12 spooky facts from the scary new flick The Nun including a supernatural encounter

Cape Town - The Nun is the newest – and darkest – chapter in the Conjuring Universe of films and precedes the events of the previous films: Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle, The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2.

The spooky film hits South Africa cinemas on Friday, 7 September. 

Here are some spooky facts from the set and production of the flick you might now have known. 

12 SPOOKY FACTS:

1. The Nun was filmed entirely in Romania. 

2. The production was blessed by an Eastern Orthodox priest, Father Cosmin, at Castle Corvin.

3. Goats and sheep were frequent visitors to the set. On the day the priest blessed the production, crew members were prevented from getting to the set until a heard of goats passed by. On another day, near Mogo?oaia, a herd of sheep stopped traffic on the way to the set.

4. On location in Transylvania, cast and crew members frequently came across horse drawn carts.

5. Makeup department head Eleanor Sabaduquia, along with James Wan, created the look of the demon Valak / Nun. The makeup is hand painted – using a simple, single prosthetic appliance to cover the eye brows – so no two applications were identical.

6. The production used some props – including a group photo of some nuns, and a cross – from Annabelle: Creation.  

WATCH THE TEASER TRAILER HERE:

7. The production used so much black fabric for nuns’ habits that the factory in Romania from which the fabric was sourced ran out of material.

8. Director Corin Hardy kept a sketchbook throughout pre-production and production, in which he drew many of the characters, scenes, tonal references and storyboards.

9. Hardy discovered a mysterious “handprint” in the dust on one of the sets at Corvin Castle.

10. While filming a particularly atmospheric scene in an old Romanic fortress in Mogo?oaia, Hardy had a supernatural encounter with what he believes was a pair of ghosts of Romanian soldiers, whom Hardy believed were curious about the filming. 

11. Two stray animals – a dog named Mina and a cat, Pookie – were adopted by crew members and brought back to the United States from Romania during production.

12. During a night shoot at Castle Corvin in Hunedoara, a bat flew into one of the tents where Bonnie Aarons, dressed as the titular demon nun, was resting. The bat was dazed – who wouldn’t be after a close encounter with “The Nun”? – but it was rescued by a visual effects artist and was released outside the tent.