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The Nun022 | w w w. s c i fi n ow.co.u k
A key element of that creation was going
to shoot on location. Before The Nun, the
furthest afield the Conjuring films had
reached was the not-particularly exotic realm
of Enfield. However, Hardy and his team
were afforded the opportunity of actually
shooting their Romania-set film in the
country itself.
“Yeah, it was a playground,” Hardy
enthuses. “Between the authentic locations
of which we found maybe 60% or 70%, one
of the main priorities was finding a castle to
shoot the film in and around. The script has
a lot of geography based inside the walls and
grounds of the castle, which is fine when you
read it in the script but when you’ve got to
find locations that have the right scale and
sense of geography, there’s a certain jigsaw
that you have to solve and build your own
sets. So, having Romania as the base canvas
for that and then bringing our period Gothic
horror to it, it allowed for a really nice colour
palette and taking inspiration from a lot of
visuals, photography, paintings and classic
horror. It was a real playground.”
All those glorious classic horror trappings
are catnip to genre fans but they are really
very different to the kinds of chills and
shocks found in Hardy’s The Hallow. That
film was all about mankind encroaching on
nature and the spirits finding a way to fight
back. It’s much more steeped in the world
of del Toro and Studio Ghibli than Hammer
Horror and Mario Bava and uses a very
different set of tools.
Similarly, The Conjuring films come with
an built-in audience and certain expectations
when it comes to the kind of jump scares
that will have you wondering if you made a
mistake having that cup of coffee just before
the film started...
“In some ways I knew I was stepping
into a different ballpark but it has a lot of
similarities as well, it wasn’t like I was doing
a rom-com or something,” laughs Hardy.
“It’s a moody atmospheric world and, in
some ways, there is obviously a sort of fairy
tale aspect to all of these movies, horror
movies come from fairy tales ultimately,
with mythologies and backstories, creeping
shadows. With The Hallow I was going for
something that felt almost naturalistic and
gritty and real and gradually, and subtly
evolves into something where you realise
you were watching a fairy tale. The Nun is
grounded and we didn’t want to do lots of
CG, we wanted to do as much for real as we
could. But then it is also taking place in the
Fifties, so there was an outlet for a more
atmospheric looking film than if it had just
been a family haunting set now.”
Of course, it’s not all about the sets and
the atmosphere. Hardy has assembled an
impressive cast to investigate the dark secrets
of Valak and he tells us that he felt confident
going after the best actors around. “What I
always loved when I saw The Conjuring is
that James brought back a sense of quality to
making a horror movie, both in terms of the
cinematography and the atmosphere but also
the cast,” he explains. “And having people
like Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson in the
films sort of elevates them to another level.
So, I was really pleased that New Line was
very much... that’s their thing, they were like
let’s get the best actors for these roles.”
For the role of Father Burke, the veteran
priest sent out to investigate the death of a
nun, Hardy pursued Demián Bichir, who’s
recently been on something of a hot streak
with roles in The Hateful Eight and Alien:
Covenant. “I was a fan of Demián Bichir from
when he did Che, he played Fidel Castro,”
remembers Hardy. “We were looking for
someone of a certain calibre and age, someone
who could bring a toughness to the role. I
met him and had to convince him because he
hadn’t done a horror movie [before]. Now he’sin The Grudge remake but back then he hadn’t
been in a horror film!” he laughs.
The second key character is that of
novitiate Sister Irene, played by Taissa
Farmiga. Genre fans will know the actress
from her roles on American Horror Story over
the years, and while it’s tempting to assume
some kind of connection to Lorraine Warren
given the Farmiga siblings, Hardy is keen to
stress that this is not the case.
“I looked at hundreds of actresses
internationally, in Europe and the UK and
in America, and Taissa Farmiga was just the
best,” he tells us. “And I was almost reluctant
on the basis that people might think it would
be an easy decision because you’ve seen Vera
in The Conjuring and ‘just get her sister!’
but it really wasn’t. Her audition knocked it
out of the park and I think they both have
something quite unique in their personas
that lends itself really well to this kind of
movie. Almost like they can see somethingHardy was thrilled
about the setting.