Is The Conjuring Secretly Hollywood's Second Most Successful Shared Universe? | The Backdrop

Well this was long but a fascinating essay. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I can’t get past the Warrens as real people enough to suspend my disbelief for the films but the success really has been startling. Gave us an excellent Ghost song at least, seems that Patrick Wilson just can’t escape… phantoms.

I wonder if part of the Conjuring's success is the guarantee that the good guys win. Horror is unique in the fact that it's common for horror monsters to win, or at least survive. A lot of the time they kill the survivor of the last film in the sequel then go on to slaughter everyone but the new final girl. But here, in the Conjuring films (another franchise that's somehow super popular and prevalent but has had no long term cultural impact and no one seems to be talking about it, like Avatar) the Warrens are real people (allegedly) who went from case to case solving these incidents. They can't die, the real life Warrens would never allow it, if the affair thing is any example to draw from. So there's that level of safety in your emotional investment when watching these films. A few people could die but the good guys are going to win so there's no *real* fear to be had. It makes them almost safe, in comparison to other horror films. Side note, great job by the editor this episode. I don't know how many people notice it but there are some really cool effects going on this episode. The Sinner shot on the screen with the film grain really caught my eye