When The Conjuring 3 Takes Place Compared To Annabelle Comes Home

How far apart are the events of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and Annabelle Comes Home?  The Conjuring franchise is well known for having a confusing timeline, as prequels and sequels have viewers weaving through time to tell the haunting stories of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Annabelle Comes Home was the most recent film in the Conjuring franchise before Conjuring 3’s release— but where do the two films fall on the franchise timeline?

Annabelle Comes Home is the third installment in the Annabelle story and the seventh film in the franchise. The movie tells the next chapter of Annabelle the doll, where she now lives in the Warrens’ infamous Artifacts Room. In the Artifacts Room, Annabelle begins to dispel chaos as she influences the dangerous spirits and artifacts from the Warrens’ other cases. The Conjuring 3 follows the Warrens as they exorcise 8-year-old David Glatzel. After David’s exorcism, the possession shifts to the boyfriend of David’s sister, Arne Johnson. After Arne is charged with murdering his landlord, the Warrens are called in to tackle the Arne Johnson case— the first known case that attempted to use demonic possession as a defense to prove innocence after Johnson was charged with manslaughter for killing his landlord.

So where on the Conjuring universe’s timeline do the two films sit? Annabelle Comes Home was not only released before The Conjuring 3 but also happens before it chronologically in-universe, too. Annabelle Comes Home takes place in 1972, just four years after the Warrens bring Annabelle into their home and one year after the events of the first Conjuring movie. Their daughter Judy is only 10 years old, and the Warrens are in the prime of their career. The Conjuring 3 jumps forward to 1981, five years after the events of The Conjuring 2 and 9 years after the events of Annabelle Comes Home. Judy is now 19 and attending college, and age is starting to catch up with the Warrens as Ed struggles with his health throughout the movie. The latest film marks the first time the franchise is set in the ’80s, making it the most “modern” of the eight films.

For the most part, the timeline of the Warrens’ stories is true. These are indeed the years the Warrens took on these infamous cases; the Warrens did, in fact, bring the real Annabelle (who was really a Raggedy Ann doll) home in 1968, and they really did perform an exorcism on David Glatzel in 1981, and helped in the Arne Johnson case a few months later.

However, there are major discrepancies regarding the ages of some of the characters in the movies. In Annabelle Comes Home, Judy Warren is 10 years old, but in real life, Judy was 21 years old when she saw Annabelle for the first time and would have been 31 years old in Conjuring 3. David Glatzel was also 11 years old at the time of his exorcism, and not eight years old like Conjuring 3 claims. Aside from these minor changes, The Conjuring 3 and Annabelle Comes Home follow the timeline of the true events they’re based on.

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