Movies
The Crazy Story Behind the Next ‘Conjuring’ Spinoff…’The Nun’!
James Wan‘s The Conjuring is one of the most successful horror movies ever. It was such a smash that it revived our genre and brought it into the summer, once considered a death blow for horror.
It performed so well that Warner Bros./New Line Cinema quickly spun off the haunted doll, Annabelle, into its own franchise. It too was a booming success. With a sequel set to film this fall, and Wan’s The Conjuring 2 dominating the box office, again, the studio has set their sights on the next spinoff.
The worst kept secret is that Conjuring 2 opens with the Amityville Horror case, which led many to believe that it would be the next standalone franchise. But, with Dimension Films’ Amityville sequel set for release in January, and a handful of crappy ripoffs on the home video shelf, it appears Wan and the studio are going in a different direction…with THE NUN!
David Leslie Johnson, who co-wrote Conjuring 2 (and is working on A Nightmare On Elm Street for New Line), has been hired to pen what is being titled The Nun, reports THR. James Wan, who directed the Conjuring movies, and Peter Safran, who produced them, are reuniting to produce the spinoff.
Here’s the awesome backstory, which is going to blow your mind: What is noteworthy about the demon nun character is that she didn’t exist until about three months before Conjuring 2 opened as she was only added during last-minute reshoots.
Explains the site: The studio and Wan had a cut of the movie, which stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranormal investigators, in which the antagonist was a demonic figure with horns. The studio was ready to release that version but at the last minute, Wan was struck by a revelation. And so he came up with a new concept, a demon nun, which he pitched to New Line execs. And even though the late-in-the-game change could have spooked some execs, they gave him their blessing.
The shoot took place in March, just three months before the movie was scheduled to open on June 10. Some of the changes were minor: the art piece that Wilson is painting was altered digitally as the horned demon made way for the demon nun. Some were more extensive such as a set-piece in which Farmiga watches in terror as a shadow crawls across the wall to line up with the painting and…
Lights Out director David F. Sandberg is currently developing Annabelle 2, which he tells us “will be the Godfather II of creepy doll movies.” Set for release on May 19, 2017, we’re told that the film’s protagonist is going to be a nun who is worried that her orphans are becoming prey to an evil entity. Could this nun tie into the story of The Conjuring 2 and its forthcoming The Nun spinoff?
And what about a third Conjuring? Being that it’s close to topping $100 million worldwide, I think it’s safe to assume a third is quickly going into development.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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