October Horror Movie Challenge: The Curse of La Llorona (2019) - The Conjuring Series

There is some debate on whether or not The Curse of La Llorona is really part of the Conjuring Universe. There are connections with characters, namely, Tony Amendola as Father Perez and much of the same production team. But it doesn't include the Warrens at all, which seems to be the defining element to be a proper Conjuring movie. But I have enjoyed tales about La Llorona in the past, so I wanted to include it. 

The Curse of La Llorona (2019) - Conjuring Timeline 1673, 1973

The highlight of this movie for me is Linda Cardellini as Anna Tate-Garcia, the case worker who uncovers the mystery of La Llorona.  

The story follows social worker Anna, who gets tangled up in the legend of La Llorona, the “Weeping Woman” cursed to wander the earth, drowning children to replace the ones she lost. Naturally, Anna’s own kids become the next target. With help from a former priest turned folk healer (Raymond Cruz), she has to protect them as the ghostly figure stalks the family through a series of dark nights and spectral encounters.

On its own terms, the movie is serviceable but forgettable. Sadly this is true for many of the La Llorona movies I have seen.  The scares are formulaic, long silences, sudden jolts, loud noises, bones cracking, and while La Llorona’s design is creepy enough, she never feels as iconic as Valak or even Annabelle. The performances are solid (Cardellini anchors the film with genuine emotion), but the script doesn’t give them much to work with beyond the usual haunted-house beats.

Where things get messy is the franchise connection. The film was marketed as part of the Conjuring universe, largely because of a cameo by Father Perez (Tony Amendola), the same priest from Annabelle (2014). But that’s it, no Warrens, no lore tie-ins, no connective tissue beyond a wink and a nod. The result is that La Llorona feels more like an afterthought than a true expansion of the world. It’s a missed opportunity: imagine if the film had really leaned into the folklore and shown us how global legends tie into the same demonic forces the Warrens fight. Instead, it plays like “Conjuring-lite.”

At the end of the day, The Curse of La Llorona is a footnote, a half-step: a film that wants to belong to the Conjuringverse but never quite earns its place. It’s not bad, exactly; it’s just uninspired. Horror fans deserved a folkloric deep dive; instead, they got a by-the-numbers spookfest with a brand-name label slapped on. The only thing that saves this is Linda Cardellini.

This was easily my least favorite so far. I'll go watch some Spanish-language La Llorona. They may not be any better, but at least I can practice my Spanish.

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

La Llorona could make a great folkloric monster. The archetype of the grief-stricken, child-stealing ghost is strong, perfect for Ravenloft or a NIGHT SHIFT. But in this film, the execution never matches the potential. It’s like the DM came up with a great monster idea but only used it for random jump scares instead of building a full scenario around it.

I get it. I have been following tales of La Llorona for decades. I wanted to use her in WitchCraft RPG buit never could get her just right. The same trouble, it seems, the filmmakers had here.

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October Horror Movie Challenge: Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - The Conjuring Series

 I have to give credit to HBO Max, it has all the Conjuring movies in chronological and release order. So it has made it easy for me.  Tonight we come back to Annabelle and the Warrens.

Annabelle Comes Home (2019) - Conjuring Timeline 1972-1973

"She's in a case for a reason." Judy Warren on Annabelle.

This one picks up on a thread from Annabelle, the Warrens picking up the Annabelle doll from the nursing students.  As they drive home, we learn from Lorraine (again, the fantastic Vera Farmiga) that the doll attracts all sorts of wayward spirits. This is punctuated when Ed (the equally fantastic Patrick Wilson) is pushed out into the road in front of a moving truck by a ghost. He survives (we still have a lot more movies after all).  The scene where they bring the doll home and seal it up is genuinely creepy, but no scares, which works to the movie's favor. 

In this movie, we are joined by Mckenna Grace as Judy Warren, who might be one of the hardest-working young actresses in Hollywood. Seriously, go to her IMDB page.

So the big question here is: Annabelle has been featured in two movies already and mentioned in another (and movies I have not seen yet) what more could you possibly do with her? The answer, as it turns out, is “make her the centerpiece of a supernatural funhouse where every cursed object in the Warrens’ basement gets a chance to shine.” Sounds like a great adventure to me.

The setup is simple, and that’s what makes it work. The Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, in glorified cameos) head out of town, leaving their daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace) at home with babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). Naturally, Annabelle gets loose, and soon every artifact in the Warrens’ collection is humming with malicious intent. Ghosts, specters, and demonic presences crawl out of the woodwork, turning the house into a siege of supernatural chaos.

Judy is the focus of this movie, showing some of her mother's gifts (she keeps seeing a dead priest), and as expected, she is the ostracized girl in school. The Warrens are not in this as much and you know what? You don't miss them even when their legacy looms large.

Aside. So far, this one has the best soundtrack of all the movies in the series.

If Annabelle (2014) was only ok, and Annabelle: Creation (2017) was genuinely creepy, then Annabelle: Comes Home lands somewhere in between, it’s less about building dread and more about delivering a “greatest hits” reel of haunted set-pieces. In that sense, it almost feels like an anthology: the Ferryman, the Hellhound, the Bride, each new apparition stealing a scene before Annabelle herself reminds us she’s still the queen of cursed dolls. Daniela's walk through the Warren's storeroom of haunted artifacts is actually is really fun. If you are a horror aficionado or a fan of the creepy and bizarre, there are plenty of recognizable items. 

As I mentioned above, the film’s secret weapon is Mckenna Grace. She gives Judy Warren a vulnerability and quiet strength that grounds the whole thing. She is really, really good. I am looking to seeing how much better she will get now that she can take on bigger roles. The supporting cast, especially Katie Sarife as the curious friend Daniela, brings warmth and humor to what could have just been a parade of jump scares. I mean they could have made Daniela the idiot friend that lets out all the ghosts, but instead you really feel for her. 

Is it the scariest entry in the Conjuring Universe? No. But it is the most fun. It’s a popcorn horror flick, a rollercoaster through the Warrens’ nightmare museum. And in a franchise that sometimes leans too heavy on grim seriousness, that lighter touch isn’t a bad thing.

The first Conjuring has been the best so far, but I like this one a lot too. 

We end with a photo of the real Warrens and a dedication to Lorraine Warren who died in 2019. Judy Warren is currently the owner of the Warren's Museum.  

Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

From a gamer’s perspective, Annabelle Comes Home is basically a haunted dungeon crawl. The party (the kids) are locked in a location full of cursed relics, and each one is its own encounter. Open the wrong cabinet, fail the wrong saving throw, and you’re dealing with an entirely new monster. It’s the kind of “house of horrors” scenario every GM secretly wants to run, where the players never know what’s coming through the next door.

The occult angle is that each object has its own history, its own connection to the world of the supernatural.  In NIGHT SHIFT you would need to research them to figure out how to shut them down. 

The Warren's storeroom and office is a treasure trove of ideas.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 9
First Time Views: 7

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Conjuring (2013) - The Conjuring Series

The centerpiece of the Conjuring Universe, the one that started it all.

The Conjuring (2013) - Conjuring Timeline 1968-1971 

Ok. There is lot going on here. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as real-life couple and demonic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens' investigations also gave us the Amityville Horror story and film franchises. Maybe I should have included them in this. Nah.  Lorraine Warren even makes a cameo appearance in this movie, before her passing in 2019. 

First off, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are both fantastic. I have enjoyed everything they have been in even when the surrounding movie was terrible.  This movie is not terrible. 

And honestly, the whole cast is fantastic.  Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as the Perron parents, and Joey King as one of their daughters. All also based on real people. 

The Annabelle sub-plot is only the prologue to the main tale. 

By 2013, the haunted house genre seemed played out, but this movie really revived it. Revived isn't right, it brought back to life. And there are a lot of great scares here. The demon grabbing Christine's leg is certainly going to give someone nightmares. 

We learn the house is cursed by an accused satanic witch who killed her baby and herself in a satanic ritual at 3:07 am, when all the clocks stop. 

What makes The Conjuring stand out is the execution. James Wan stages his scares with precision. Long takes, creeping camera movement, and subtle sound design build tension until it’s unbearable and then the hammer drops. The clapping game in the cellar remains one of the best set pieces in modern horror, not because of gore or CGI, but because of its timing and restraint. 

When things happen, they happen all at once. 

Turns out the place is full of ghosts and demonic forces. 

There are a lot of parallels between this and Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist. You would be excused if you thought  they were based on the same story and told from very different points of view. 

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D

There is no end of material for either my Occult D&D and NIGHT SHIFT. I mean, this is a NIGHT SHIFT campaign right here. Ed and Lorriane are by the rulebook occult scholars and a psychic. The scene where the occult investigators come into the house is fantastic and feels like found footage.  Not to mention, there are more secret rooms in this house than in a Gygax dungeon.

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Viewed: 8
First Time Views: 6

October Horror Movie Challenge: Annabelle (2014) - The Conjuring Series

Now we come to the first proper sequel, or prequel to the Conjuring universe, 2014's Annabelle. 

Annabelle (2014) - Conjuring Timeline 1968-1970

Ok, now we are in the 1970s, the start of the modern Satanic Panic. 

There is an attempt here to connect this all to the Manson Family murders, which I understand was an inspiration for some part of this series.

John and Mia Form (Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis) are a new couple and Mia is very pregnant. John gives her a gift of the Annabelle doll. 

We are treated to a scene later, Mia's point of view of the adopted Janice, aka Annabell, from Annabelle: Creation, killing her adoptive parents. The killers come next door and attack Mia and John. One of the killers kills herself, holding the Annabelle doll.  We do learn that the killer was Janice/Annabell. Is the doll the same one as in A:C? No idea, but we do know they were all made by Samuel Mullins.

The predictable spookiness starts. BTW, this series does a lot to make rocking chairs scary. The sewing machine was stressing me out, too. My mom was a seamstress, and she used to run needles through her fingers all the time. The TV going out was too much like Poltergeist. 

The actors are not great, save for Alfre Woodard and Tony Amendola, who are both always great. To be fair, Ward Horton and Annabelle Wallis are not given a lot to work with. 

I had heard that this was the weakest link in the series, and I can see that. It is certainly not as good as Annabelle: Creation. The movie is slow, unnecessarily so, really. Annabelle: Creation really redeems this series so far. 

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D

You know I love 1970s occult horror, and there are plenty of ideas here, even if the movie itself didn't fully take advantage. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 6

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Nun II (2023) - The Conjuring Series

The next in the Conjuring chronological timeline is 2023's The Nun II. This time we move from an orphanage for girls to a boarding school for girls. 

The Nun II (2023) - Conjuring Timeline 1956

We start this one four years after the events of The Nun. This one starts with the death of a Priest in Tarascon, France (yes, where they defeated the Tarasque). We also find Sister Irene in an Italian Convent, and Maurice, aka Frenchie, is working at a school in France. Father Burke, we learn, is dead. 

Sister Irene is charged with investigating Valak again. This time, the setting shifts across Europe, with the demon’s shadow stretching into the French boarding school. That shift works: there’s something inherently creepy about children in peril, especially when Catholic ritual and dark demonic legend overlap.

The visuals remain the franchise’s strongest card. If you’re into ruined chapels, candlelit corridors, and sudden blasts of holy fire, this movie has you covered. Valak remains terrifying, arguably even more so here than in the first film. She looms larger, and the filmmakers lean harder into the iconography: shadowy halls, painted saints staring down, and that pale face waiting just past the edge of the light.

Where it falters is pacing. At times, the movie wants to be a detective story, with Irene piecing together the mystery of Valak’s hunt for a sacred relic. At other times, it just wants to throw another jump scare at the screen. The result is uneven. There are moments that feel like The Exorcist by way of Hammer Horror, and then there are moments that feel like a haunted house ride we’ve been through before. The shadow of the Exorcist looms large. 

Still, I found this one more satisfying than the first. It is a slower burn, and there’s a stronger sense of continuity, not just with The Nun, but with The Conjuring films overall. The lore deepens, and the stakes feel higher. Farmiga is still great, and she anchors the film with quiet intensity, and Storm Reid (as her ally, Sister Debra, and from A Wrinkle in Time) brings some fresh energy to the dynamic. Honestly, I want a movie of these two criss-crossing Europe as demon hunters. Psychic Irene and skeptic-but-looking-for-her-faith Debra in a trans-European romp. Doesn't fit the vibe of the series at all, but it would be fun. 

Is it perfect? No. But The Nun II knows what it’s about, and it leans harder into the occult Gothic aesthetic that made Valak such a standout villain in the first place. If you liked the first but wanted more, this delivers. If you didn’t like the first at all, this won’t change your mind.

Occut D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

From an RPG perspective, The Nun II plays out like a second act in a campaign. The first adventure introduces the villain; the second broadens the scope, drops hints of deeper lore, and raises the stakes with bigger set pieces. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 6

October Horror Movie Challenge: Annabelle: Creation (2017) - The Conjuring Series

 Moving on to the next movie in the series, we come to the cursed doll Annabelle. There is something scary about creey dolls, so this should be fun.

Annabelle: Creation (2017)  - Conjuring Timeline 1955

Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (Miranda Otto) are mourning the loss of their daughter Annabelle, nicknamed "Bee" (and played briefly by Samara Lee). Among the orphans is Janice (Talitha Bateman) and Linda (Lulu Wilson, no relation to Patrick Wilson of The Conjuring and better known for her role in Becky)

What works here is the slow build. Director David F. Sandberg (who also gave us Lights Out) knows how to stage a scare. Instead of cheap jolts, the movie leans into atmosphere: shadows moving just out of sight, doors creaking open on their own, the doll staring blankly from across the room or from under the staircase. When the horror finally ramps up, it feels earned. 

Our Nun in this one, Sister Charlotte (Stephanie Sigman), has a connection to the cloister in Romania from The Nun. 

The performances are solid, especially from the child actors. Lulu Wilson stands out, bringing both innocence and terror to the role. The kids feel like real characters, not just cannon fodder, which makes the haunting all the more effective.  There are not as many jump scares as in The Nun, but this film features a very effective slow-burning horror that works well.

The Raggedy Ann doll at the end was a nice touch.

Occut D&D and NIGHT SHIFT

Creepy dolls have long been a staple in Ravenloft and constantly come up in horror stories and movies, so adapting them NIGHT SHIFT is easy.

For my Occult D&D possession is always fun, and a haunted house is a time-honored classic.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 5

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Nun (2018) - The Conjuring Series

This year I am doing something I have been wanting to do for a while. I am going to watch all The Conjuring movies in chronological order, instead of release order. Now I have not seen all of these movies, so I might miss out on some details, but I still think it is going to be a lot of fun.

The Nun (2018) - Conjuring Timeline 1952

We start this movie with two nuns attempting something, one dies, and the other commits suicide. This movie introduces us to the demonic nun Valak.

The film follows Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, one of my favorite actresses and whose casting creates an unintended but interesting echo of her sister Vera’s role in The Conjuring films) and Father Burke (Demián Bichir, looking like the son fo Christopher Lee and Gabriel Byrne) as they investigate a string of dark happenings at a Romanian abbey. They meet local guide Frenchie, played by Jonas Bloquet.

The scares start early, and often, with Valak lurking around every corner, doing the heavy lifting of the scares. There’s a lot of candlelight, a lot of whispering in the dark, and a lot of “Is it behind you?” moments that would work better if they weren’t so telegraphed.

What the movie nails is the creepy atmosphere. The abbey and lands look like they stepped straight out of an old Hammer Horror film. The fog, the forests, the decaying stone walls, it all feels like an RPG adventure hook waiting to be written. (You could drop this abbey into Ravenloft tomorrow and no one would blink.) Unfortunately, the script doesn’t give that backdrop much substance. Characters explain the lore more than they actually uncover it, which makes the whole thing feel less like an investigation and more like a tour with jump scares. Still, it is a fun tour, and the jump scares are effective. For example, while investigating, we hear about Father Burke's failed exorcism, the history of the Abbey, and so on. It is all fun, but it doesn't push the plot forward.

Valak herself is terrifying. The plotting could use some work, but a demon nun with sharp teeth stalking around in torchlight is always effective. You don't even need to be Catholic. In fact, it makes me think there is an entire sub-genre of "religious horror" of which The Exorcist would be the lead example. 

I do love the period feel of this movie, something I know extends to the rest of the series. 

Our heroes do defeat Valak, but since the first, we know it doesn't last. We even get a "flash forward" of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren documenting the possession of Frenchie 20 years later.

NIGHT SHIFT & Occult D&D Ideas

Obviously, each movie is an adventure in a long campaign. The occult aspects primarily come from the need to investigate long-forgotten lore.  Of course the demon Valak/Valac is always good hook, a reminder that even a "low level" demon should be terrifying. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2025
Viewed: 5
First Time Views: 4