The Nun is the latest film in the Conjuring franchise, directed by James Wan. If you’ve
seen The Conjuring 2, then without a doubt you’re familiar with this sinister character,
who appeared as a horrifying spirit haunting the visions of Vera Farmiga’s Lorraine Warren
while she and her husband Ed were investigating the Amityville murders. All in all, pretty
unpleasant ghoul, that’s for sure. The Nun’s own horror feature follows the story of a
Catholic priest in 1952 Romania who, partnered up with another nun, is sent from the Vatican
to investigate the suicide of the title character.
5 Not a Nun For those of you who paid attention in the
Conjuring 2, you’ll know that the nun is actually possessed by a demon named Valak.
Valak is actually a demon that has been cited in various works in real life, with claims
that the demon is in fact real. It’s most notable appearance is in the mid 17th century
text The Lesser Key of Solomon; a book that gets its name from King Solomon, who according
to legend was said to have summoned many a demon in his time. So what’s Valak’s deal
in reality? Well, for starters, in all of the times Valak has been mentioned in magic
or demonology texts, the demon has never actually taken the form of a Nun. Rather, Valak is
usually described as a child with angel wing that rides upon a two headed dragon.
4 Valak’s Inspiration While Valak may not be commanding legions
of demonic minions or riding a two headed dragon in the Nun film, the demon was actually
inspired by a spectral entity that Lorraine Warren allegedly saw and claimed haunted her
inside her home. She described this entity as being a swirling tornado vortex, with this
hooded figure in there. James Wan didn’t really want to depict it that way, fearing
that the CGI would lessen its fright factor, and instead, decided to do this. I quote,
“It kind of took me a while to cement in my head what this vision was. And it came
across eventually in a very organic way. Because it is a demonic vision that haunts her, that
only attacks her, I wanted something that would attack her faith. Something that would
threaten the safety of her husband. And so that was eventually how the idea of this very
iconographic image of a holy icon cemented in my head.” Because of this, the scenes
with the nun weren’t actually filmed during principle photography of the Conjuring 2,
rather, were added in during reshoots of the film.
3 YouTube Controversy What’s one way to make sure people go see
your movie? Scare the living crap out of them, of course. So a few months back after the
film’s release date was announced, ads for the movie were airing on YouTube, and were
highly criticized for violating the platform’s ‘shocking content’ policy. Essentially,
these ads featured a jump scare that viewers, if they wanted to watch the video they clicked
on, couldn’t turn off. In the advertisement, the Apple volume sign appears, with the volume
adjusting before going mute for a brief moment. That’s when our pal the Nun jumps out and
scares the living crap out of you. The ad was eventually removed after YouTube received
a ton of complaints. Check it out for yourself though.
2 Dangerous Spirit In the times that Valak has encountered Lorraine
Warren, it has managed to block her visions and manipulate them. This arguably makes it
the most powerful entity we’ve seen so far in the Conjuring franchise to date. The Evil
Nun in the Annabelle Creation film implies that Valak has been manipulating events for
a long time now, which has led some fans to speculate that perhaps the character has been
the main antagonist in the series overall. According to James Wan, there’s a possibility
that if the Nun does well that a sequel will also be made, tying back into Lorraine Warren’s
story with the character and how Valak has been integrated into her story from the first
two conjuring films, so that could be pretty darn exciting.
1 Grand President of Hell Well, that’s a title, ain’t it? So our
buddy Valak, according to the Lesser Key of Solomon, is actually the Grand President of
Hell who commands legions of demonic minions. The book states, I quote, “He is a President
Mighty and Great and appeareth like a Child with Angel’s Wings, riding on a two headed
dragon. His office is to give True Answers of Hidden Treasures, and to tell where Serpents
may be seen. The which he will bring unto the exorciser without any force or strength
being by him employed. He governeth 38 legions of spirits.” The book also notes that Valak
has a few other names it goes by, including the likes Valac, spelt with a c, Valu, Volac,
Doolas, or Volach. A couple of other texts over the years have reiterated similar details,
with some minor changes, like the exact number of legions the demon commands. One entry from
the Dictionnaire Infernal by Collin de Plancy in 1863 states that Valak is known for being
quite strong and is not opposed to sharing that strength with those worthy of calling
upon him. And if you’re not worthy? Well, you’re not in for a fun ride, that’s for
sure.
There we have it friends! Are you guys gonna go see the Nun in theatres? Let us know in
those comments below! Also give us a shout about any theories you have about Valak and
how you think the demon will play into the overall Conjuring franchise. If you dug this
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for more spooky lists! In the meantime though, thanks for watching! I’ll catch you all
in the next video!