The Nun (2018)

The American gothic supernatural horror film, The Nun (2018), directed by Corin Hardy and written by Gary Dauberman from a story by Dauberman and James Wan, takes place in 1952 Romania. At Saint Cartha’s monastery, two nuns fall victim to an unseen evil force. Sister Victoria, the sole survivor of the attack, hangs herself in terror. Her body is found by Frenchie, a villager who regularly brings supplies to the nuns. In response to the tragedy, the Vatican sends Father Burke and Sister Irene, a novice nun, to investigate. Along with Frenchie’s help, they retrieve a key from Victoria’s body and return to the abbey where they meet the Abbess. She explains that the nuns observe silence at night and asks them to come back in the morning. That same night, Irene saves Burke from being buried alive in the graveyard by the demonic entity.

The day after, Irene and Burke revisit the abbey, but only Irene is able to gain entry due to its cloistered nature. Upon meeting the other nuns, she learns that they take turns praying continuously in order to keep the entity at bay. The structure itself was initially built in the Dark Ages as a castle for the Duke of St. Carta – a powerful aristocrat with an intense fascination with the supernatural world. The duke had successfully summoned a demon through a rift located in the catacombs but was ultimately slain by Christian knights who used a vial of Christ’s blood to seal the rift. However, during World War II, bombings caused the rift to reopen, freeing the entity once again. Burke identifies this demon as Valak and makes a shocking discovery – that the Abbess has been deceased all this time.