The 2013 horror film The Conjuring was the unlikeliest expanded universe candidate of the last decade, a haunted house movie with true-crime historical roots and a mostly finite ending. But that’s why they pay director-producer James Wan (Saw, Furious 7) is a pro.
After a direct sequel, The Conjuring 2, and a spinoff, Annabelle, and a spinoff sequel, Annabelle: Creation, the mythological purview of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren expands once again this September with The Nun, who fans will remember as the main antagonist in The Conjuring 2.
The Nun’s standalone whisks audiences back in time to a convent tucked away in a Romanian castle. After one of the nuns takes her own life under mysterious pretenses, “a priest with a haunted past” (Demian Bichir) and “a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows” (Taissa Farmiga, sister of The Conjuring’s Vera Farmiga, despite her character not being the sister of Lorraine Warren) investigate what the Hell is going on in the dimly lit hallways of their abbey. The ghost they meet is... not friendly.
In The Conjuring 2, the haunting presence turned out to be Valac, an actual demon (“actual” according to the 17th century grimoire The Lesser Key of Solomon) who’s a bigwig down in the underworld. The Nun appears to maintain the lore, while the trailer hints at lots of creepy Latin words mumbled by devout religious figures who are in over their heads. And if you “MAKE SURE YOU WATCH UNTIL THE VERY END” as the teaser instructs, you’ll get double the Nun scares. Why would Valac settle for one habit-wearing physical manifestation when it could appear as two habit-wearing physical manifestations? This is why we sequel.
Directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow) from a script by Gary Dauberman (It), The Nun slips into theaters on Sept. 7.
