The Conjuring and its sequel focused on a religious real-life couple who fought against sinister supernatural forces. The cinematic franchise expanded with Annabelle (and its prequel Annabelle: Creation) and now it’s expanded once again with The Nun, a new horror film that helped strengthen the faith of one of its stars.
Taking place decades before The Conjuring, the film stars Taissa Farmiga as Irene, a young woman in training to become a nun, and Oscar-nominated Damien Bichir as Father Burke. Burke and Irene are dispatched by the Church to a Romanian convent to investigate the mysterious death of a nun.
Alongside several other journalists, Townhall recently participated in a roundtable discussion with director Corin Hardy alongside Famiga and Bichir.
Because religion plays a key role in this franchise, we discussed the importance of faith in the film.
Bichir, in particular, talked about reconnecting with his faith during the making of the movie. That faith was instilled in him by his grandmother. “Part of my training for this role was going back to my grandmother,” he said. His grandmother used to take him to Church with her and she even taught him how to pray. “Those were my first encounters with religion,” he added.
In the film, Bichir plays a priest who is haunted by a traumatic exorcism he once did of a young man. Although his character is conflicted about that painful past, he willingly accepts new assignments from the Church.
“Father Burke is not only a priest,” Bichir said. “He’s a soldier.” He added that “Just like any soldier in the army, it doesn’t matter if you have your own demons. When you become a soldier whether it’s in the army or a soldier for God, you know that the ultimate sacrifice is your own life.”
The main characters in The Nun are soldiers for God and their lives are threatened when they face off against an evil spirit that appears as a psychotic nun. In his own life, Bichir has dreamed of facing off against an even great threat. He told us about a dream he once had where he battled the devil himself. “I was beating the hell out of the guy,” he said. Hardy noted that those dreams were part of the reason that Bichir seemed perfectly suited for his role.
During the filming, Bichir reconnected with his faith even more. He told us that he prayed every night during the production. “I was surprised that I remembered everything,” he said, adding that he believed that the production made his faith stronger.
Some of the movie’s concepts have been examined cinematically before but Hardy brings his own voice to the production, often capturing the actors from above and showing them battle both internally and externally with their demons.
As with this and other films in the series, there are definitive battles between good and evil.
When asked about some of the overall themes of the Conjuring series and how these films continue to resonate with audiences, Farmiga noted that some of the lessons about choosing good over evil are universal. “It all comes down to being a good person and not being a good person,” she said.
In this film, the characters are faced with that choice and they are forced to decide whether or not they are willing to confront the forces of evil where they live.
The Nun hits theaters nationwide this Friday.
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