The Exorcist influenced The Conjuring

James Wan has cited the 1970s possession films as the register he wanted, and The Conjuring is built to be taken for one of them: period setting, unhurried camera, almost no gore, and specialists called in to a family home. The Exorcist established the shape the whole sub-genre still uses, a domestic crisis escalated to a rite, and the claim of a true case underneath it.