Habit Forming

HORROR FRANCHISE THE CONJURING IS GOING GOTHIC FOR PREQUEL MOVIE THE NUN. IAN BERRIMAN SPEAKS TO DIRECTOR CORIN HARDY AND STAR TAISSA FARMIGA

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Not often can it be claimed, with any degree of conviction, that the fifth in a horror franchise is bringing something new to the table. But that genuinely does seem to be the case as The Conjuring returns not with a bang but, ahem, with a wimple.

Fans of this horror universe have already met The Nun’s titular nasty, introduced in 2016’s The Conjuring 2. in the 1977-set film, paranormal investigatored Warren was inspired to paint a sinister nun from his nightmares. He and wife Lorraine realised that this demon, named Valak, was orchestrating the events of the infamous Enfield Haunting.

At that time, Lorraine Warren speculated that the demon had “taken a blasphemous form to attack my faith”. But there’s clearly more to it than that, as this prequel turns the clock back a quarter of a century to 1952, sending Bonnie Aarons's yellow-eyed nun skulking around the candlelit corridors of a medieval abbey in the mountains of Romania. Brit Corin Hardy, who previously wrangled monstrous faeries for 2015’s The Hallow, is in the director’s chair.

“When I read the script, what stood out was that the story was a little bit different,” Hardy tells SFX. “it was more of a mystery/adventure film that had an investigation aspect. normally a family get haunted and the investigators turn up. With this, it was following the investigators on the mission, which felt new and fresh. So you have father Burke, a gruff, experienced exorcist [Demián Bichir], and a nun in training. they’re sent over to Romania, and team up with a farmhand called frenchie, who discovered a body at the abbey, and takes them to assess whether the grounds are still holy.”

NUN SO GOOD 

Taissa Farmiga plays the good-natured Sister Irene, a novitiate whom it appears the Vatican have good reason to task with this assignment.