Nuns can be scary. However, it wasn't until James Wan's Conjuring spinoff The Nun from 2018 (directed by Corin Hardy), that the frightening formula received a large-scale budget. Audiences were finally treated to full-scale nun horror, a subgenre that until now has been mostly deemed as tasteless schlock, with a "nunsploitation" subgenre that never seemed to appeal to an audience beyond the deepest realms of cult cinema.

While nuns certainly have a place in horror and often show up as a common trope, it is surprising that it took this long for the religious icon to be center stage of a mainstream Hollywood horror vehicle. Religion and nuns have a complex relationship with the horror genre dating back to 1922 with the bizarre Swiss film Häxan, one of the earliest horror films exploring themes of witchcraft and demonic entities. The Nun is the modern take on religious horror; it's a little Exorcist meets Evil Dead with a splash of Indiana Jones.

Updated October 4, 2023: In honor of the newly released prequel of the Nun franchise, this article has been updated by Yosra Ben lagha, with a focus on the prominent religious themes in the franchise.

Nuns, and by extension, any form of female cloaking and concealment, have a genuine horror attached to them. The oppression of females throughout history is something we still struggle with to this day, and it is often from these kinds of real-world issues that horror films are derived. While nuns, meant to represent cultural and religious purity (having devoted themselves solely to God), are so embedded into our world, it feels unlikely they will ever go extinct.

Let us evaluate the subtext of religious horror and how The Nun II continued to chisel away at an important issue while also scaring the hell out of audiences in the most action-packed and awesome ways imaginable.

Conjuring Demons in The Nun

The success of The Conjuring films, heavily inspired by real-world paranormal mysteries, has spawned not one but two distinct and profitable film franchises, which is no small feat. Annabelle may have exhausted the premise of a haunted doll with three installments, but The Nun may outlive them all. The Nun was the most successful film in the entire Conjuring series worldwide. This speaks volumes to the universal appeal of religious horror, specifically a Nun as an icon of terror.

Serving as a vehicle for Taissa Farmiga, sister of Conjuring star Vera Farmiga, the first film follows the exploits of two emissaries sent to investigate the death of a young nun at the Cârța Monastery in Romania. With clear influence from The Name of the Rose, a 1980 novel by Italian writer Umberto Eco that was adapted into a 1986 film starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater, the story revolves around an investigation into a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey and concerns itself with the nature of truth. The Nun also borrows from real-world demonology, with Valek being the hidden male figure under the robe, a character found in truly mysterious ancient grimoire manuscripts. This is where things get legitimately creepy when researching the film's inspirations.

The derivative concept has taken on a life of its own. While nothing has been revealed about the sequel's plot, the filmmakers may continue taking cues from these authentic demonic manuscripts such as the Dictionnaire Infernal and The Lesser Key of Solomon. Some spiritually sensitive fans have cited The Nun as being afflicted with an actual demonic presence using the medium of film to make itself known. While that could easily be Hollywood working in some clever marketing, it's also legitimately creepy.

The Nun may have come as a surprise to horror enthusiasts. Many saw the film as a last-ditch effort to squeeze out yet another spinoff from the Conjuring franchise. Still, the film delivered a classy period-piece horror tale with exceptional cinematography, special FX, and tight execution. In many ways, the film was a full-scale realization of nunsploitation, proving the sleazy subgenre never needed to rely on sex or overt violence in the first place. While the film was rated R, it's not nearly as graphic or depraved as many of these schlocky efforts of the '60s, '70s, and '80s aspired to be. The Nun relies more on atmosphere and mood. While its origin may be as simple as an effectively creepy set piece from The Conjuring 2, The Nun provided an opportunity to flesh it out and inadvertently became the highest-grossing film of them all.

The Nun II Is a Continuation of Religious-Themed Horror

Michael Chaves, who helmed 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona and the third installment of The Conjuring, directed The Nun II and kept the same religious-themed horror of the original movie. This time around, however, the evil entity of Valak, which previously appeared as a nun, is hiding behind the sweet, kind, and loving farmer, Maurice, working at a church/ boarding school for girls in France. The twist consists of the evil presence masking itself behind an innocent host. This little twist turns the movie into an unconventional story of possession.

Unlike classic movies about possession, like The Exorcist or The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the possessed man does not exhibit obvious signs of being a host for a demonic entity until much later in the movie, which makes The Nun 2 more realistic in its approach to a real-life demonic possession. In fact, it was not until the arrival of Sister Irene that the jig was up. In a way, Maurice can also be considered as Judas, one of the twelve apostles, who betrayed Jesus. He is blindly trusted by the nuns and the little girls in the boarding school but proves to be harboring a dark force with an evil agenda.

The religious symbolism is also evident in the demon's depiction as a goat in the stained glass of the church. Goats are religiously associated with Satan and evil in general because of their regular use in black magic circles and in casting spells. Black magic is very severely warned against in the bible and is considered one of the biggest sins. Another important theological symbolism is the nun's quest to find the eyes of Saint Lucy, a Roman religious figure who died a virgin after having her eyes gouged out by a pagan. Valak, the shape-shifting demon rejected by God, strives to find her eyes to use their power in serving his own goals. However, saint Lucy is closely tied to sister Irene, too, since she was the first to see the hidden possession of Maurice.

The name itself, Lucy, originates from Lucia, which comes from the Latin word lux, meaning “light”. This light in the eyes of the saint can be an indication of the gift of being a seer, a clairvoyant or "seeing in the spirit", which means being able to detect and locate demonic evil spirits and defeat them. This gift, given by the Spirit of God, is mentioned in Isaiah 48:6: "(...) From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you." It is even revealed near the end of the movie, that there is a bloodline connection between Sister Irene and Saint Lucy.

The Nun II is a story of how faith triumphs over the abhorrent forces of evil that seek to destroy peace. This victory is celebrated at the end when the faith of the three nuns is finally able to separate Valak from Maurice. This movie follows in the footsteps of previous religious horror movies like Deliver Us From Evil and The Conjuring in delivering a happy ending where the "chosen ones" somehow find a way to expel demonic forces from their lives through the power of belief. The audience's thirst for religious themes in horror movies is reflected in the massive success that this one-month-old movie acquired so far. Religion has always been and will continue to be a fertile ground for countless stories that are distinctive and unique despite existing similarities, like the binary of good and evil.

The Nun II vs. The Exoricst: Believer

The 2023 Halloween season is playing big with religious horror. The Nun II was number one at the box office for three weekends in a row, and while it has grossed less than its predecessor, it has been drawing audiences out to the movies. It was a great kick-off to the Halloween season and will soon be followed by The Exorcist: Believer. The original Exorcist is the gold standard for religious horror.

That makes it all the more shocking that The Nun II appears to have done better with critics than The Exorcist: Believer, which is already not fairing well with critics. How it will play with audiences remains to be seen, but it could indicate that The Nun II will be seen as the better religious horror film of 2023.