The Nun delivers a twist at the end of the movie that will have surprised many moviegoers;
however, originally, the final scene was going to be even more shocking.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and in this video I'll be revealing the incredible
ending for The Nun that we never got to see, plus I'll be explaining some other fascinating
changes from the original script.
Make sure you stay till the end where I'll also reveal the crazy decision Sister Irene
almost made at the end of the movie!
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deleted scenes and horror videos.
Spoilers ahead for The Nun, so take care if you haven't seen it yet.
As I talked about in my ending explained video, the big reveal at the very end of The Nun
is that Frenchie is actually Maurice, the French-Canadian farmer whose exorcism Lorraine
and Ed Warren discussed in the first Conjuring.
The scene is mostly a replay of the Warrens witnessing Maurice's attempted exorcism with
an added quick reveal that Valak possessed Frenchie during the showdown at the abbey
and that this is how Lorraine saw that horrifying vision of Valak.
But the original ending as laid out in the January 2017 script for The Nun was even more
dramatic.
This alternate ending is set in a small town in Massachusetts, USA years after the events
of The Nun.
The scene begins with the sound of a woman screaming and pleading for her life.
A shotgun blasts her arm off then there's a kill shot to her head.
The scene then reveals the killer is Frenchie aka Maurice, who's sweating and has the look
of a man possessed.
Maurice sits down and pulls up his T-shirt revealing upside-down crosses bulging out
of his body and his eyes start to bleed.
There's a pounding on the front door of the house which Maurice ignores as he tries to
shoot himself.
However, his gun fails and then Ed and Lorraine Warren burst through the door together with
a priest.
They see Maurice covered in his wife's blood and a horrified Lorraine looks across the
room at a mirror.
But instead of seeing Maurice's reflection, she sees Valak staring back at her.
As Lorraine freezes in horror, Valak snarls, and then the mirror shatters as the screen
cuts to black and the credits roll.
Now, I think this would have been a really intense scene to watch and not only would
it have given us a cool cameo from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who's the real-life
sister of Taissa Farmiga who plays Sister Irene, but this alternate ending would also
have made the connection between Valak and Lorraine even clearer and more horrifying.
I suspect the filmmakers opted to reuse archive footage from The Conjuring instead, and reshoot
some close-up footage of the possessed Maurice with actor Jonas Bloquet who plays Frenchie,
as it would be a lot cheaper than getting Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson.
Plus there would have been extra costs for the additional set and effects for Valak's
appearance.
The issue with the alternate ending as it's written in the original script is that it's
a little inconsistent with events established in The Conjuring.
In his university lecture, Ed Warren explained that Maurice tried to kill his wife but only
managed to shoot her in the arm before turning the gun on himself.
In this alternate ending for The Nun, it seems to be the other way around in terms of who
gets killed.
I'm guessing that this was a case of a simple mix-up in the screenwriter's head and I think
it would have been corrected if they'd chosen to go ahead with the scene.
Another big difference in the original ending is that Frenchie was going to be infected
via the snake-tongued Daniel.
Daniel is the boy that died when Father Burke tried to exorcise him and, in the earlier
script, Daniel was going to be a winged demon.
In that screenplay, both Sister Irene and Father Burke would have witnessed the winged
demon-boy vomit a snake into Frenchie's mouth during the final fight.
The alternate script made it clear that the winged demon-boy was one of the several forms
that Valak takes in the movie.
And showing Frenchie's possession by Valak in this way before we see the demon get sent
back to hell would have cleared up some confusion about whether it's really Valak inside Frenchie.
Sister Irene and Father Burke would also have seen the upside-down crosses immediately appearing
under Frenchie's skin and his eyes turning demonic.
Frenchie would also have attacked them during the final fight before disappearing and not
being seen again in the movie until that scene where he kills his wife.
Jonas Bloquet has said that Frenchie's role in the film was changed after test audiences
reacted well to his character and the filmmakers decided to give him a more heroic part.
By the way, that original look for the demon-boy Daniel was a deliberate nod to descriptions
of Valak's appearance in the 17th-century book of magic the Lesser Key of Solomon.
In the early 2017 script, the key that Father Burke discovers on Sister Victoria's dead
body was a holy relic that gave protection against Valak's influence.
The key literally shone a protective light that Irene, Burke and Frenchie had to remain
within in order to stay protected as they descended through the abbey to find the gateway
to hell.
The original script also tells us how in the past the Abbess had tried to close the portal
without the key's protection and ended up dead and under the demonic influence of Valak.
An interesting addition to the final movie which wasn't in the original script is the
use of the blood of Christ to send Valak back to hell.
In the original story, the demon's defeat didn't feature any holy blood.
Instead, it involved Father Burke using Valak's name to gain dominion over him and send him
back to hell, in a very similar way to how Lorraine cast the demon back at the end of
The Conjuring 2.
The thing with that choice is that it may have felt too repetitive whereas having Irene
spit holy blood all over Valak instead was a nice tie-in with how the locals in the village
always spat whenever the abbey was mentioned in order to ward off evil.
Another addition to the final movie was director Corin Hardy's decision to cover the gateway
to hell with a pool of water.
Hardy wanted to add a layer of water to give a sense of having to pass through a transformational
layer between the two worlds.
It was an interesting change and resulted in some very atmospheric and creepy scenes
such as Valak walking on water.
The twist that the abbey's nuns were dead all along is only revealed in the visually
impressive scene in the chapel where Irene keeps a prayer vigil with a group of nuns
in order to hold back Valak.
In the original script, the reveal is not quite as spectacular although the twist is
probably clearer.
The scene simply involves Irene talking to several nuns in a room, after which Burke
and Frenchie arrive and Irene discovers nobody was actually there with her.
There were also additional scenes where Irene, Burke and Frenchie discovered the bodies of
dead tortured nuns as they descended deeper into the abbey, which would have been more
obvious evidence than we get in the final film that all the nuns had been killed before
Irene and Burke arrived.
By the way, if you're interested in learning more about exactly how the twist worked and
how it was foreshadowed, check out my Twist and Ending Explained video.
Another major change for Irene's story in the movie was that she was never possessed
by Valak during the final fight and, at the end, she decides to stay on by herself at
the abbey with the intention of rebuilding it.
And she even dons a black habit previously worn by one of the dead nuns!
To be honest, this ending for Irene would have felt very creepy as the thought of her
staying there with the portal to hell just underneath the abbey while she wears a dead
nun's habit gives me the chills!
So, what do you think about the alternate endings and changes from the original screenplay?
Do you think they would have improved the final film or do you prefer what you saw on
screen?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Tap left to check out some freakishly creepy things you missed and secrets about The Nun
or tap right for more horror movie deleted scenes including A Quiet Place and IT.
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Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!