The origins of the demon Valak in The Nun
The unholy evil in holy guise is back in the horror thriller
The Nun, the latest chapter stemming from James Wan’s
Conjuring universe, with an entire film dedicated to the origin of her horrifying visage.
Audiences got their first frightful glimpse of the demonic Nun Valak, who plagued Lorraine Warren’s visions and filled her with dread in the horror hit The Conjuring 2. In
The Nun, the epic battle of good vs. evil pits a priest with a dark history and a novitiate whose own past isn’t the only thing that haunts her against the blasphemy that is the Demon Nun.
A producer on this film, Wan offers, “The idea that something held as sacred and pure as a nun could become twisted in such an evil, supernatural way disturbs people at a very core level.”
In fact, from the moment the entity appeared on screen, Wan and fellow producer Peter Safran knew the Nun had struck a deep psychological chord with the audience. Safran recalls, “She had a relatively small, albeit pivotal, role, so it was incredible how much she resonated with people. We knew instantly the Nun deserved an origin story; people wanted to know where she came from…and why.”
Screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who also served as an executive producer, was a natural choice to craft the screenplay after penning the hugely successful Annabelle and the possessed doll’s origin story, Annabelle:
Creation, in which the malevolent Nun made a brief appearance.
In crafting the story, Dauberman and Wan immersed it in the rich, dark gothic style afforded by the story’s foreboding setting — a castle in Transylvania, Romania, a place that has strong roots in horror. In the film, the castle has been taken over by the church and functioned as an abbey for years. Pushing the fear factor further, the abbey is cloistered, and the nuns have imposed upon themselves total separation from the rest of the world.
The Nun, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a WarnerMedia Company, opens today.