Fall movie season officially got underway last weekend with the release of the horror thriller “The Nun,” which debuted with a smashing $54 million take at the domestic box office and $77.5 million overseas for a worldwide total of more than $131 million, a particularly impressive number for an R-rated film.
Those who caught the film likely were delighted to find that in addition to the film’s unnerving displays of tension, horror and gore, are scenes in “The Nun” that were broken up with comic relief — something that screenwriter Gary Dauberman feels is essential to give moviegoers the complete package.
“I’ve been banging that drum for a while that you need comic relief. If you can have those moments of levity, it makes the scary parts even scarier, and the funny parts even funnier because you have a contrast,” Dauberman said in phone conversation Friday from Los Angeles. “If you go too far in one direction and just stay there, you run the risk of it flatlining. So, if you can throw humor in there you have to do it. That’s why I love horror because you can get away with that stuff. You’re not switching genres, but you get to play around with different things — and other genres you don’t necessarily have the license to do that.”
Interview flashback: Patrick Wilson talks ‘The Conjuring’
“The Nun” is the fifth movie in what has come to be known as The Conjuring Universe, where all the films — “The Conjuring” and its sequel, “Annabelle” and its prequel “Annabelle: Creation,” and now, “The Nun” — have been tied together thanks to some indelible supporting characters who have taken on lives of their own. It began with Annabelle, the creepy, demonically-possessed doll introduced in the opening scene of “The Conjuring” that got a solo movie and was further explored with the prequel “Annabelle: Creation”; and in the interim, the character of Valak — evil which takes the form of a nun — made her unnerving debut in “The Conjuring 2.”
Dauberman, the scribe who co-wrote the 2017 blockbuster “IT,” is a key contributor to The Conjuring Universe, having written the screenplays to both “Annabelle” movies. He also wrote the screenplay and is an executive producer on “The Nun,” based on a story he co-wrote with The Conjuring Universe architect James Wan, who wrote and directed both “Conjuring” movies.
“What I like about being in the Universe, and James says it is accidental and it really is, is that it’s happening organically,” Dauberman said. “If we feel there’s a movie that’s a supporting character that established in another movie, we go after that. But I don’t think we go into any of these movies, saying, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can find something we can spinoff into another movie.’ I like that it’s unfolding organically and at a pace where we are allowed to dig in and come up with some cool stuff. I also think one of the reasons why The Conjuring Universe has had the success that it’s had is because we’re just really genuine fans of it ourselves. We’re very protective of it.”
Directed by Corin Hardy, “The Nun” stars Demian Bichir as Father Burke, a priest dispatched by the Vatican in 1952 to investigate the suicide of a nun in a remote abbey in the hills of Romania.
Accompanied by a novitiate, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), Burke and the young nun in training soon encounter the demonic spirit Valak, who appears in the physical world as a ghoulish nun (Bonnie Aarons), and learn of the gateway from hell from which the evil entity emerged.
“The Nun” has everything horror fans love about the genre, a distinctive villain, moments of piercing tension followed by jump scares, gore used in a judicious and not gratuitous manner, and of course, the welcome element of humor. On top of that, the film has a sense of dread bubbling just under the surface to keep its audience members ill at ease thanks to its foreboding atmosphere (with great shots of fog rolling in a graveyard, etc.) and a Gothic setting reminiscent of the great Hammer Horror films of the 1960s and ’70s.
“I think approaching the corner is far scarier than turning the corner and seeing what lurks there and shining a spot on the monster. I think knowing something’s under the bed but not seeing it is far scarier. It’s theater of the mind sort-of thing that you can play around with,” Dauberman said. “I give all the credit in the world to Corin Hardy, as well as Maxime Alexandre, the director of photography, who did a fantastic job just painting these beautiful pictures like the fog in the graveyard, and Jen Spence, who continues to knock it out of the park with her production design. It was really just a great team who we worked with before that we’re comfortable with an have a shorthand together.”
While Dauberman is no doubt celebrating the big opening weekend of “The Nun,” he can’t leave the champagne uncorked for too long.
He is also the sole screenwriter on “IT: Chapter 2,” which is currently in production and slated for a September 2019 release, and is taking on dual duties of writer and director of the next, yet-to-be-titled “Annabelle” film, which goes into production in October just as “IT: Chapter 2” wraps shooting.
Until then, Dauberman said he’ll be remaining in the company of a pair of unforgettable props from The Conjuring Universe, dreaming of how to frighten people next.
“I’m sitting in the offices of ‘Annabelle 3’ right now and I have Annabelle the doll sitting across from me, and I have a painting of ‘The Nun’ hanging on the wall to help inspire me as I help craft the scares for the next one,” Dauberman enthused.
Thankfully, when Dauberman leaves for the night, he leaves his scary plaything and painting behind; but that’s not to say his creative mind doesn’t play tricks on him.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that when I come back in the morning, I go, ‘Is everything in the right place? Did anything move?'” Dauberman quipped. “It’s the equivalent of checking under the bed at night.”
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