The universe grew sideways rather than forwards: every hit produced a prequel about an object or a figure glimpsed in the background, so the release order zig-zags through the calendar and the story order does not resemble it at all. Release order is how the world was revealed, and each film assumes you have seen the one that introduced its monster. Story order starts in a Romanian abbey in 1952 and arrives at the Warrens three decades later.