Claim: Vera Farmiga acted in horror films.

The Conjuring is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan and written by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes . It is the first film in The Conjuring franchise . Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as Ed and Lorraine Warren , paranormal investigators and authors associated with prominent cases of haunting . Their reports inspired The Amityville Horror . The Warrens come to the assistance of the Perron family -LRB- Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor -RRB- , who are experiencing increasingly disturbing events in their farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971 .   The Conjuring was released in the United States and Canada on July 19 , 2013 , and in the United Kingdom and India on August 6 , 2013 . The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $ 318 million worldwide from its $ 20 million budget , making it one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time . A sequel , The Conjuring 2 , was released on June 10 , 2016 , also to critical and huge commercial success .