respectively, as they help different families who have been haunted by some very unsettling, and sometimes even threatening, supernatural entities. Not only are the films filled with bone-chilling locations and eerie occurrences, but the creepy ghouls that the Warrens have to contend with are pure nightmare fuel. Here's a deeper look at why The Conjuring films are such standouts in the horror genre.
It's from the horror legend that first brought you Saw
James Wan broke out in a big way when he teamed up with his former film school buddy Leigh Whannell to turn their creative student short into the game-changing 2004 blockbuster called Saw. That twisty film, and its eventual sequels, made Wan an instant icon in the horror genre, and he continued to work with Whannell on other chilling thrillers, including Dead Silence and the Insidious movies.
Wan continued to prove his merit as a horror maestro, even without Whannell, with his work behind the lens of The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2. This time, the scripts were written by brothers Carey and Chad Hayes, who'd previously given everyone goosebumps with their screenplays for The Reaping and House of Wax. Unlike other fright flicks this team had worked on previously, for the Conjuring movies they got to draw from some real-life spooky stories that made the scripts even more unnerving.
All of the cases are based on real-life hauntings
In The Conjuring, married ghost-hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren are hired to help the Perron family from Rhode Island as they grapple with a venomous spirit that's looming over their remote farmhouse and attempting to take possession of the mother's body. Meanwhile, The Conjuring 2 follows the pair as they investigate the Amityville house murders and the Enfield poltergeist disturbance involving the Hodgson family in London, which also involves some petrifying possessions.
In both films, the stories are based on some of the many terrifying investigations that the real-life couple engaged in throughout the '70s. Additionally, the families that were involved have spoken up about just how creepy their encounters actually were, and how the films capture the essence of those unforgettably freaky experiences. The stories would be frightening even if they were fiction, but the fact that these incidents are actually purported to have happened makes them even more skin-crawling to watch.
There's still plenty more to come
The Warrens' shudder-inducing work continued for years before and after the cases featured in the first two Conjuring movies. As such, the series has spawned several spin-offs featuring some of their most disturbing stories, not to mention items from their famed Occult Museum that gave them the shivers. Annabelle from 2014 brings new life to the doll they insisted was possessed by a demon. Then, 2017's Annabelle: Creation takes a step back in time to the heinous story surrounding the doll's origins, and 2019's Annabelle Comes Home picks up later on when the toy has been placed in a new home in the Warrens' own museum. Meanwhile, 2018's The Nun focuses on The Conjuring 2's "Demon Nun" and 2019's The Curse of La Llorona steps away from the Warrens' personal catalogue of creepers to highlight the story of a Latin American folklore ghost.
But as plentiful as the franchise has been already, there's still plenty more Conjuring fun to come. The third installment to the main Conjuring stories, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, will center on the Warrens' experience with the 1981 trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who was accused of killing his landlord — but may have been demonically possessed at the time. The movie is currently scheduled to premiere this summer, on June 4. Also on deck for the franchise is a sequel to The Nun and a spin-off about The Conjuring 2's horrifying monster, the Crooked Man.
Of course, the success and growth of the Conjuring universe wouldn't be possible without the first two films being so indelibly scary and authentic. Be sure to click play on this gruesome twosome in Netflix's Top 10.