First Photo From ‘The Nun’ Emerges

The shared universe aspect of superhero films in recent years has proven to be one of the more rewarding experiences for audiences, with a movie able to plant seeds of information that can be explored in a subsequent sequel. Hitting theaters later this year is The Nun, a film dedicated to a demonic entity that originally appeared in 2016’s The Conjuring 2. Bloody Disgusting has shared the first promo photo from the upcoming film, which you can see below.

“When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate,” the film’s synopsis reads. “Together they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in The Conjuring 2, as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned.”

The priest will be played by Alien: Covenant‘s Demián Bichir and the demonic nun will once again be played by Bonnie Aarons. The film also stars Taissa Farmiga, younger sister of The Conjuring‘s Vera Farmiga, as a fellow nun. Charlotte Hope is slated to play the character Sister Victoria, a nun who is plagued by a demonic presence.

The Conjuring franchise kicked off in 2013 and proved to be a financial and critical success, leading to the spinoff Annabelle. The series continued with the original film’s sequel and last year’s Annabelle: Creation, which took place before the events of the original spinoff. The Conjuring 2 created not only The Nun spinoff, but we will also be seeing The Crooked Man coming to theaters, inspired by another one of the film’s creepy characters.

While each film in the franchise focuses on different paranormal entities plaguing individuals, the new film is said to offer a slightly different approach.

“When [The Conjuring director] James [Wan] and I sat down, and we talked story, we wanted [it] to be a little bit more of a mission-based movie,” screenwriter Gary Dauberman revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “We wanted to give a little bit of an action-adventure flavor to it, rather than just someone moving into a house and something creepy happens.”

He added, “We wanted something very atmospheric, very moody — and setting it in Romania certainly accomplishes that.”

The Nun lands in theaters on September 7th.

Are you looking forward to checking out The Nun? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]