Fans of The Conjuring universe can now enter a contest to show-off their horror short filmmaking skills. Having already earned $895 million worldwide from only 3 films to date, the James Wan-created The Conjuring franchise seems on pace to end up as one of the highest grossing horror series in history. After all, 3 more films are already on the way, and there's no reason to expect that fans won't turn up to see those entries too. The first of those 3 is Annabelle: Creation, which hits theaters next month.

A prequel to the 2014 Annabelle spinoff movie - which was itself a prequel to The Conjuring - Annabelle: Creation presents the true origin story of the titular demonic doll, and is directed by David F. Sandberg. Creation will only be Sandberg's second feature, although his journey to Hollywood has been an interesting one. In 2013, Sandberg directed the horror short Lights Out, which quickly went viral online, and became his personal calling card as a filmmaker. This led to New Line/Warner Bros. hiring him to direct a feature-length expansion of Lights Out.

Released to theaters last summer, Lights Out was a huge hit with both critics and horror fans, making serious bank at the box office along the way. Made for a measly - by Hollywood standards - $4.9 million budget, Lights Out went on to gross nearly $150 million worldwide, an almost Conjuring-like return on investment. Fittingly, New Line then decided to stay in the Sandberg business, offering him the Annabelle: Creation gig. Now, Sandberg and New Line are looking to give another aspiring filmmaker a chance to make it big, via a Conjuring universe short film contest.

The rules of the contest are pretty simple, with one major catch that could present a steep challenge to most entrants. Interested participants must make a short film set within the Conjuring's world, and submit it to the website MyAnnabelleCreation.com. The shorts must be no longer than 2 minutes in duration, and the winner will get a trip to LA to meet with New Line executives and Sandberg himself.

The aforementioned catch? The deadline is July 27th, so filmmakers have only 20 days to write, shoot, and do post-production on their entries. Anyone who's ever worked on a short knows that 20 days is a tight deadline to turn out a completed product, at least one of high quality. Still, if the winner did indeed end up getting a shot in the industry after this, it would make this one of the coolest film-related contests in history.

NEXT: Early Annabelle: Creation Reviews Are Positive

Source: David F. Sandberg