The Nun 2 is on its way, and we’ve found ourselves reminiscing about Valak’s first appearance in The Conjuring universe. In terms of the timeline of The Conjuring movies in order, that was James Wan‘s second film in the series.
The evil entity was introduced as a presence terrorizing Lorraine Warren, and was revealed as the actual reason behind the haunting in The Conjuring 2 after a red herring pointed fans in another direction.
There are new movies from the franchise, including The Nun 2, but we are haunted by this image from the past.
*shivers* You remember the climax from The Conjuring 2, right? (If you don’t, you can watch it below.) Instead of what we saw, we would have got this design, which was based on a concept for an unproduced Castlevania movie, according to Wan.
It’s giving Diablo 4 mixed with Aliens’ Xenomorph queen vibes. There’s no denying it’s horrific, and also a practical costume and SFX showcase, but we’ve got something controversial to say.
We think Valak’s nun form is actually scarier. The idea of the entity coopting religious imagery to further needle at the humans who want to rid the world of her (we’re not entirely sure of pronouns here, Valak could potentially be an ‘it’) is psychologically effective.
Wan’s The Conjuring movies haven’t shied away from religious themes, they’re a unique cornerstone of his best horror movies, so we think the nun garb is the right thing, and iconic.
For more great storytelling, see our list of the best movies of all time, what we know about The Conjuring TV series release date, or find out about the new anime coming.