The Conjuring - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

It’s no real shocker when I state that a franchise’s first film is often the best. Very rarely do we get a sequel or a spinoff that matches the ingenuity and the scares of the original film. That’s the case with James Wan’s 2013 hit, The Conjuring. A stylish return to the possession and demon films of the '70s and early '80s, the film made the classic “bump-in-the-night” scares feel relevant again with one terrifying setup after another. In the process, it made the reputably questionable demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren cinematic horror superheroes. 

Nine sequels/spin-offs with the tenth and final on the way, how does the original film hold up after so much franchise saturation? Truth be told, I have essentially given up on expecting anything good or scary out of The Conjuring Universe franchise; my expectations for the upcoming The Conjuring: Last Rites are about as low as can be. A couple of the spin-offs were okay, some were just bad, and I still don’t know what Wolves at the Door was trying to do as a very loose in-universe entry. Between diluting the brand to the point of becoming unintentionally comedic, I was worried that bad mojo would stain my opinion of the first film. Thankfully, that worry wasn’t warranted. 

The Conjuring is still a damned, scary flick. A terrific film to turn the lights out on a dark cold night for. Compared to the sequels and spin-offs, it’s a class all its own. Granted, it has been some years since I went back to this first film, but even knowing when the scares were coming, the pacing, the impeccable sound design, the great performances - I was on the edge of my seat all over again. Wan offered a delicate mix of style with classic, practical parlor tricks to deliver the frights, and a number of these great scares still land. The film has a pace and rhythm that lets tension rise, lets that fear of expectation set in, and then delivers! None of the direct core sequels or spin-offs ever hit that mark. They were just pale imitations.  

So even if this grand finale film is a hunk of dead weight, at least The Conjuring remains strong. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson may be the headliners, but credit shout-outs need to go to Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston for being the emotional anchors. Lili Taylor especially deserves the credit for selling simple setups as absolutely terrifying experiences. I might have a nitpick or two about the climax and the employment of a number of genre cliches, but those are small scraps. The film still kills it all these years later.  

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The Conjuring finally haunts 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (after already living on 4K streaming) with a single-disc plus digital release from Warner Bros and SBS. The disc is housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to WB’s standard static image main menu with basic navigation options along the bottom. The digital code is Movies Anywhere compatible and should port to all connected accounts.

Making its 4K disc debut, The Conjuring is cursed with a strong HDR10 transfer. “Why didn’t it get the same Dolby Vision grade as the digital version?” No idea. That seems to be a WB thing with a number of their big franchise upgrades to 4K these days. Regardless of grade, this disc makes the best of things. The film already had a great 1080p disc, and this edition adds a little extra refinement to all that matters. The film was captured digitally and finished at a 2K digital intermediate, so the detail clarity only sees a nominal uptick. Flipping between discs, you certainly can appreciate the improvements in facial features, costumes, and the terrific '70s style production design work, especially in close-ups, but I wouldn’t call it a night-and-day upgrade there. The biggest gain I felt came from the black levels and contrast. Those dark blacks are wonderfully dark and ominous. They never approach crush; there’s just the right amount of shadow detail, so you always have that feeling that there’s something lurking in those spaces, even if you can’t quite make out what it is. Certainly a better transfer than what we had 12 years ago, but given the era when this film was made, the gains are limited. If I could get a bit more nuanced with my star rating, I'd give this a 4.25/5

On the audio front, the same exceptional DTS-HD MA 5.1 track returns. And I’m perfectly fine with that. This is a Class A example of precision sound design. I’m not going to jump into the “no Atmos, no sale” camp. Especially when there have been enough examples of titles getting an arbitrary Atmos upgrade that offers little or nothing of value. Watching through this again, I can’t even figure how Atmos would make anything that much better to be worth the effort. The soundscape is terrific, letting the dialog, the ominous score, and all of the creepy creeks and bumps land - and often with some intense impact. It was a great track in 2013, and it still packs a wallop in 2025.

On the bonus features front, we have a mix of new and old, but not much for length and depth. The new featurettes feel more like snippets of a longer franchise retrospective. The soundbites feel trimmed and cut as more of a highlight reel of the cast and crew talking about the making of the film and its impact. I got a hunch we’re in for something more elaborate and impactful down the line. At least I hope we are. As is, this is just an okay assortment of basics. 

• NEW Scariest of Them All (HD 7:47)
• NEW Reflections on The Conjuring (HD 6:45)
• The Conjuring: Face-to-Face with Fear (HD 6:37)
• A Life in Demonology (HD 15:37)
• Scaring the “@$*%” Out of You (HD 8:02)

The Conjuring is still a damned creepy, scary-good flick. After some time away from it, I’m glad to see that the smear of entirely too many sequels, prequels, and spin-offs hasn’t stained the impact of James Wan’s original. As trailers continue to roll out for the upcoming final adventure of Ed and Lorraine Warren, I don’t have much hope for it. Looks about par for the course with the rest of the franchise extensions. But this first film remains a genre classic. Now, it’s finally on 4K disc, and it makes a nice landing even if not an ideal one. The HDR10 transfer certainly marks an improvement over the old 1080p disc, but as a 2K DI upscaled effort, there’s only so much ceiling for an effort like this. The audio sticks with the perfect DTS-HD MA 5.1 track while the bonus features get to enjoy a pair of new short retrospective featurettes. On its own, this is a fine disc, one to call Recommended. But I’ve got a hunch that once the final movie is done with its theatrical run, we’ll be looking at a more elaborate box set of all four The Conjuring films on 4K down the road.