Are Insidious and the Conjuring Movies Connected?

The horror movie genre is one of the most underrated genres in fictional media. It procured some amazing storylines that shook us to the core, like the horror works of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, and more, and studios adapted most of their work to television and silver screens. However, two horror movie franchises stood out from the rest in the last two decades: Insidious and The Conjuring. In this article, we will discuss the confusion around these two franchises – are Insidious and The Conjuring movies connected?

Universe-wise, Insidious and The Conjuring franchise are not connected at all. The Insidious series follows a couple whose son mysteriously enters a comatose state and becomes the vessel for ghosts. At the same time, The Conjuring presents real-life cases of Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators associated with controversial but prominent haunting cases. These two franchises have nothing in common plotwise but do have connections in the creative department. The Insidious and The Conjuring franchise share the same director, James Wan, and the actor Patrick Wilson, who portrays vastly different characters in both franchises.

We will discuss this topic more by mentioning the universes each movie is in, and maybe connections to the other notable movie franchises. Moreover, we will see why were fans confused with Insidious and The Conjuring connections. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end.

Insidious and The Conjuring universes

In recent years, horror media had a lot of great movie projects that quickly turned into franchises. We all remember the Anabelle, IT, and Scream movies that were successful during the 1980s and 1990s.

Even though the horror genre gained massive success over the years, more recently with Jordan Peele’s movies, the genre was never exclusively mainstream like the action and drama projects.

Even though I struggle massively to go through the horror movie, I can respect the genre for what it is, and in the 21st century, new horror movies brought the genre back to the mainstream.

We remember Saw, Circle, and Paranormal Activity movies that were released during the 2000s. Still, the 2010s brought us great horror movies that became mainstream and known worldwide – Insidious and The Conjuring.

The first Insidious movie came out in 2010, and it got favorable to mixed reviews. The critics complimented the movie’s suspense and its scary moments that are not expressed only with gore and blood.

One critic mentioned that Insidious could be watched with eyes closed and still be engrossed with it. Those words are high praise for a horror movie since some critics and reviews look down on a genre that unfortunately procured some questionable projects.

Nevertheless, the audience recognized the movie’s premise and praised it for what it was. Insidious follows the story of a family searching for help for their son Dalton, who fell into a coma after a mysterious incident in the attic. While looking into what happened to their son, the Lamberts discover the paranormal activity in their new house – their son is under the curse, and they need to save him.

Now, Insidious did not do anything extraordinary. Still, the direction of the movie by James Wan, the atmosphere of the movie, and the convincing performances of the main cast made Insidious anticipated by the fans in the future, and they were not wrong.

The movie kickstarted the whole franchise that procured three more movies and one more on the way in 2023.

On the other side, we have The Conjuring movie franchise that kickstarted with the first movie released in 2013 and since then became a notable horror movie franchise.

First Conjuring follows the story of Ed and Lorrain Warren, a pair of paranormal investigators associated with haunting cases. In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron moved their family to the dilapidated Rhode Island farmhouse, and strange things started happening soon.

In desperation, the Perrons call the Warrens to investigate what is happening in the house and their family. The investigators suspect that the house is haunted by the fiend, which prompts them to call their friends Drew and Brad to collect the evidence and convince the Church that it needs exorcising.

The Conjuring was a commercial and critical success and one of the most successful horror movies in a very long time. The critics praised the story, scary moments, and actors’ performances, especially Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.

The Conjuring franchise expanded more than Insidious and procured successful spin-offs like Annabelle and The Nun. The Conjuring is the most successful horror movie franchise of all time, and it does not look like it will stop anytime soon.

As you can see, The Conjuring universe expanded quite a bit and procured other great horror movies like Annabelle and The Nun. At the same time, Insidious stayed and relied on its own story.

So, why are fans confused about these two franchises and think they are creatively connected? Let’s find out.

Are Insidious and The Conjuring movies connected?

Are Insidious and The Conjuring connected? Absolutely not, at least plot-wise. So, why are fans so confused? For a good reason, since I was one of them as well.

Insidious movie got released in 2010, and the movie’s director was James Wan. The cast consisted of Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, who portrayed the married couple Josh and Renai Lambert.

On the other hand, the first Conjuring movie was directed by James Wan, and Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga portrayed the paranormal investigators, the Warrens.

The director and actor of both movies caused a lot of confusion among the fans and casuals, and the information sparked rumors of the Insidious and Conjuring connections.

Coincidentally enough, James Wan directed only the first two movies of each franchise, and the spin-off from the Conjuring franchise, Annabelle Comes Home from 2019, while Patrick Wilson starred in Insidious and The Conjuring franchise portraying the main characters.

Insidious and Conjuring have a lot in common, but storywise, the movies are different; more specifically, The Conjuring movie is set in the 1970s, and Insidious’s ongoing story is set in the 21st century.

Of course, The Conjuring franchise expanded its universe with Annabelle and The Nun movies, so the future crossover is not out of the picture for these franchises.