Summary
- The Nun 2 pays homage to The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project, drawing inspiration from their iconic shots and using similar techniques to create suspense and horror.
- Sister Irene's introduction and Valak's painting jumpscare mirror previous scenes from Annabelle: Creation and The Conjuring 2.
- Lorraine Warren appears in Sister Irene's visions, which suggests a connection between the two and hints at a shared ability to oppose evil entities like Valak.
2 hides a few sneaky easter eggs and references to The Conjuring franchise and other horror movies throughout Sister Irene's second encounter with Valak. Having defeated the demon once before, Sister Irene has a bigger chance to stop Valak than anybody else. Yet, Valak is a particularly strong demonic entity, as neither the Blood of Christ nor the eyes of St. Lucy are enough to put a definitive end to its reign of terror, at least for several years.
The Conjuring universe is connected through Ed and Lorraine Warren, though every single one of the paranormal entities they face in each The Conjuring installment also has its own backstory and links to thousands of years' worth of myth and legend. Since The Nun and The Nun II take place a little more than a decade before the events of the first The Conjuring movie, both spinoff prequels focus on the titular demon's 20th-century history and its connection to Sister Irene prior to its encounter with the Warrens. Nevertheless, The Nun 2 also includes nods at previous The Conjuring movies and references to other horror films along the way.
6 The Nun 2 Pays Homage to The Exorcist (Again)
The backlit outline of a man with a hat and a suitcase at the beginning of The Nun 2, isn't an arbitrary choice. This is a clear homage to the iconic shot from William Friedkin's 1973 horror classic The Exorcist, where Father Merrin arrives to exorcise Regan MacNeil, knowing that Pazuzu, the demon inside Regan, is an especially difficult entity to deal with. Likewise, the Cardinal and his assistant in The Nun 2 know that Valak isn't any run-of-the-mill demon, so they reach out to Irene and ask her to investigate the spirit's latest appearances. Despite her hesitation, Irene realizes that the demon has possessed none other than Frenchie.
The Conjuring franchise had already paid homage to The Exorcist in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, where Father Gordon's arrival at the Glatzel family house mirrors the same scene from William Friedkin's classic. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It also draws inspiration from The Exorcist for the physical effects of David Glatzel's demonic possession, while The Nun 2 takes a different approach with its multiple-antagonist climax and the weaponization of St. Lucy's eyes. Like The Exorcist, The Nun 2's seemingly optimistic ending features its possession victim regaining control of his body, but neither film puts a definitive stop to the demons.
5 Frenchie’s Possession Pays Homage To The Blair Witch Project
Although Frenchie's possession has clear similarities with Regan MacNeill's, The Nun 2 uses a different horror movie inspiration to reveal his state. When a young delivery girl comes across Frenchie, he's in a trance, facing the wall and making strange gurgling noises. This moment seems like an homage to The Blair Witch Project, where the story's climax reveals one of the protagonists, Mike, facing a wall while in a trance. Similar to how Frenchie turns around before Valak appears and kills the delivery girl in The Nun 2, an unseen force attacks The Blair Witch Project's last surviving protagonist, Heather, before the found footage film ends.
4 The Nun 2's Sister Irene Introduction Mirrors Annabelle's Death
The Nun 2's brutal opening sequence leads into Sister Irene's introduction, which takes place just outside her new monastery in Italy. Alongside other nuns, Sister Irene pushes a car that got stuck in the mud. While seemingly innocuous, Sister Irene's first scene in The Nun 2 mirrors another brutal opening sequence from the Conjuring franchise. 2017's Annabelle: Creation opens with the revelation that the titular doll's curse began when a regular little girl, Annabelle Mullins, was struck by a car after her parents' car broke down on the road.
3 The Nun 2 Brings Back The Conjuring 2’s Hallway Scare
Frenchie's child friend at the boarding school, Sophie, has various run-ins with Valak in The Nun 2. After seeing Frenchie collapse in the garden and catching a glimpse at her mother walking upstairs, Sophie decides to follow her mom. But when she opens a door, she sees Valak standing at the other end of the Warren family's hallway from The Conjuring 2. In fact, this is the exact same shot used in The Conjuring 2, when Judy and Lorraine Warren face Valak for the first time. It's possible that Valak is foretelling its future return and somehow linking itself to this specific appearance at the Warren's hallway more than ten years before it happens.
2 Sister Irene Sees Lorraine Warren In A Vision
Another link between the past and the future comes during Irene's confrontation with Valak. As Valak begins to immolate Irene, Irene receives visions of her mother, St. Lucy, and Lorraine Warren. Given that Irene wields St. Lucy's eyes, her visions suggest that there's a direct connection between Taissa and Vera Farmiga's The Conjuring characters, possibly confirming their shared heritage. Irene also shares her powerful visions with her mother, and St. Lucy's eyes are powerful enough to stop Valak. Therefore, their bloodline may have access to a higher force that naturally opposes evil entities, and access to St. Lucy's eyes might be key to the Warrens' next mission in The Conjuring: The Last Rites.
1 The Nun 2 Improves The Conjuring 2’s Painting Jumpscare
Valak's most memorable moment in The Conjuring franchise comes right after The Conjuring 2's hallway scene. As Lorraine Warren looks around her art studio, she finds a painting of a nun that she doesn't recognize. Then, a shadow walks all around the wall and stands behind the painting before materializing into the nun. Similarly, Valak appears in the form of a painting in The Nun 2, but instead of using a shadow to create her body, she quickly stretches the canvas into the shape of an animalistic demon — her mouth distended and filled with spiky fangs. While not as suspenseful as her original jumpscare, Valak's second painting scene is scarily reminiscent of Pennywise's reality-warping transformations from the It movies.
