The Conjuring first started back in 2010 when Warner Bros purchased the rights for the life rights for Ed and Lorraine Warren, known for his work in the paranormal phenomena and their investigations and how their cases shocked the world, back in 1970s and the 80s.

Few horror franchises have endured this long, because the way of The Conjuring universe was structured and how now in this year is coming to his end. People are still interested in this world and this universe works in a way that is different from many other similar movies.
Why this franchise is so compelling?

Beyond the jump scares and the storytelling, there‘s a unique sense and style when director James Wan started to develop his ideas to direct and write the first movie and how the franchise continued to move forward. There had been countless of spin-off and another things around this universe, but nothing overcomes the main movies where Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga played the couple and how great their performances are.
THE BEGINNINGS
The films is not a real life documentary, but when a subtitule like BASED ON A TRUE STORY comes up in the screen, you often believe this was real. IT‘S NOT ENTIRELY THE TRUTH. The director and writers took the creative freedom to change some things in order to adapt it into a feature film, dramatized some events and made it more palpable for the storytelling. Ed and Lorraine Warren were often called as frauds, abusers. No actual proof of any of the cases were shown, just the stories of the families and their own opinions of it.
So, why the movies didn‘t touch their real life controversies into the films?
Well… that leads to…

STEP INTO HOLLYWOOD
When, Warner Bros was seeking to buy his life rights to make a movie out of them, Lorraine spesifically put a clause in his contract that nothing about their allegeded controversy between Ed Warren and a minor, the non-proof of their cases and how people debunked their famous cases. Nothing of that could be shown into the films and Warner already had different approach for the movies and showing them as a functional and loving couple, with real life struggles and telling that their cases were real. Imagine, a movie about those controversies, that wouldn‘t work at all, even if it‘s the right thing to do.
Obviously, the franchise works because the writers found a way to develop the storylines of the characters that we see today. Even, if an “expert“ wants to step in and say: “The movies are bad because they were fakes“, The producers never intended to do a real life version of them, they were concentrating in telling the cases as part of horror films.

REAL VS FICTION
In every Hollywood movie, they tend to adapt something from elsewhere, it‘s going to be dramatized and this is the clear example. The case of the first movie, The perron family actually talked to the media about how the movie exaggerated the real life events. Or, the events of the second movie, the Warrens weren‘t actually part of the case at all, they spend with the girls at least 20 minutes and left. Valak is 100% idea of the producers, never existed. But again, it worked. They were not trying to find the proof if that existed or not, the movies worked so well, because it showcased how creepy they are.
But let me ask you a very important question: Who cares?

Horror movies often tell us that are based in something “real“ and to be over exagerrated in terms of narrative and tension… but.. it works. The films work because they understand what they‘re trying to be, they resonate on how well they portray the characters and that‘s what‘s important.
This movies aren‘t good because how truthful they are, they are good because it feels like they know what they are and what they want to achieve. The scares, the tension and the way they constructed the storytelling is perfect. But at the end of the day, if their controversies affected the movies or not, honestly, who cares… in the end, the moviesa are to entretain certain aspect and they succeeded in that.
The Conjuring Last Rites opens September 16th, 2025.
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