FILM · 2018 · USA
The Nun
35 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (35)
- #001
Filming took place at Corvin Castle in Hunedoara and in Sighisoara in Transylvania, Romania, as well as at Mogosoaia Palace near Bucharest, Romania.
- #002
Taissa Farmiga, who plays Sister Irene in this film, is the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, who played Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016) and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). Although the sisters' characters are not related to each other, both are devout Catholics with clairvoyant abilities. The Demon Nun, played by Bonnie Aarons, also appeared in The Conjuring 2 (2016) and had a brief role in Annabelle: Creation (2017).
- #003
After the "Demon Nun" in The Conjuring 2 (2016) proved to be a popular horror antagonist, a spin-off focused on the character was greenlit, making it the second character, after Annabelle (2014), to get its own feature film. The Crooked Man from Conjuring 2 was also set to get his own spin-off, but this was later cancelled.
- #004
Although The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016) are based on events claimed to be real, the story of this film was entirely created by the producers.
- #005
The events take place before Annabelle: Creation (2017), making it the first film in the series chronologically. Although the opening scenes of Annabelle: Creation take place before The Nun (2018), the rest of it takes place later.
- #006
(At about 13 minutes in) When Frenchie whistles for the truck to stop, you can see that the licence plate reads "6-VA-01-LAK". If you remove the numbers and dashes, it spells "Valak", the name of the demon nun mentioned by Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2 (2016).
- #007
There are two Valak Easter eggs: in the schoolyard where Sister Irene teaches and on the Romanian truck's licence plate.
- #008
This was Valak's third appearance, after The Conjuring 2 (2016) and Annabelle: Creation (2017). Although Valak does not appear in The Conjuring (2013), the terrifying premonition Lorraine Warren has in that film was later revealed in Conjuring 2 to have been about Valak.
- #009
It has long been known that The Nun bears the name Valak, who ranks higher in the hierarchy of Hell. The Conjuring 2 (2016) also reveals that knowing a demon's name and speaking it aloud can grant power over the entity, as Lorraine Warren drives Valak back to Hell in the film by using his name. Although Father Burke learns Valak's name in one scene, he apparently is not aware of this fact and never uses the name.
- #010
Ingrid Bisu met producer James Wan while shooting this film. They became engaged on 22 June 2019 and then married in November 2019.
- #011
(At about 1 hour 26 minutes) The strategy of holding the blood of Jesus Christ in one's mouth and then spitting it into a demon's face had already been used in a film. This was in Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), where the female main character spits it into the face of the main antagonist (also a demon).
- #012
(At about 18 minutes) When Father Burke, Sister Irene and Frenchie arrive at Carta Monastery to begin their investigation, Frenchie explains that when he found the body of the nun who had killed herself, he moved her to a cold room where he would leave food deliveries from the village of Biertin. Frenchie then notes that when he did this, the nun was lying down but is shown sitting up. Father Burke then explains to Irene and Frenchie that there are cases of a corpse displaying the ability to move after death. This is a documented, scientific condition that occurs in real life, caused by genetic deformation in the spinal cord and its fluids.
- #013
Towards the end of the film, it is revealed that Valak (the serpent demon) possesses Frenchie through a snake emerging from his mouth. This is similar to scenes in other Conjuring Universe films (particularly Annabelle: Creation (2017) and The Conjuring (2013)) in which a possession scene takes place orally, except that in those cases it is a black liquid substance rather than a snake.
- #014
The film was originally scheduled to be released in cinemas in mid-July 2018, but it was moved closer to Halloween, to 7 September, in the hope that it would be as successful at the box office as It (2017), which had broken records the previous year and grossed more than 700 million dollars.
- #015
(At about 1 hour 5 minutes) During the scene of constant adoration, Sister Irene is surrounded by 'nuns' (later revealed to be ghosts under Valak's command) in a circular arrangement. Looked at closely enough, they form a pentagram.
- #016
The name Valak can be found written in all capital letters in the pentagram at the beginning.
- #017
Principal photography began on 3 May 2017 at Castel Film Studios in Bucharest, Romania, with Maxime Alexandre as cinematographer. Scenes were shot in June at the Palace of the Parliament for a fee of 5,000 Euros per hour.
- #018
It is never explained why Valak wants the relic. Potentially, he wanted to destroy it so that the Church could not use it against him and the demonic kind from the realm of Hell, but this is only a theory, since he has no line explaining his motivation. However, there is another possibility: in the sequel The Nun II (2023), Valak seeks another holy relic and specifically wants it to increase his own power, and it is the Church that prefers to destroy it if it prevents Valak from misusing it.
- #019
(Around 22 minutes) When Sister Irene first enters Carta Monastery and before she meets the Abbess, she sees on the altar in the middle of the room a symbol of two snakes eating themselves, commonly known as the Ouroboros. The symbol originates in ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology and is primarily a symbol of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. In the context of the film, the symbol is most likely a distortion of the original meaning and expresses the Duke of Carta's relationship with Valak, just as the pentagram/five-pointed star was twisted by the Church into a symbol of devil worship when it is in fact a traditional devotional symbol used by both non-Christians and Christians. Maurice can later be seen with an inverted Christian cross around his neck, another Christian symbol supposedly misused by Satan or the Antichrist to mock God.
- #020
At 1 hour 33 minutes, this is the shortest film in The Conjuring Universe.
- #021
Director Corin Hardy stated that the film's reshoots were done by both himself and James Wan. Hardy reshot the interiors while Wan reshot the exteriors.
- #022
(Around 1 hour 14 minutes) Following the Perpetual Adoration sequence, Sister Irene is formally declared a nun by Father Burke and puts on her full habit and robes. At the end of the film (around 1 hour 29 minutes), before the big reveal that Frenchie has been possessed by Valak, she is seen wearing a knee-length skirt or dress. No nun of the Catholic Church would ever dress in a way that would be considered 'proud'.
- #023
The film is set in 1952, 19 years before the events of The Conjuring (2013).
- #024
Most of the nuns say they feel the presence of spirits, see visions and prophesy. This could never happen, because according to traditional Roman Catholic religion these are not revealed to praying individuals such as clergy. This is explained by the fact that the nuns were themselves spirits at that point, which is what the film implies.
- #025
(Around 1 hour 12 minutes) The cross Father Burke uses against the demonic Sister Oana resembles the cross used by the old priest at the beginning of Dracula (1992). Interestingly, both films revolve around the Catholic faith and both open with a scene in which a woman kills herself by jumping from a height. The suicide at the start of each film also provides motivation for the characters and the plot.
- #026
Writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was replaced by Gary Dauberman and James Wan.
- #027
This is the first film in The Conjuring Universe in which Joseph Bishara does not appear as an actor or composer.
- #028
(Around 1 hour 19 minutes) In the scene where Irene enters a room full of dead nuns and finds herself standing on a pentagram, there is a brief image of her through a mirror. This may be a callback to an earlier scene in the film in which Frenchie is at the Biertin Village Pub and learns that 'evil' has leaked into the real world. It is also revealed that a person hanged himself in a barn and that village custom was to cover mirrors so that mourners would not see ghosts. Of course, in the scene with Sister Irene she not only sees a group of ghosts but is also possessed by a demon.
- #029
(Around 1 hour 3 minutes) When Sister Irene first sees Sister Oana's body during the Perpetual Adoration scene, she notices bloody holes in her hands. This may be a stigmata, a strange religiously based phenomenon in which people report seeing the wounds Christ received at the crucifixion on themselves or on other people.
- #030
(Around 50 minutes in) On the second night at the Monastery, Sister Oana tells Irene that the place was built by the Duke of Saint Carta, a devil worshipper who tried to summon an evil spirit from Hell, allegedly Valak, but was probably stopped by the Knights Templar, the military wing of the Catholic Church. However, since Oana is a ghost most likely under Valak's control, the entire history of Saint Carta Monastery may be wrong.
- #031
In The Conjuring 2 (2016), it had already been revealed that the "demon nun" is actually named Valak.
- #032
As of 2025, with a 24% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this is the worst-reviewed Conjuring film.
- #033
Chronologically, the demon nun first reappears three years later in Annabelle: Creation (2017), where a nun figure can be seen pushing Janice in a wheelchair; then a year later in The Nun II (2023), which shows that the demon Valak still possesses Maurice; this is something already revealed in the final scene of The Nun (2018), in which Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren are seen years later helping with Maurice's exorcism. After Maurice's death by suicide, the nun reappears in The Conjuring 2 (2016) as a demonic entity that repeatedly torments Janet Hodgson and Lorraine Warren. This strongly implies that when Sister Irene spits the blood of Christ in the nun's face and the blood disappears, the nun is not sent back to Hell but only temporarily weakened. Unless someone summons the nun/Valak again so that she appears later in Annabelle: Creation, The Nun II and The Conjuring 2, it appears that most interventions can only remove her temporarily and that only using her true name can send her back to Hell permanently.
- #034
The first Conjuring film grossed over 100 million dollars worldwide in its opening weekend.
- #035
Lili Taylor plays Carolyn Perron in the final scene, which recreates a scene seen in The Conjuring (2013).
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