THE NUN (2018) Breakdown | Real-Life True Story, Film Analysis, Easter Eggs & Ending Explained

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers Show. I'm your host Paul, and this video we're breaking down The Nun.

[00:00:10]The second spin-off in the ever-expanding Conjuring Universe takes us to Romania in 1952. Here we learn the origins of the franchise's biggest and scariest film, Valak. First introduced in The Conjuring 2, the demon nun instantly stole the show from Annabelle and became the new face of the franchise. Diving deeper into the history of The Conjuring Universe, The Nun's full of hidden details linking it to the rest of the franchise as well as legends from Romanian history.

[00:00:33]Throughout this video, we'll be going through it all and breaking down all the scary things in it. And the nice things, too. Whatever the man called the wicked creature that was, its name.

[00:00:49]Valak. Now, we begin the film with a quick recap of Valak's introduction in The Conjuring 2 and see her terrorizing Lorraine Warren. We then get text across the screen telling us the following events occurred in 1952. That brings us to the Abbey of Saint Car in Romania, where two nuns make their way down a long corridor filled with crosses. They reach a door that reads, "God ends here." And Sister Victoria questions if they're making the right decision and if the relic will even save them, which we will get to later. The older nun, Sister Jessica, says they have no choice and that she needs to have faith. She goes in and then is immediately attacked by the nun. I guess she didn't have enough faith to faith to faith. As Sister Victoria recites the Lord's Prayer, she hears Sister Jessica scream before her bloody hand reaches out from the darkness. She gives her the key to Valak's and Sister Jessica tells Victoria that the evil will come for her next as it needs a vessel to escape.

[00:01:37]She's then pulled back into the darkness as Valak roars. Rushing out the room, Sister Victoria grabs a noose and heads towards the window when the door opens behind her revealing Valak in the darkness at the end of the hallway.

[00:01:48]Conjuring fans will likely recognize this scene instantly as it's a continuation of the post-credit scene from Annabelle Creation. You also get a quick shot of a cross slowly inverting, which is a callback to one of Valak's favorite tricks in The Conjuring 2. As Valak gets closer, Sister Victoria begins to sob, asking the Lord to forgive her before jumping from the window. This, of course, feels a lot like the end of the first Annabelle, and it denies Valak his chance to escape. We then cut to the next morning, where we are introduced to Frenchy, who discovers Sister Victoria's body hanging from the abbey, being eaten by crows, no less.

[00:02:19]There's a quick shot when Frenchy discovers the body, where two crows are perched on either side of Victoria's shoulders, and the way it's framed it makes the birds look like they're two small black wings coming from her back.

[00:02:29]This symbolizes that while Victoria was able to prevent Valak from escaping, she still was ultimately corrupted by the evil herself in death. This could also symbolize Victoria's fall from grace, paralleling an angel who was corrupted by Satan. The small black wings are also reference to Valak himself, with the real demon often being depicted as a baby with small black wings. We'll talk about how this motif repeats throughout the movie, and but this makes it almost like a calling card. Cutting to the title, you might also notice in the middle of the U is an inverted cross on fire, just like the one we just saw in the abbey. Before moving on, I also want to touch on some of this Romanian architecture. The film was shot almost entirely on location in Romania, using the historic Gothic castles to give the film a dark realism. While there's a real Carta Monastery in Romania, the castle in the movie is another Gothic Renaissance structure. That is Corvin Castle, which is one of the largest castles in Europe. Even at the point, it's considered one of the seven wonders of Romania. Or terror is, not much remains of the real Carta Monastery, but it is said to be haunted by the monks who once lived there in the 13th century. Corvin Castle also has its own ghost stories, and it's believed to be cursed by three Turkish prisoners who were forced to dig for 15 years until they found water. However, once they did, they were still kept prisoner, and one of them wrote, "You have water, but no soul" on the wall of their cell, which supposedly cursed the castle.

[00:03:48]Among other stories of death and torture, the castle dungeons were also supposedly home to Vlad the Impaler. He, of course, inspired the infamous Count Dracula, and I do kind of wish they'd leaned into that bit more. Due to its dark history, director Corin Hardy even had the castle blessed prior to filming just to be on the safe side. Speaking of castles, while the story of The Nun is not based on a true story like some of the other Conjuring movies claim, there is a real castle in the Czech Republic that could have inspired the story of the film. That is Houska Castle, which was once occupied by the Nazis during World War II. They were said to have conducted occult rituals and experiments trying to harness the powers of hell.

[00:04:27]The castle was allegedly built over a large hole that was so deep no one could see the bottom. This was dubbed the gateway to hell, and stories claim that prisoners were lowered down into the hole during construction, and after mere seconds, they began shrieking in terror.

[00:04:42]They'd be pulled up looking like they'd aged 30 years. So, sort of like the beach that makes you grow old, but but a hole of a hole that makes you grow old.

[00:04:51]Hold. In order to keep the demons at bay, though, the castle's defensive walls were built to face inwards. Though this isn't confirmed in the movie, it it does sound an awful lot like how the nuns of Saint Abbey tried to contain Valak in the catacombs. And while Valak is primarily based on the evil demon, there may have been a real evil nun the character takes inspiration from as well. Known as Mother Rasputin, Abbess Mariam Sulakudes was a real figure who just happened to be an also a serial killer. She was found guilty of numerous counts of murder, and this was against both lay people and other nuns in her abbey. Sulakudes would encourage wealthy women to join the convent and then torture them until they donated their fortunes to the monastery.

[00:05:31]Once the money was donated, Sulakudes would then embezzle it, and in some cases, kill the donor. In the end, she was only technically found guilty of seven premeditated murders, but she was linked to more than 100 negligent homicides. This was due to her offering a free tuberculosis treatment that only actually consisted of staying at the monastery, which apparently cured it due to the locals' high altitude. But yeah, it didn't really do [ __ ] It's typically agreed that she had a total victims of a 177 with 27 of them being outright murder. To make this story even creepier, her sect continued operating underground despite being outlawed.

[00:06:07]Around the time police were investigating cases of young girls vanishing into thin air, which they believed led to the Rebel Carathia cult.

[00:06:15]That happened around 1959, but in 1961 police stated they did not know who had taken over from Sister Carathia, stating that the monastery's new presumed abbess had perfected the art of making herself and her pseudo sacred sisters vanish without a trace. So, very very creepy and that's all way more interesting than what we get here, but yeah, we'll talk about the movie as we go through it. We then cut to Vatican City where we're introduced to Father Burke meeting with a group of bishops to break the news of the apparent deaths at the Abbey of Saint Carathia. Fearing the news would cause people to lose faith in the church, the Vatican officials send Burke to investigate the deaths. However, since the Abbey is an isolated convent and his access will be limited, he's also assigned a postulant, aka a nun in training. We're going to be introduced to her properly in just a minute, but before that we get a quick look at her passport. You may notice that she bears a striking resemblance to Conjuring scream queen Lorraine Warren who's played by Vera Farmiga. And yes, that's because Irene is played by her little sister Taissa. Despite the filmmakers claiming the two characters are not related, ignoring all their similarities, her passport shows she was born in the 1930s. This is 3 years after Lorraine and it's in the same town of Bridgeport, Connecticut. They sort of explain this connection in The Nun 2 by making them part of the same bloodline, but that's a story for another breakdown. Making our way out to London, we're officially introduced to Irene who's teaching a class of students at St. Vincent's Hospital. And what's a cool detail, you can also see Valak's name on the seesaw. Valak's name is hidden throughout the movie foreshadowing how Irene will soon come face to face with the demon herself.

[00:07:45]This also calls back to the Conjuring 2 where they use the same trick of hiding Valak's name throughout the film, which if you want to see every time Valak shows up in that movie, breakdown on the channel now. Now while Irene Palmer is not based on a real person, she could have been inspired by Saint Irene Ciorciumelea Cristo Vântului, known as the destroyer of demons. One of Irene's saintly acts include expelling the demons from the monastery of Cârța Vântului, which I can't pronounce, but it does sound an awful lot like Irene in the movie. In the classroom, Irene's also telling the kids a story with a set of dinosaurs and she says, My only hope now was that the beast could not smell me.

[00:08:26]But then, the wind changed.

[00:08:29]And This story that Irene tells foreshadows how she'll later face Valak at the end of the film in the catacombs of the abbey with the demon even charging her and roaring exactly as she describes.

[00:08:42]You can also see Valak's name again in this scene with two chairs angled to make a V and the following Alex spelled out above it. Feel like I'm doing a crossword. We also see it again on the chalkboard just behind Irene at the right further pointing to her becoming Valak's target. As Irene drops some evolution signs on the kids in regards to dinosaurs not being in the Bible, the class is then interrupted by the Mother Superior who crashes the party to tell Irene she's been recruited by the Vatican. It's clear that Mother Superior sees Irene as a sort of rebel with her crazy talk of science, but honestly, she's kind of jealous to how the kids respond to her. Sorry, you old bat.

[00:09:16]Demon hunting's a young woman's game.

[00:09:18]Meeting Father Burke in the garden, he tells her about their mission and that she was chosen because of her familiarity with the area. However, Irene tells her that it must be a mistake because she's never been to Romania, but he just brushes it off and trusts that the Vatican has their reasons. This is kind of just ignored later in the film, but if you watch the deleted scenes, there there is something that explains this. It all goes down at the Abbey, and after Irene says she saw the evil, follow but comes the realization that she was chosen by the Vatican not because of her familiarity with Romania, but of her familiarity to the supernatural, mainly due to her visions. Also, I want to point out how Father Burke is dressed almost exactly like Father Marin in The Exorcist here.

[00:09:57]This isn't an accident either, as Corin Hardy stated that Father Burke is sort of a mix between Marin and Van Helsing, who we also get to know too later in the film. We then cut to a shot of blood spilling over the stairs of the Abbey.

[00:10:08]It's very shining, and these stairs leading to it were created by real Romanian sculptors hired by Hardy and the production team. They actually carved hidden words into the stone, and supposedly, you can see the word sinners when the blood is dumped over the stairs, which symbolizes that Valak will spill spill the blood of sinners, apparently. Probably Valak written somewhere there as well. The lad loves leaving his name everywhere. Reading this, I did actually look really close and see if I could see words, but I couldn't find any. So, if you know in the comments where it is, let me know, or let me know if IMDb trivia is full of [ __ ] [ __ ] you dirty son of a [ __ ] But it turns out this is all just Frenchie's dream, and he wakes up terrified and then hears a knock at the door. He opens it to find Irene and Father Burke, who come to question him about Sister Victoria. Small detail to point out here as well, when arriving in Romania, both Irene and Father Burke ditch their holy garbs for civilian clothes. This is actually because Romania was under communist rule in 1952. The Romanian Communist Party took control of the Orthodox Church and declared the Vatican as a threat to Romania. Leader of the Communist Party, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, had over 80,000 people arrested, and there's no way that a priest and nun sent by the Vatican would be allowed to travel through. This is actually subtly addressed by Father Burke in another deleted scene, where he tells Irene they should wear civilian clothes while traveling because it's the one time they don't need to be broadcasting their faith. It's a very minor detail, and but it kind of plays into the mystery of the Abbey and how secluded it is from the outside world as they were able to slip past persecution from the government. This is also alluded to by Frenchy in the movie where he says that everyone pretends the Abbey doesn't exist and that talking about it could get someone in trouble. Frenchy then tries to put the moves on Irene before learning that she's a nun and Father Burke asks him about the Abbey.

[00:11:50]We learn that Frenchy delivers quarterly supplies and this is due to an arrangement they have with the village.

[00:11:55]Now, this may be a stretch, but one of the first things we see Frenchy do is feed his herd of goats which are often associated with the devil and evil.

[00:12:02]While Valak may be the Marquis of snakes, the goats could be foreshadowing Frenchy's later fate at the hands of Valak. There's also a story in the Bible of Jesus talking about the day of judgement in which those who are saved would be sheep and the unsaved would be called goats, mirroring how Frenchy will not be saved from being taken by Valak.

[00:12:20]Father Burke then asks Frenchy if he can take them to the Abbey which at first he's not psyched about at all. However, he's quickly convinced when he's asked by Irene, you sly dog. Making their way through the village, we then get a little goof of Father Burke and Irene putting their luggage in the back of a truck thinking it belongs to Frenchy, but it then drives away, you bloody idiot. But now, little creepy detail here, mate. Pay attention, yeah? As it pulls off, we see the license plate reads 6 VA01LAK. Look at that again.

[00:12:45]What does it spell?

[00:12:49]Valak. That's right, mate. Bloody written everywhere. Even license plates.

[00:12:53]As they make their way to the Abbey, we then get some beautiful shots of the Romanian landscape but can see a shadow slowly casting itself over them. The darkness is taking them. While on their way, we also see that Father Burke is a fan of crosswords. A cross, eh? Cuz Christians love crosses, eh? And Irene helps him get the word deliveries. We only see the puzzle for a brief second, but a quick pause shows some interesting answers that foreshadow events in the film. The deliveries answer is a nod to the delivery room where Sister Victoria's body is being kept and the first place they go when coming to the Abbey. We can We see aimless and novice which could be both applied to Irene who's somewhat aimless in her convictions in confirming herself to be a nun. She's also a novice in the dealings of demons. Reaching. This is further pointed out in the scene when we learn Irene hasn't even taken her temporary vows yet. This also shows how she's still not 100% about a life completely devoted to God. Another one is anointed which foreshadows how Burke will later anoint Irene as an official nun as well as slip, which could hint at Burke's slip into a coffin when he's first attacked by Valak. Reaching. We've got to move on, but the last one I have to point out is annoy in the top left, which I'm going to say is related to Frenchy because I think Burke kind of hates him. We then get a bit of a backstory on Frenchy who says he came to Romania in search of gold but stayed after meeting the people. I think the mention of treasure here is also very interesting as Valak is said to have the power of finding treasures in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic. Not only does this further point to Frenchy's eventual fate, but that he was always destined to become a victim of Valak. He also says he wanted to help the people in the village in any way he could. Irene calls this noble and it foreshadows his noble sacrifice later on. Now I'm kind of dancing around the whole Frenchy thing, but it's probably the biggest reveal at the end of the movie, so let's just hold on to our crosses for a bit. We will get there as we go through the film. As they get closer to the abbey, the horses abruptly stop and refuse to go any further. This is a theme we see in most of the Conjuring movies where animals are able to sense the evil that the stupid human characters can't. We saw this in the first Conjuring with the Perron's dog refusing to go into the house and then the Nottingham's dog in The Conjuring 2 who immediately bolts when Janet comes over. Continuing on forward, we learn Father Burke is no ordinary priest but what the Vatican calls a miracle hunter. He investigates unusual phenomenon associated with Catholicism. This is actually a real thing with the Vatican having teams of priests and doctors who investigate claims of miracles or demonic possessions. I don't think they're really called miracle hunters though, but I couldn't find an actual title for the job as it's kind of on the Catholic hush-hush. So, miracle hunter it is.

[00:15:25]But, this is also where we learn that Burke wasn't just sent to investigate Sister Victoria's death, but also to determine if the grounds are still holy.

[00:15:33]As they reach the abbey, they come across a cemetery outside the lodging of the convent. And this section is not part of Corvin Castle, but was shot at the Cris Bethlen Castle near Sighișoara.

[00:15:44]But, yeah, the graveyard there was basically a set built on the castle grounds. While walking through the cemetery, Frenchy tells Father Burke that he moved Sister Victoria's body to the icehouse where he tends to put the deliveries in the hopes that it would preserve her. Frenchy also mentions that in the two years he's been coming to the abbey, the dead nun was the first one he ever saw, which is a clue to a later reveal, but we'll talk about that in due time. As Frenchy opens the icehouse, they then enter to find Sister Victoria's body sitting straight up despite Frenchy insisting he left her laying down. However, Father Burke isn't so quick to rule it as supernatural, saying that there are reports of bodies twitching and sitting up after death, which is, of course, a real thing rigor mortis. In that joints and muscles stiffen, and it can cause twitching, but not enough to completely sit up from a lying position. Not as smart as you thought you were, Father Burke, huh, you stupid [ __ ] You stupid science [ __ ] Mother Superior would have called that [ __ ] on sight. Honestly as well, now I'm thinking they should have just chosen her over Irene. Father Burke then finds the key to Valak's tomb clenched in the frozen hands of the dead nun, and a wind starts to come through the door leading to the abbey. However, before entering into the mouth of hell, they decide to give Sister Victoria a proper burial in the cemetery outside. As Father Burke reads his eulogy, a bell in one of the graves starts to ring, which he explains were put there during the plague when people were afraid of being buried alive. These are called safety coffins, and they were invented by Dr. Johann Gottfried Taberger in 1829. They became popular during the cholera epidemics of the 19th century when we didn't really have the tools to declare brain death.

[00:17:14]Now, while Burke is a couple of centuries off, the safety coffins were indeed made to prevent people from being buried prematurely, but there's no documented cases of anyone actually being saved by one of these coffins.

[00:17:25]Finally arriving at the entrance of the abbey, the group sees the blood left by Sister Victoria on the steps is still fresh. That's despite having been there for weeks. Father Burke then sees a nun watching them from the window. Before entering the abbey, Burke and Irene then both make the sign of a cross over the bodies to bless themselves while Frenchy spits. This seems disrespectful, but it's an old Romanian superstition to ward off evil. Our researcher TJ's girlfriend, she's from Bosnia and can confirm this is a real thing. As they enter the abbey, the group make their way through a crypt where we see several tombs with statues depicting the dead and also a chair featuring a snake that's eating itself. The statues in the crypt are actually facial molds of most of the crew including director Corin Hardy, screenwriter Gary Dauberman, executive producer Michael Clear, and cinematographer Maxime Alexandre. The depiction of the snake is also meant to represent Valak who's known as the Marquis of Snakes and symbolizes how he's already control of the abbey. The snake eating itself is also known as an ouroboros which symbolizes death and rebirth reflecting Valak's desire to take a human soul and use her body as a vessel to be reborn. As they inspect the crypt, the camera then pans behind Irene to reveal a nun in all black with a shroud covering her face. Once realizing she's there, Father Burke then introduces himself and Irene and we learn that this is the Reverend Mother of the abbey, or the Abbess. Going along with her creepy getup, the Abbess knows that Irene hasn't taken her vows yet just by looking at her. As we learn, this is because the Abbess is actually Valak in disguise. The Abbess continues to give creepy vague answers at first pretending to not know of Sister Victoria, but then responding to Frenchy in French about how he saw it fit to bury her, which is another thing she couldn't have known. She then tells them to leave, but Burke insists that he needs to talk with the other nuns about Sister Victoria so he can assure the church that everything is fine. However, the Abbess tells them that the gates of the abbey will be closed as the nuns of the convent are preparing to take their vespers. That will be followed by the great silence until the next morning.

[00:19:19]She offers them to stay at the convent overnight and tomorrow they will receive the answers they seek. Whoo, okay. So, I got to pause really quick here and say that Father Burke is kind of shitty at his job. You're telling me after a creepy as [ __ ] lady pops out of nowhere on a snake throne spouting a bunch of scary cryptic [ __ ] that it doesn't suddenly light up any demon flags. Come on, man. You're meant to be a [ __ ] miracle hunter. Making their way to the convent lodging, the three then enter the chapel and Father Burke tells Frenchy he's free to go and he better hit the road before dark. However, Frenchy is more concerned for them as he sees a statue of Jesus on the cross that's been decapitated. Burke then tells him it'll all be fine and to come back in a couple of days and he gives Irene a look before going on his way. As Frenchy makes his way through the forest back to his horse, he then sees a nun watching him before she disappears deeper into the forest. Trying to follow her, she pops out from behind the tree holding the news at Sister Victoria used before and she leads him to the cemetery they passed through earlier. The camera then pans around Frenchy as he lurks for the nun until her body drops from the tree right behind Frenchy. It's a nice jump scare and a callback at the first Conjuring movie where we had a similar jump scare when Lorraine first stands by the tree that Bathsheba used to hang herself at. As the body hangs above him, the rope then snaps and she falls on top of Frenchy to reveal her half-eaten face. Zombie Sister Victoria then tries to eat off Frenchy's face as well, but he's able to throw her off like a sack of bricks and starts hauling ass before falling on his face in the cemetery. He looks back to see her standing and staring at him until she vanishes and Frenchy takes one of the crosses that marks the graves as protection. Now, back with Irene and Father Burke, the two sit down for some dinner and some smooth jazz as well. This is a nod to Annabelle creation and Irene sees a photo of Sister Charlotte during her time at the Abbey which she will show to Mr. Mullins three years later. We saw in that film that the nun is also in this photo in the shadows to the right, but she isn't shown in this vision. Irene then asks Father Burke about Israel as a miracle hunter and he tells her how he's part of a select few the church relies on. This is when we learn Irene was plagued with visions when she was young until she was taken in by the church.

[00:21:19]All of her visions as well ended with her having the thought Mary points the way. Small detail to point out here as well is that there's a picture of the nun framed directly behind Irene during her conversation with Burke showing how Valak is already following her. Then get some more Father Burke lore as his story reminds him of a boy named Daniel that he tried to save in France. He also had visions, but he concluded he was possessed by a demon. Going along with the accordance of the church, Burke performed an exorcism which resulted in Daniel's death. It made Burke question if his eagerness to prove the boy had been possessed is what caused him to die. This reveals an interesting parallel between Burke and Irene as Burke's scared and afraid of his past due to what happened with Daniel, whereas Irene's pure and naive and afraid to take her vows because of the future. By combining Burke's troubled past with Irene's naive outlook on good and evil, they're able to overcome their fears and face Valak together. This is also reflected in their wardrobe with Burke always wearing black, whereas Irene always wears white. After Burke's depressing uh story, we then transition to later that night when the good father is woken up by the radio mysteriously turning on. The song that plays is 1952's You Belong to Me by Jo Stafford.

[00:22:28]The title of the song, along with its lyrics, Remember darling, all the while you belong to me, symbolizes how Burke's soul, along with everyone else's in the abbey, now belongs to Valak. This is further established by the picture of the nun that Burke passes by as he leaves the room to investigate the radio. As the radio shuts off, Burke then hears footsteps and sees a boy dash across the room. Chasing after him, he sees that it's Daniel and he then searches for him amongst the graves.

[00:22:53]Burke then finds him standing against a statue of an angel and he then opens his mouth and a snake slithers out. Firstly, gross, uh but second, this is another reference to the real Valak and his depiction as a baby with wings. Daniel is framed directly over the angel, making it look like the wings are coming out of his back. Along with a snake, which we know Valak [ __ ] loves. The snake then charges at Father Burke, which causes him to fall into an open grave. The coffin is then sealed shut and we pan up to reveal the gravestone reads, "Here lies Father Anthony Burke."

[00:23:23]Which you have to admit, Valak has a pretty good sense of humor. The grave is then shown to be completely covered up and Father Burke furiously rings the bell. Not only does this scene show off Valak's killer sense of humor, but it could also be a reference to the 1990s mini-series of It. There, Pennywise tries to scare the adult Bill by showing him Stan's grave along with the remaining empty grave of the Losers Club. Now, I know what you're saying right now, mate. Paul, you [ __ ] son of a [ __ ] you handsome bastard. That is a reach, mate. You've read It too many times. You're obsessing over it.

[00:23:55]It's got nothing to do with it. But, your breakdowns on the channel are great and I will watch them after this video.

[00:24:00]To which I say, thank you, but also I say, listen, shut up for a second, you idiot. Gary Dauberman, sorry about that.

[00:24:08]Gary Dauberman, he wrote the screenplay for both Andy Muschietti's It films and this does feel like it might be a nod to Pennywise. Cuz obviously he would have seen the mini-series. Look, I said it, so it's true and It is now part of the Conjuring Universe. As Father Burke continues going nuts on THE BELL, MORE COWBELL, Irene wakes up and senses something isn't right. As she makes her way through the house, we can see the nun standing right behind her and Valak continues to follow her throughout. We can also hear a church bell ring as Irene searches the house, most likely indicating the sisters of the abbey have now begun their vespers.

[00:24:49]Irene then makes her way to the chapel attached to the lodging house and she finds the other nuns sat in prayer in front of the decapitated Jesus. Then, the shadow of the demon nun starts to loom over the room and the cross. Then, an unshadowed them begins to walk slowly along the wall towards Irene, calling back to one of the nuns' first big scenes in The Conjuring 2 where she played the same trick on Lorraine. As the shadow makes its way across the wall, Irene follows it until the nun appears in the mirror right behind her.

[00:25:14]We then get a pretty good jump scare, and I've said it once and I'll say it again. Though I normally hate them in most horrors, I do think The Conjuring films always try to do their best with basically what is like a loud noise and a character popping up. And yeah, beyond that, it's just a nice callback to Conjuring 2. Running out the chapel, Irene then hears Burke's bell and rushes to save him. Though all of them are ringing, she uses her sweet psychic powers to find Burke's grave. While waiting for his rescue, Burke then starts hearing noises coming from the coffin and he's attacked by a demon. We can't see its face for a brief second before Irene breaks through, and this looks like it's another reference to The Exorcist. The face does kind of resemble the demon Pazuzu, which Chris sees in the kitchen in The Exorcist. The face shown is definitely not Bonnie Aarons, who plays the nun, which makes me think this was an intentional nod to the original demon blockbuster. Demián Bichir, who plays Father Burke, was also reportedly genuinely terrified while shooting this scene as it was a very confined space and he was almost stabbed in the face by the shovel when it broke through the coffin lid. Once above ground though, they can breathe a sigh of relief, and then they turn around to see the coffin already has a skeleton in it surrounded by books with one having the ouroboros on the cover. The other cover itself looks like the skin of a snake with an eye in the middle. So, kind of tying with snakes, you know, Valak is the monkey of snakes. Nice bit of set design and prop work there, guys.

[00:26:28]Well done. They take the books though, and Burke hopes this will give them more information on what they're up against.

[00:26:33]And we cut to the next day, and after an exciting first night in Romania, Father Burke and Irene return to the abbey to find there's even more blood on the steps. Once inside, the two split up as Irene looks for the abbess and Burke gives her the key to Valak's chamber.

[00:26:47]Across the grounds, Irene then finds the nuns, but they just uh keep on a praying. As Irene walks closer and goes to grab one in order to reveal her face, she's then stopped by an actual nun and we're introduced to Sister Oana. This is the first living person Irene has met in the abbey and Sister Oana tells her that they must never stop praying even for a second as the abbey has had perpetual adoration for centuries. This means all day and all night they be a praying.

[00:27:13]Irene apologizes for disturbing the other nun but Oana assures her that Sister Ruth has withstood more than just someone sticking up behind her. This is a slight nod to them having encountered Valak before but it's also it's also foreshadowing a little reveal later on.

[00:27:27]So don't So don't leave the video even though with the breakdown is [ __ ] Meeting back up with Frenchy at the pub, we see him sitting at the bar still holding the giant cross he got from the cemetery. As he drinks his fears away, the bartender puts a blanket over a mirror and the owner explains that when someone dies, they cover the mirror so the deceased doesn't see their reflection and become a ghost. We've seen a couple of instances of mirrors throughout the film such as when Irene and Father Burke first meet Frenchy.

[00:27:53]It's also one in their room at the convent and but both times Irene doesn't see her reflection. It's only until the nun attacks her in the chapel that she sees herself in the mirror alongside her symbolizing how the nun wants to take her for a vessel and basically make her become a ghost.

[00:28:09]Conjuring Last Rites also has a big plot built around a haunted mirror as well and we will cover that movie one day. I swear, I just have to push through these films. We then get another nod to the Conjuring 2 and Frenchy looks back at a family mourning the death of their daughter and the father is wearing the same hat as the Crooked Man. Also, while researching this, I discovered there's a 2016 Crooked Man movie starring Michael Jai White that looks absolutely insane.

[00:28:32]Let me know in the comments below if you've seen it and if it's as batshit as it looks. We then see Frenchy looking at the shotgun hanging above the bar before cutting back to the crypt of the abbey with Father Burke and it's basically Chekhov's gun that, mate. Shaun of the Dead type [ __ ] Reading over the demon book that he got at the graveyard, Father Burke tries to uncover what exactly is haunting the Abbey. He then finds Valak's name. He even says it out loud, which uh excuse me, um according to Conjuring 2 lore, that that should have been the end of it right there. I guess Father Burke isn't packing the gorgeous like the rain now, as he lists off Valak's other names such as the defiler and Marquis of snakes. We then see as the gate of the Abbey comes down.

[00:29:10]This traps both Irene and Father Burke inside. We then meet back up with Irene and Sister Oana. As she tells her about Sister Victoria, but they're interrupted by another nun who doesn't want her blabbing her mouth off to strangers.

[00:29:21]Sister Oana then talks about the history of the Abbey. She tells her it was built by a duke in the dark ages who wrote texts about witchcraft and demonic rituals. We then see this unfold in a flashback sequence, and you can see the book the duke's reading is from the same one that Burke just had. Meaning that it was the duke's grave that Burke was trapped in. We figured it out. That's who it was. Who would have thought? Not me. Calling upon the forces of hell, Helen used the duke in order to open the gateway for Valak. However, before Valak could fully emerge, the castle was taken by the Knights Templar who killed the duke and sealed Valak away. This was through using an artifact that contained the blood of Christ. The church then took control of the castle and began the perpetual praying to contain Valak. For centuries, Valak lay dormant until the Abbey was damaged during World War II and the demon was able to escape through the gateway. Irene tells Oana about seeing the demon nun, and Sister Oana says that she sees it, too, stalking the hallways at night. And then when she looks in mirrors, it's Valak. They're then interrupted by another nun once again who calls Sister Oana for a prayer shift. As the nun approaches Irene, she tells her that since she hasn't taken her vows yet, that she needs to go. Go on now, y'all. Get out of here. We We don't want your ass around here. I'm both frightened and aroused. Like an episode of Creepshow type That was the joke there. But yeah, it's too bad cuz the gates have closed. Now, while the other nuns would have been able to tell Irene hasn't taken her vows based on her white robes, you might notice that she says the exact line that the Abbess said earlier. This is another subtle hint that something isn't quite right here with these nuns. We can also see the older nun begin to cry. She turns to walk away after Sister Oana says that Irene must stay the night. As Oana leads Irene to her room, we see that it's almost identical to Janet's in The Conjuring 2. There's a big cross above the bed and even having a cord wrapped around the bed frame um it's kind of like what Janet had there to stop herself being teleported to the living room. If there's one thing this movie will do, it's make sure you don't forget The Conjuring 2: Electric Boogaloo.

[00:31:20]Before Oana relieves, Irene shows her the keys that Victoria had when she died and asks what it's for, but Oana just stares at it super weird before quickly saying no and screwing off to pray, which seems a bit strange. Beyond that, when closing the door, we can also hear that she's locked Irene inside. We then come back to Father Burke, who once more sees the Abbess. During the conversation, her neck snaps and then as she grabs Burke, her arm falls off to reveal it's just a corpse. We also have Irene having a nightmare of the nun, which is there pretty pretty meh and yeah, like I hate I hate dream sequences in this sort of stuff cuz it's just lots and lots of filler. But she too has her own encounter with some bone cracking nuns and the cross above the bed begins to invert. She gets a vision of Oana saying, "God save you." And it was at this point you may want to turn it off cuz the movie takes a bit of a dive.

[00:32:14]Making her way across the Abbey, Irene finds herself in the corridor of crosses where we began the film. The door at the end of the hallway then opens to fully reveal the demon nun properly for the first time. Before moving on, I also want to mention that these scenes in the tunnels were shot at the Fort of Mogoşoaia, which Corin Hardy claims was actually haunted. While shooting in the corridor of crosses set, Hardy had his first paranormal experience when he went into one of the cells lining the corridors in order to set up his monitors. There he apparently found two men sitting in the cell thinking they were just part of the Romanian crew.

[00:32:45]Hardy sat facing the only door to the cell with the men behind him while shooting the scene of Irene walking through the hall. After a couple of takes, you know, Hardy got the shot and [ __ ] nailed it and he turned around to celebrate, but the two workers were NO LONGER THERE.

[00:32:58]I [screaming] WAS JOKING.

[00:33:01]SPONGEBOB, I WAS JOKING. WHICH EVEN talking about now, I'm getting like goosebumps around the face. Might be the terrible beard I'm growing, but it's for a video on the boys. I'm trying to be Billy Butcher. But yeah, I think that's a pretty scary story to be fair and it might have been scarier just having that scene it for real rather than this entire movie. They then do the usual thing of like having having the demon overpower the character doing whatever they want and then for some reason letting them go and then trying again yada yada yada. He's pulled towards Valak and there's a big moment of the key dropping out and Irene being trapped in. She's saved by a woman though who tells her that the evil is stronger and that she needs to come to the chapel to pray. Once there, she finds the nun that interrupted them earlier praying and there's a dead body laying next to them under a sheet. The nun's prayers then get louder and louder as Irene approaches the body and she removes the sheet to reveal it's sister Oana. Whoa!

[00:33:52]You can also see her hands have holes in them like she's been crucified. In case you don't know, these wounds are actually called stigmata in the Roman Catholic faith and they're bodily wounds that correspond to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. Most cases of stigmata are regarded as tricks and but interestingly they affect women way more than men with 80% of the stigmata happening to women. You bloody misogynists. Also slight detail to point out, the chapel set is the same one that was used for the crypt which we can see based on the rose window on the back wall. We then go back to the crypt where Father Burke is confronted again by the ghost of Daniel. Hardy.

[00:34:27]I'm sorry.

[00:34:31]Why would help me?

[00:34:35]To be fair, there is a couple of good jump scares, yeah, including that one, and one with the snake tongue coming out again, but it does feel like they're kind of stretching the movie out and just having a haunted house thing instead of actually advancing the plot.

[00:34:47]It's been like 40 minutes of this [ __ ] now. The entire crypt then begins to shake, bones are thrown everywhere, and hands start to break free from the tombs. Daniel's then revealed to be Valak war, and Burke runs like hell. We then cut back to chapel where the other nuns have arrived to handle business and bar the door behind them. One tells Irene to pray with them, and no matter what happens to keep her eyes forward and don't stop. We then focus quickly on the statue of a woman holding a baby with wings, which is another reference to Valak and how he's hiding among them.

[00:35:16]We then get an overhead shot of her surrounded by the other nuns in a circle, and with a little imagination, it could be seen to form a pentagram.

[00:35:23]They're suddenly blasted across the room, and the statue breaks, and we rejoin Burke looking for Irene. He sees his cross wood and remembers the word deliveries, and that there's a door inside the ice house that allows you to get inside. Burke is then attacked by the zombie nun, but Frenchie comes to the rescue out of nowhere and then cuts her head off. Doesn't use the shotgun cuz he says he's keeping it for emergencies, and I did feel that it was a missed opportunity to say, "I keep this for close encounters." I like to keep this handy for close encounters. [ __ ] Aliens is the best movie ever made. Meanwhile, Irene continues to pray, and then the back of her robes are ripped open, and a pen- pentagram's carved into her shoulder, which I do feel also supports the previous claim of the nuns being in a pentagram. Again, I said it, so it's true. After getting carved up like a Christmas turkey, Irene hears Burke and tells the sisters that he will help them. As she opens the door, she tells Burke and Frenchie that she and the sisters have been praying to try and contain the demon, but she turns around to see everyone's gone, and the room's completely dark. Holy [ __ ] >> That's [ __ ] not good. A classic Kidman, Bruce Willis, everyone's dead the whole time fake out. They were all just illusions by Valak or ghosts cuz they did help from time to time or just visions by Irene. Take your pick. I probably already spoiled this somewhere earlier in the video but we have gotten more than a few hints to this throughout the film that I've been been basically hinting towards you. Now beside the Abbess, neither Frenchie or Father Burke are ever shown interacting with any of the nuns nor do they ever mention seeing any of them. This goes along with Frenchie's earlier in the movie of him having never seen a nun at the Abbey until finding Sister Victoria's body.

[00:37:01]Next, Sister Oana mentions that the gateway ceiling Valak was destroyed during World War II which ended in 1945, almost an entire decade before Irene and Father Burke ever set foot in Romania.

[00:37:13]Seeing how powerful Valak is, it's a bit hard for me to believe that it took him 10 years to wipe out the nuns from the Abbey. Don't care how much they were praying. This would mean that all the nuns of the Abbey have been dead for a very long time including Sister Victoria. This is also pointed out when Irene uncovers Sister Oana's real body and it's almost mummified. Now you may say, but Paul, both Frenchie and Father Burke saw Sister Victoria's dead body.

[00:37:36]But the key word here is dead body. No one has seen her alive and we have seen Valak take various physical forms. You may also say, oh Paul, I love your videos. I will sign up to your membership which is just 99 cents a month. It's worth way more than that cuz you get more than one video a week earlier earlier than everyone else. I'm getting into a bit of theory time but I think that the whole Sister Victoria death was a plot by Valak from the very beginning to lure us someone to the Abbey that he could possess. The opening scene that we see is all just a facade and from an unreliable narrator that probably never actually happened. This reveal is also hinted at by their faith itself where according to traditional Roman Catholic religious teachings, spirits and visions do not appear to individuals who are part of the clergy.

[00:38:20]However, when Irene's seen talking to Sister Oana, she says that all the other nuns have seen it. This is a subtle hint at how they're all dead as they wouldn't have seen a demon if they were alive according to their faith. Now, she thought this reveal was done really well and genuinely, yeah, it took me by surprise the first time I watched it. It also makes you watching all the scenes with sister Oana and the other nuns so much creepier knowing it's really Valak speaking to Irene. Before moving on as well, one last thing I want to point out is that after seeing the nuns are gone, we then get another shot of the statue we saw earlier of the woman holding a baby, but here the baby doesn't have wings. It's easy to miss, but it's a clever way of showing how Valak's always present and watching over everyone in the abbey. Realizing that everything up until now has been a sick, sick game played by Valak, Irene declares that they now know for sure the abbey is no longer holy. Yeah, no [ __ ] Shouldn't like clocked that the [ __ ] first moment you you came in met the abbess who's just like a creepy, dark figure in a robe sitting below like a snake thing.

[00:39:19]Oana then comes alive and attacks them and there's also a moment where Father Burke says, "Jesus Christ." Exactly like the pop locking Jesus dude, which [ __ ] kills me every time. WHAT?

[00:39:30]JESUS CHRIST.

[00:39:32]THE POOR ARM.

[00:39:33]HUH.

[00:39:34]THE ARM OF GOD. JESUS CHRIST. THE CROSS Father Burke uses here may also be a reference to 1992's Dracula as it resembles the cross Anthony Hopkins uses at the beginning of the film as an older priest. Woo. Sister Oana then bursts into flames and tries to come after Irene, but Father Burke basically holds her back and Frenchie blasts her in the head with a shotgun. Seeing how much [ __ ] they're in, they realize that sister Victoria sacrificed herself to prevent Valak from being able to take her as a vessel. So, they have to stay and seal the gateway for good. Irene then tells Burke and Frenchie about the artifact and how the blood of Christ can seal the gateway. Irene also takes her vows as well in a sick, sick montage and she now has the vows to beat Valak. Now a full fledged member of the clergy, the holy crew make their way to the catacombs where they see a similar statue of Mother Mary that we saw in the chapel. And once again, with no wings.

[00:40:25]Father Burke then notices a stream of light coming in and hitting directly on Mary's finger, making him recall Irene's visions of Mary leads the way. They then follow the light to a hidden door. Using the key she's been carrying around the entire film, Irene opens the secret garden door to find the relic containing Jesus' blood. While this relic in particular is made for the movie, uh there are a number of real holy relics that claim to contain the blood of Jesus. They once again reach the door to the catacombs, but this time just dive right in. They end up being split up, and another ghost nun starts following behind Irene. When Irene turns to confront it, the nun surprisingly still there, but Irene is then blindsided by another nun from the side, which is a solid scare, I will say. It just kind of tosses her around, and she then finds herself in a chamber surrounded by more dead nuns. Notice also when Irene enters the room, we focus on her reflection in the mirror, calling back the pub owner's line about covering mirrors to prevent ghosts and evil from seeping into our world. Here though, Irene gets a two-for-one special with both ghosts and demons. As Irene enters the chamber, she then lands smack-dab in the middle of another pentagram and turns around to see all of the dead nuns surrounding her with bags over their heads, which are the same ones we saw earlier during the flashback of the Duke opening the gateway. Father Burke then runs into his own group of ghost nuns and uses his lantern to burn a cross in the ground and keep them at bay. Frenchy then finds his way into the chamber with Irene, and one by one, they start to crack their necks. Then start shuffling around to reveal Irene suspended in the air above the pentagram. Uncovering her face, he's met by Valak-possessed Irene, who screams in his face and tells him he's failed. Valak then pins Frenchy against the wall and taunts him about how he's so stupid and that he never hits the thumbs-up. And we get like uh like the worst worst comeback I've heard in a while. "You should have kept breathing when you had the chance, Frenchman.

[00:42:14]I'm French-Canadian. I'm French-Canadian, you [ __ ] Take that.

[00:42:19]But, Frenchie is able to grab a bit of blood from the relic and wipe it over Irene's face to force Valak out of her.

[00:42:25]Valak in his demon nun form then grabs Frenchie again by the throat. Irene is then blasted into a pool of water, and after Burke beats Daniel, we see as Valak emerges in the water. Looking at the demon terrified, Valak lets out another roar and charges Irene. She goes back to her story to the children about the heroes surviving many terrifying encounters, but still not being prepared for the beast that would come. Despite surviving all of Valak's tricks thus far, Irene was still not prepared to face Valak one-on-one. Valak tries to drown her, but the relic then comes to the surface. Once Valak lifts her out of the water, he looks at the relic to see it empty, and Irene spits the blood of Christ into his face. As she does this, the blood also falls into the water, spreading it throughout the pool. Thus, Valak starts to disintegrate, and is sucked back into the gateway. Frenchie then grabs Irene out of the water as the gateway seals itself shut, and they resuscitate Irene. Irene then asks Frenchie for his real name, and he drops the bomb that it's Maurice, which fans of The Conjuring should recognize as the man that Ed and Lorraine tried to save from Valak, but failed. This then resulted in the demon becoming attached to Lorraine, but more on that in just a second. With the evil banished though, and the abbey a house of God once more, we enter back into the daylight where Irene's patching up Father Burke. As they go to leave, Irene says a prayer over the fresh graves of all the nuns and the abbey, showing that they've given them a proper burial, and the land is holy again. Getting into Frenchie's carriage, he said he's had his fill of Romania, and that his father has a tomato farm, so he's going to go to that for a bit. He then rubs his neck though to reveal an inverted cross burned into his skin. We then jump to the Warrens with a recreation of the scene from the first Conjuring film. This scene had the Warrens showing a class of video of the exorcism of Maurice. However, this time the original actor is replaced by the actor who plays Frenchy and there's also an Adeline from Ed saying his friends called him Frenchy. Just in case you are some very stupid and didn't put it together that it's the same actor and the man is called Maurice and the man is called Maurice in that scene. You also flash back to the Abbey when Valak was choking Frenchy and see that Valak actually put a snake into his mouth, which is a bit sexy bit sexy possession.

[00:44:35]But yeah, this is a common possession trope that we've seen in all the previous Conjuring films where the possession is normally carried across by black goo and being puked up by a demon.

[00:44:44]However, I feel that Valak possessing people with a snake as opposed to black bile is meant to signify how much more powerful he is than your your average run of the mill demon. We then watch the rest of the Warren's exorcism of Frenchy and then end on a freeze frame of Lorraine screaming in fear at the her first vision of Valak. And with that we close out yet another chapter in the Conjuring's history. Despite being the lowest rated movie in the Conjuring expanded universe, I actually think the gothic horror vibe the film leans into really sets it apart from Annabelle and the other main line universe Conjuring films. It makes the threat of Valak feel much more real and this is also aided by the fact that it's almost entirely shot on location in Romania, which is already like one of the creepiest places in the world, which I'm sure it's lovely. I'm sure it's great there. The cheeky girls are from there. So I'm it must be amazing, but movies have told me the place is [ __ ] nightmare to live in. I also think Bonnie Aarons incredible presence as the titular nun carries a lot of the scares. Unlike Joseph Bishara who plays most of the Conjuring demons, the nun doesn't have like elaborate prosthetics to make her scary and when it just fully relies on Bonnie's facial performance. Makes the demon feel a lot scarier as she's really there in these shots interacting with the other actors.

[00:45:56]I also think The Nun has one of the best endings in the series as most of the Conjuring films just end up very suddenly and have the Warrens there to defeat the demon with relative ease once they're able to track it down. Here though, I thought the plot device of the holy relic and Irene's subtle switch at the end was set really well throughout the movie and was a satisfying conclusion to the terror that we've seen Irene and the others go through. So yeah, overall overrated I would say, not the worst in the series and definitely not the best, but you know what, it's all right as a Nun origin story. Anyway, that wraps up another entry in the Conjuring franchise and I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Do you think The Nun is the worst movie of them all and or do you like it? Also, remember that even though Halloween is no longer here, it's come and gone, you can still get our great Halloween themed t-shirts like our Marvel Zombies one, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Weapons, Pennywise and a hell of a lot more.

[00:46:46]We've got loads of stuff at the merch store below and the more you get, the more discounts you get as well. So buy more, save more. Huge shoutout to everyone who's picked one up as well and if you want to follow us on Instagram and keep up to date with what we're doing, then follow us at Heavy Spoilers.

[00:47:00]Again, members of the channel also get early access to videos for just 99 cents a month. So click that join button and make a big difference to the production of the channel and mean that we can do more Conjuring films instead of something good. If not that, thank you so much for sitting through this video and if you want something else to watch, there's probably a Conjuring video on screen right now and hopefully I'll see you over there right after this. With that out of the way though, I've been your host Paul, you've been the best and I'll see you next time. Take care. Peace out.