In 2016, we were introduced to Valak, the terrifying Nun who tortured the Warrens in James Wan’s The Conjuring 2. Since then, the sinister sister has spawned two of her own movies, the last one being released in November of 2023.
But, did you know director James Wan had a different vision of Valak in mind, and it wasn’t a sharp-toothed abbess? According to Wan, he created a winged demon for the part, even had it made, but it was never used on film.
In a past social media post, the Aquaman 2 director said his initial monster was:
“A beautifully/hideously sculpted animatronic puppet head and practical body-suit by the super talented @justin.raleigh (whom I’ve worked with on pretty much all my movies since Insidious 1) and his team @fracturedfxinc
worn by @j_bishara.”
He goes on to say that he finished one full CGI shot with wings before re-evaluating the ghoul.
“It was really grand and epic,” he says in the post, “But as cool as it was, it felt out of place within the Conjuring world we had built. And so during post production, I reconceived the villain — feeling it needed to be something more grounded, more personal, and creepier. And thus the demonic Nun was born.“
Even though some scenes were already done, Wan says that the Valak as we know her now had to be rendered into the final product. “All the nun stuff was shot during additional photography, including coming up with new scare set-pieces like the “painting on the wall”, and used visual effects to put the new villain into existing scenes.” Tell us what you think. Do you like the Nun as she is today or the winged demon concept Wan originally thought of?
@ihorror The original VALAK in The Conjuring 2 was going to be this winged demon. Read the article up now on iHorror.com #horror #horrormovie #horrorfan ♬ Evil Beauty – Fate