10 Horror Movie Franchises That Overstayed Their Welcome

8. The Conjuring

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Warner Bros

James Wan's The Conjuring is one of modern horror's very best movies; a tense, terrifying, stylish offering brimming with magnificent performances and a compelling story. While that film spawned a wider universe of eight movies, two unofficial tie-ins, and one final Conjuring picture that's in development, it's unfortunately been way more misses than hits for this series.

In hindsight, this franchise should've called it a day after The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case back in 2016. Not quite reaching the heights of its predecessor, that movie was at least a solid effort featuring some great scares. Of course, sandwiched between those two Conjuring films was the Annabelle spin-off.

That Annabelle film was hugely disappointing, and it's since been followed by one horrendous sequel (Annabelle Creation) and one so-so-at-best follow-up (Annabelle Comes Home). Elsewhere, a third main Conjuring movie - 2021's The Devil Made Me Do It - was another solid but far from spectacular franchise entry, and we've had a couple of further spin-offs in the two frustratingly dull Nun flicks.

Realistically, the larger Conjuring Universe has one excellent movie, one good movie, two so-so movies, and four utter trash films. And if we're counting those unofficial tie-ins - as in, 2016's Wolves at the Door and 2019's The Curse of La Llorona - that's another two total duds for this series that's sadly these days merely a shadow of its former self.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.