‘The Conjuring’ Officially Becomes a Major HBO Max Streaming Favorite

Halloween might be over, but the love for spooky movies hasn’t faded on streaming. This November, one of the biggest horror movies of the century is coming to the world’s biggest streaming site. On November 17, Obsession will be available to stream on Netflix in all its record-breaking glory. Curry Barker‘s breakout masterpiece became the highest-grossing original horror movie of this century, as well as the fifth highest-grossing horror film of all time, in a jaw-dropping theatrical run that turned a sub-$1 million budget into more than $500 million worldwide.

Not just a box office smash, Obsession also earned some of the best reviews of any film so far this year. Collider’s Hannah Hunt praised the film’s “phenomenal performances, disciplined storytelling, excellent sound design, and an atmosphere of constant emotional suffocation” in her review, one of many glowing responses to a true horror gem. But Obsession‘s inevitable rise up the Netflix ranks is still a couple of weeks away, with another modern horror favorite storming the streaming charts right now.

The film in question is 2013’s The Conjuring, the first in a beloved modern horror franchise that has now spanned nine films. The introduction to Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson‘s paranormal investigators, Lorraine and Ed Warren, scored a huge $316 million at the global box office during an impressive theatrical run against a reported production budget of just $20 million. The film also received acclaim from critics, illustrated by a “certified fresh” 86% average score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. At the time of writing, The Conjuring is one of the ten most-watched movies on HBO Max in the U.S., a list topped by Olivia Wilde‘s 2026 gem, The Invite.

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

• He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
• Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
• The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
• You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.

• But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
• Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
• Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
• You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

• You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
• The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
• Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
• Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

• The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
• You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
• That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
• It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

• You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
• Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
• Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
• Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

‘The Conjuring Universe’ Returns Next Year

The haunting on the big screen continues next year with The Conjuring: First Communion, the tenth installment in the long-running series. From Atomic Monster and the Peter Safran Company, the film will be released just in time for Halloween on September 10, 2027. Rodrigue Huart (Réel, Transylvanie) will direct the latest installment, with Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg back to pen the screenplay following Last Rites, this time joined by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.

The Conjuring is one of the ten most-watched movies on HBO Max in the U.S. Stay tuned to Collider for more.

The Conjuring