THE NUN 2 Director Compares the Demonic Villain Valak to Every Classic Movie Monster
When the demonic Nun Valak was first introduced in The Conjuring 2, she absolutely terrified audiences! The Nun is such a nightmarish and creepy character, and she got such a rise out of audiences that Warner Bros. gave the villain her very own spinoff film. The first movie, The Nun, wasn’t really as good as I hoped it would be, but this upcoming sequel looks a lot better!
When talking about Valak, The Nun 2 director Michael Chaves said, "I really think that the Nun is a classic movie monster.” He went on to drop some horror movie characters that he sees in the character, saying: "She reminds me of Pennywise and Dracula and Nosferatu. I see every classic monster when I look at her. I feel like she's absolutely up there in that pantheon."
While the villain is scary, I don’t know if I would put her in the same grouping as some of the classic movie monsters of the past. I don’t think she’s earned her place in that pantheon yet. Those other monsters stand the test of time. We have yet to see if Valak is a monster that will have that solid staying power.
Do you think Valak stands with the iconic horror movie monsters, and if not ,do you think she has what it takes to eventually stand with them?
The sequel is set in 1956 in France. “A priest is murdered. An evil is spreading. The sequel to the worldwide smash hit follows Sister Irene as she once again comes face-to-face with Valak, the demon nun.”
In the story, there is a string of murders at the Vatican, and the church believes the evil Nun Valak is the cause. So, they call in Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to help and face off with the Nun again. Sister Irene is living this anonymous life in a convent in Italy. That life service turns into a nightmare as the Demon Nun, the terrifying incarnation of Valak, is now possessing Irene's friend Maurice ( Jonas Bloquet).
The film’s director, Michael Chaves, previously explained that Sister Irene “had this traumatic experience, this huge adventure, and now she wants to live the life of service. Maurice made his way to France and he's working at this boarding school as kind of a handyman. He has a friendship and a flirtation with one of the teachers there, and you can see him starting to mature, so that's where our characters start out. But we know from the first film that there's something terrible inside of him, that Valak escaped within him, and events pull Irene back on this collision course with her old friend."
The movie also stars Storm Reid (The Last of Us), Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Bonnie Aarons (The Nun).
Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) directs from a screenplay by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing (The Autopsy of Jane Doe) and Akela Cooper (M3GAN, Malignant), with a story by Cooper, based on characters created by James Wan and Gary Dauberman.
The Nun 2 will be released in theaters on September 8th!