Horror fans rejoiced when The Nun was announced in June 2016.
Billed as the "darkest chapter" in the Conjuring universe, the film is the fifth installment
in the fast-growing horror franchise... and it centers around a demonic character featured
briefly in The Conjuring 2 and Annabelle: Creation.
"I have survived many terrifying encounters, but nothing could have prepared me for this."
From the character's origins in real-life demon lore to spooky behind-the-scenes stories
from the cast and crew, this is the untold truth of The Nun.
From music to mayhem
British director Corin Hardy didn't have tons of experience when director and producer James
Wan asked him to join the Conjuring Universe team.
But Hardy's 2015 feature film debut The Hallow proved he was capable of great things.
The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is that The Hallow promised a "wonderfully horrifying
future for director Corin Hardy."
Prior to The Hallow, Hardy had been plying his trade in music videos.
Between 2007 and 2011, the director created hallucinatory clips for bands like The Prodigy.
His very first music video even hinted at an interest in the macabre.
The video for "She Is the New Thing" by the Horrors is a refreshingly creepy clip… but
bigger, creepier things were on the way...
Strange bedfellows
"... therefore, I seal that which was not to be said."
Based on Umberto Eco's bestselling novel, the 1986 melodrama The Name of the Rose stars
Sean Connery as William of Baskerville.
The fictional friar is often thought to be a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and Middle Ages
philosopher William of Ockham.
Christian Slater plays Baskerville's apprentice, and both men are investigating the unexplained
death of a famous monk.
The plot thickens when the last person who spoke to the monk is also found dead in a
vat of pig blood, and the residents of the abbey fear the devil is at work.
James Wan told The Hollywood Reporter that The Nun is like The Name of the Rose crossed
with The Conjuring.
The similarities between the stories are clear.
Both films have a religious historical setting, and both involve a member of the church arriving
at a strange place to solve a mysterious murder.
One major difference: In The Nun, a supernatural force is actually behind the mayhem.
Get to know Valak
The Nun is a product of James Wan's imagination, but the demonic being is rooted in real-life
lore.
The demon's name gives us power over it."
In the classic occult text The Lesser Key of Solomon, Valak is given the title Grand
President of Hell and assumes the form of a winged child riding a two-headed dragon.
That sounds epic, but maybe not for a haunted-house movie.
So far, Valak has taken multiple forms in The Conjuring universe.
In fact, the demon briefly becomes the Crooked Man in The Conjuring 2:
Does this mean Ed and Lorraine Warren will eventually have a final showdown with a creepy
kid on a dragon?
Uh, let's hope not.
"Banned" equals buzz
In the early days of YouTube, jumpscare videos were all over the place.
Like a throwback to those simpler times, a controversial seven-second ad appeared on
YouTube a few weeks before The Nun's release date.
First, a volume icon appeared in the middle of the user's screen.
Viewers were only given a few seconds before a shrieking nun popped up to scare the bejeezus
out of them.
The ad didn't sit well with everyone.
One Twitter user even suggested it could be dangerous, writing:
"If you see an ad on YouTube with the volume sign being turned down and nothing else, it's
a jump-scare for the new Nun movie coming out….
Please retweet to save a life."
The warning was retweeted over 100,000 times, forcing YouTube to respond.
The company removed the ad for violating its "shocking content" policy... which was ultimately
fantastic publicity for the film.
Thanks, jumpscare.
Truth or scare?
During her Comic-Con interview with Entertainment Tonight, Taissa Farmiga explained why she's
frightened by the occult:
"I don't know what I believe about supernatural and ghosts, but I'm the kind of person who's
like, 'Why open the doors, why let it in, because then I'll get an answer, and I don't
want a definite answer."
But one person who really seems to believe in ghosts is Corin Hardy.
In fact, he told CinemaBlend he saw two real ghosts while filming a scene in a Romanian
fortress.
"So I go into the room As I went into the room, I see these two guys from the crew, you know, from the sound
department or something, you know, just sitting a little further back in the dark."
Hardy says he greeted the men, and then sat with his back to them while getting his shot…
but the real terror was yet to come.
Half an hour later, he turned around:
"And there was just no one in the room.
And there hadn't been anyone in there at all, you know?
There was no way they could have come out..."
We can only guess what happened next.
"Tell me who you are?"
"Mama, mama?"