The Conjuring Vs. Insidious: Which Film Series Is Scarier?
When it comes to scary movie viewing for Halloween, which horror franchise is more frightening, The Conjuring or Insidious?
James Wan is the man behind three of the most popular horror franchises of modern times: Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring. Whilst Saw exists in its own lane thanks to its marriage of serial killer thriller and gory horror, The Conjuring and Insidious series are always pitted against one another. Both franchises rely on jump scares and demonic forces to terrify audiences and so there has been a constant debate about which franchise is scarier.
After some exploration, JustWatch have settled the argument once and for all. Read on to discover which franchise is most likely to leave you with a sleepless night.
Which Came First, Insidious or The Conjuring?
Out of Insidious and The Conjuring, it was Insidious that arrived first. Written by James Wan’s Saw co-writer, Leigh Whannell, it was back in 2010 that horror audiences were introduced to the Lambert family. Three years later, in 2013, The Conjuring was released. When added alongside 2004’s Saw and 2007’s Dead Silence, James Wan had one heck of a decade of scary movies.
The Conjuring Is Based On True Events, Is Insidious?
The hook of The Conjuring movies is that each film follows one of the cases investigated by real-life paranormal sleuths Ed and Lorraine Warren. The pair made a career out of helping those being stalked by strange entities and apparitions. Their practices and personal lives have been at the centre of controversy for years, but the film series glosses over this in favour of honing in on the creepy core of each of their cases. Across the four main Conjuring movies the audience are invited to experience a 1970’s haunting on an isolated farmhouse, a poltergeist attack in Enfield, a murder suspect who claims the devil made him do it, and a haunted duplex in Pennsylvania.
The ending of each film includes photographs of the real victims and, in some instances, audio evidence collected by the Warrens. These elements leave the viewer with a chill, and when combined with the plethora of jump scares peppered within, make for perfect Halloween viewing.
Whereas the events in The Conjuring movies are presented as fact, Insidious is thankfully a work of fiction. The series explores the real concept of astral projection, but this is not a franchise striving for believability. Instead, the series taps into everyone’s innate fear of something happening to our body when we are at our most vulnerable: when we are sleeping.
The Insidious movies explore another dimension called The Further. This place is full of the dead and demonic, those who chose not to pass on in the hopes of getting another chance at life. The longer a spirit remains in The Further, the more warped and unhinged it becomes, and the characters that lurk within it have become horror icons. From the Lipstick Faced Demon to The Bride in Black, the Further is littered with pure nightmare fuel.
Which Film Series Is Scarier? Science Has The Answer
As with comedy, when it comes to horror, a film’s effectiveness is down to the taste of the viewer watching it. This means that the answer to the question of which franchise is scarier can vary from viewer to viewer. Thankfully, though, science can settle the debate once and for all.
The Science of Scare Project was founded in 2020 and each year it curates a list of the most terrifying English language films. The study analyses the responses of 250 test subjects as they watch through these movies whilst hooked up to heart rate monitors, the theory being that the higher the heart rate, the scarier the film. Since the study began, the top spot has moved back and forth between Rob Savage’s Host and Scott Derrickson’s Sinister, but where do Insidious and The Conjuring sit?
During the 2025 study, Insidious took the number four spot, with The Conjuring close behind at number five. The highest heart rate spike in Insidious was recorded at 133, with The Conjuring managing 132, making the original two movies almost indistinguishable when it comes to their fear factor.
Moving down the list to look at the sequel movies, The Conjuring 2 is eight spots higher than Insidious: Chapter 2 at number 12. Insidious: The Red Door claimed spot 32, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is at 38, and The Conjuring: Last Rites sneaks in at position 49 out of 50.
With all four films in The Conjuring franchise making it into the top 50, versus just three of the then-five Insidious films, one can argue that The Conjuring franchise is the scarier one. Though, technically, Insidious holds the scariest individual entry, just.
