The Decade's Biggest Horror Franchise Isn't As Dead As We Thought
They’re conjuring up another prequel.
A horror franchise that makes a strong debut is often milked for all its worth. Paranormal Activity, for example, terrified audiences in 2009, leading to six increasingly ineffective sequels until Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin appeared to end the franchise in 2021.
It’s rare to see a series cut short when there’s even just a little more blood to squeeze from it. So while a wildly successful horror franchise supposedly ended with one last movie earlier this year, it looks like its cinematic universe is actually just beginning.
The Conjuring franchise made a big deal out of The Conjuring: Last Rites, the supposed final film starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as real-life paranormal investigators/con artists Ed and Lorraine Warren. But after that movie became the franchise’s highest-grossing installment, a previously announced HBO TV spinoff started picking up steam. It seemed that while the stars were moving on, the story would continue in a different form.
The Conjuring franchise will send its stars back to the past.
But now, even that caveat may not apply. Variety reports that a prequel movie is in the works, with short film director Rodrigue Huart in talks to direct and Last Rites writer Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg on board to tackle the script. There’s no word on Wilson and Farmiga’s involvement yet, but because this movie is set early in the Warrens’ careers, the roles are likely to be taken by younger actors.
Where this movie is set within the Conjureverse is an open question. While The Conjuring is set in 1971 and Last Rites in 1986, spinoff movies that don’t feature the Warrens are set in prior decades: The Nun in 1952, its sequel in 1956, and Annabelle: Creation in 1958. A Warren-focused prequel might split the difference and be set in the ‘60s, opening the franchise up to a whole new series of bellbottom-based hauntings. We’ve already seen the end of the Warrens’ story, but as long as fans keep showing up to theaters, there will always be more hauntings to explore.
