- James Wan’s The Conjuring voted “scariest film ever”
- The movie received 230,000 votes from Pubity readers
- The Exorcist was a close runner-up
James Wan’s 2013 paranormal horror The Conjuring has officially been voted the “scariest film ever”, receiving over 230,000 votes in a recent social media poll.
In the lead-up to Halloween, Pubity asked its readers and social media fans to cast their vote on the scariest horror movie of all time, with many frightening favourites quickly topping the bill.
In total, our call-out received over 6.7 million votes. However, it was Wan’s The Conjuring – a movie inspired by a series of terrifying real-life paranormal events – that emerged victorious by earning 53% of the votes.
Meanwhile, William Friedkin’s infamous horror classic The Exorcist was a close second, attracting 47% of votes.
Explore the full results of our recent poll below:
Inspired by real events
The Conjuring introduced audiences to Ed and Lorraine Warren, two real-life paranormal investigators who rose to fame throughout the 1970s and 80s.
Played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, Wan’s film presents a dramatized take on one of the Warrens earlier cases which occurred during a visit to the Perron family in 1971.
Here, the Warrens came to believe that a demonic entity was terrorising the inhabitants of the family home. Eventually, the duo suggest that the evil spirit of a witch may have cursed the space, leading to terrible – and deadly – results.
While the story’s witch-focus was based on the Warrens’ actual encounter with the Perron family, much of what happens in The Conjuring was heightened for terrifyingly dramatic effect.
As a result, Wan’s movie was a huge success, earning $319.5 million at the worldwide box office and spawning a number of sequels and spin-offs.
The Conjuring universe
Wilson and Farmiga returned for 2016’s The Conjuring 2 and 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, each of which took their cues from different spooky encounters that the Warrens experienced during their time as demonologists.
The film even spawned a winder Conjuring universe, with spin-offs including three films about the haunted doll Annabelle, and two movies focusing on the haunted history of one of the franchise’s most terrifying characters in The Nun and The Nun II.
Those brave enough to revisit the movie that Pubity readers have deemed the most pant-ruiningly scary movie of all time can do so on MAX in America and Apple TV+ in the UK.
