Nun II Director Michael Chaves Breaks Down the Movie’s Scariest Moments : MoviesLiveNews

The Nun II marks director Michael Chaves’ third outing in the spooky Conjuring Universe. Curse of La Llorona and The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It got under audiences’ skins, but The Nun II could prove to be his scariest endeavor to date. The Nun found the demonic Valak banished by Sister Irene and Maurice. Despite their best efforts, it seemed that Maurice became possessed in the end. The sequel takes place four years later. Irene has moved on and is residing in a convent in Italy. But when a priest is violently slaughtered in France, a reluctant Irene must summon the strength to once again confront Valak in order to save the young girls at a French boarding school, as well as Maurice’s very soul.

CBR spoke with Chaves about the sequel, his inspirations, and the scariest moments in the new movie, which is in theaters now.

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CBR: Before you started production on this movie, what kind of conversations did you have with James Wan about The Nun II’s connection to the Conjuring Universe and where it would fit into the larger tapestry?

Michael Chaves: That was always an ongoing conversation with James and New Line and Peter Safran. It was something we really liked in various forms, whether it’s the possession of Maurice or the forms she takes in Conjuring 2. She’s been this dark thread throughout the Conjuring Universe. Even early on, David Leslie Johnson was involved in these conversations. He is definitely one of the creative forces. I don’t even know if he is credited in this film. A lot of people were involved in that conversation.

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One thing that we liked about Valak was that she was this through line that connected the primary Conjuring movie but also the Warrens and how that could be a thread that connects us to Irene. There have always been these fan theories swirling around. It felt like an opportunity to explore that more.

Much like The Conjuring 3, you don’t hold back in the first five minutes of The Nun II. What makes a riveting opening sequence for you?

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I love good, exciting opens. For me, it probably comes from the fact that I have a short attention span. I love when I am reading a story or watching a movie and am pulled right into it. There is something exciting about that that also shows respect to the audience — a respect for their time. We are not going to hold back. We’ve got the goods. We are going to show you what we’ve got. For me, that makes a fun experience.

In terms of crafting those scenes, a lot of it comes down to the characters and [building] it around people you are naturally connected to. And kids really help. That’s one thing that draws you in for the beginning. We have the young character, Jacques, the altar boy, who is in the center of the scene. [It’s] the same thing in Conjuring 3 with David Glatzel and centering it around his exorcism. That is how it was always written in Conjuring 3. David Leslie Johnson wrote it that way. That was a great way to pull you in. People are naturally empathetic, but even more so to kids.

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All three of your Conjuring Universe movies feature children. In what ways does their presence raise the stakes?

Kids are great on screen, especially if you cast the right ones. At their core, they are great actors. That’s what you always have to look for. It sucks you into the character and sucks you into the moment. You care about them. I think it happens a little quicker and a little more easily. When you have kid actors in a scene, it just raises the stakes. It’s something very universal. We have all been kids at one point in our lives.

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There is an innocence about children, so when evil targets them, we are worried about them even more.

Exactly. They are vulnerable. And if anything happens to them, it’s the greatest of tragedies. Everything feels heightened.

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Is it possible to make Valak even more evil than the previous chapters? In what ways did you go about cementing her as the Conjuring Universe’s badass ghoul?

A lot of it was we used her very carefully. That is one thing where it is like Jaws. That is something that has worked really well across all the Conjuring movies. The supernatural entities are always treated like Jaws. So, you don’t see Jaws a lot, but when you do, there is a big impact. Being very selective was one of the things that really helped. I think, also, just having her take different forms and exploit our characters’ weaknesses, and exploit the tragedies that surrounded the school and making it personal gave her a unique punch this time around.

The Nun II trailer teases some terrifying sequences. What moment resonated the most with audiences during test screenings?

Two things played well. I think this is a spoiler… The goat demon played really high. That was one of the things that was surprising for a lot of fans because it was more monster-movie than we have seen in the Conjuring Universe. The goat demon and the newsstand were the two things that people always gravitated toward. The newsstand definitely got a lot of play in the marketing. Even from our earliest screening, where there were a lot of incomplete elements to the newsstand, people really liked that. They really liked how it was just so weird. They were like, “I have never seen that before.” It captured the more surreal qualities of The Nun. In Conjuring 2, and a little bit in the first Nun, there’s a little bit of the Coppola Bram Stoker’s [Dracula ](https://www.movieslivenews.com/tags/dracula)slant of the Conjuring Universe, where there was a little bit more of these theatrical, cinematic horror moments. That was something I really liked about the newsstand. The newsstand, this flip-book collage, was very visual and one-of-a-kind that had this unique filmmaking moment to it.

One of the things that I always loved about Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the monster element. I loved the big bat form that Dracula took. That was one of the things that we channeled in with the goat demon. I just loved this idea of having to take this turn where it becomes more of a monster movie. We had conversations in marketing, and I was really hesitant about how much they showed. It’s funny because you actually see a glimpse of it in one of the 15-second ads. But I am glad they held it back because it’s really surprising. It’s surprising because you are not expecting that in a Conjuring movie, which usually doesn’t have the more [monstrous] elements. Visually, it just gets you.

Another standout moment found Valak emerging from a wall to grab Sophie.

That was actually our highest-rated scare. We talked about the newsstand and goat demon in those focus groups, but when it actually came to the numbers, if you looked up the cards, everyone loved the staircase. The staircase works in a couple of different ways. I did a lot of research for the period. I wanted it to feel authentic. A lot of it is looking through these old photos. There was this French photographer, Rene Maltete. He did all this street photography but with visual trickery. I thought that was very French. There’s this French thing where if there’s an opportunity to make a face out of something, people will do it in graffiti, or whatever. So if you are looking at a manhole cover with two eyes, you will see a mouth painted on. I just loved that. I was talking to my production designer, who is French, and he is like, ‘’That’s the cultural thing.’’

I just loved that idea of seeing faces everywhere, of seeing faces in the street, and then the idea of seeing the Nun everywhere. That’s the idea behind the newsstand and seeing her on the wall — this idea that she is always there and taking different forms.

The goat demon certainly makes an impression. What was your vision for it? What went into the production design?

We worked with this incredible makeup effects team. We wanted to do something that was as much in-camera as possible. We couldn’t get the animatronics with his feet because it was such a complicated rig. It also needs to support this man. The feet are done digitally later. But the majority of his body is all real. It’s all done in-camera. That was one of the big things that I wanted with this. I wanted to really feel it. You look at Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the in-camera effects are fantastic. It feels like this great, classic monster movie. That was one of the big references I had and one of the things I wanted to capture.

We found this incredible actor from London. We were auditioning creature performers. Then, we found this guy who ran on these stilts. He delivered this great performance. He was really aggressive and really fast. Even when he was breathing, it was scary. And he would come on set in character as the demon goat. Having that there was great. It was something that inspired makeup artists, and they could build off of it. Also, having that for shooting with the other actors was really exciting. It helped so much to have a performer there to be responding to something.

Horror fans were treated to new Scream and Evil Dead chapters this year. A new Exorcist premieres in October. Some of the genre’s most iconic villains are up for grabs. Is there another franchise or subgenre that you dream of tackling?

I would love to do something boldly original. I was making a list of all my favorite horror movies. They are all original films. It is something I am dying to do. That is ultimately what is the scariest. Having said that, I love Nightmare on Elm Street. I love that I am working at the house that Freddy built. I love Freddy Krueger. There is something so awesome about that franchise and character. I don’t know if it can be done without Robert Englund. I don’t know how it would be done exactly. It is such an iconic franchise.

The Nun II is in theaters now.

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