All The Easter Eggs And Connections Between The Films Of The Conjuring Universe

During the seance in the Amityville house at the beginning of The Conjuring 2, one of the people sitting around the table is the spitting image of acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick. This could be a coincidence, but Wan has used tricks from Kubrick's cinematic toolkit before, and has called Kubrick's classic haunted house film The Shining one of his influences. 

Another compelling reason to believe the look-alike is intentional is that Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) talks about a "glowing white light" (a shining, perhaps). Meanwhile, her voiceover tells the story of a man who took out his entire family in the house, possibly while under the influence of ghosts or demons - a tale which closely mirrors the plot of The Shining. 

After a cold opening in the infamous Amityville house, The Conjuring 2 transitions to England, setting the stage with a montage that establishes the film's location and time period: London 1977. Hidden in the montage is a billboard advertising The Exorcist II. Director James Wan told CinemaBlend he chose that particular film not just because it was the right year, but because "I knew everyone is going to compare it to the frickin' Exorcist."

The Exorcist II was also chosen as a kind of joking nod to the idea that sequels are inevitably worse than their predecessors; The Exorcist II is widely considered worse than the original and has a score of just 17% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Annabelle doll had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Aquaman, also directed by James Wan, so it only seems fair that the Conjuring universe films would return the favor. And according to a set visit report from Annabelle Comes Home, they do just that.

Annabelle Comes Home picks up where the previous Annabelle films left off, when the Warrens lock Annabelle up in their artifact room. When they leave their daughter alone with some babysitters, the doll gets out of its box and starts to "activate" the other items in the room, leading to the kinds of predictably spooky shenanigans that the artifact room has been begging for since it first appeared in The Conjuring.

Among the items showcased in the room is a piece of Atlantean technology that should look familiar to fans of James Wan's Aquaman. Annabelle also made a brief appearance in the 2019 film Shazam!, which was directed by the Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg.

Joseph Bishara is best known as a composer, having done music for the Insidious films and most of the movies in the Conjuring universe. However, he doesn't always work behind the scenes: He plays Bathsheba in The Conjuring and appears as other demonic figures in Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and The Conjuring 2.

Bishara's presence in the Conjuring franchise extends beyond his relationship with producer James Wan; it also provides an unexpected tie between the Conjuring universe and the Insidious franchise, since Bishara plays the so-called "lipstick demon" in those films. 

In The Conjuring, just before Carolyn Perron approaches the Warrens, she sits through their lecture on the "three stages of demonic activity." As Patrick Wilson's Ed Warren is speaking, the camera pans over the crowd, which includes a notable cameo: the real-life Lorraine Warren. 

She can be seen in the bottom left corner of the frame just before the camera moves up to focus on Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor).

At a climactic moment in The Conjuring 2, Vera Farmiga's Lorraine Warren recalls the name of the demonic entity that's plaguing them, allowing her to banish it back to where it came from - at least for now. If she had been looking around her house earlier in the film, however, she might have known the demon's name sooner.

"Valak" is spelled out repeatedly in the opening scenes of The Conjuring 2. It can be seen on the walls around Ed and Lorraine's breakfast table after Lorraine first sees Ed's painting of the nun. It's also spelled out in wooden letters on the bookshelf behind Lorraine as she reads. Even the bracelets their daughter Judy is making spell out the name "Valak" in little cubes.