While creative liberties are absolutely taken, both 2013's The Conjuring and its 2016 sequel are based on actual, real world cases by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. As for the latest Conjuring spinoff, The Nun, while it is largely an original story, there are historical inspirations behind the horror prequel as well as heavy influences for the filmmakers from some surprising pop culture sources including video games.

First seen as the principal antagonist of The Conjuring 2, the demon Valak takes on the form of a sinister nun and torments Lorraine Warren throughout the sequel with visions of her husband's death while blocking the demon hunter's abilities to identify it preventing its exorcism while Ed Warren compulsively paints portraits of the unholy figure. Eventually, the couple learns Valak is behind a separate case they're investigating in the suburbs of London before Lorraine finds the demon's name written in a Bible and banishes it back to Hell to save her husband.

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Valak, known canonically as Valac, actually has an extensive mythological history of its own. Traditionally depicted as a cherub riding a two-head dragon, Valac is a President, one of the lesser ranks among demons presiding over hidden treasures and having dominion over serpents. The demon is mentioned in several occult grimoires from the Middles Ages including Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum from 1577 and The Lesser Key of Solomon which compiles several pre-existing texts on demonology dating as far back as 1236. Valac is listed among the various lords of Hell where he is described as being in command of dozens of legions of spirits with the exact number varying between the different texts. More recent translations of the occult text note that Valac's nemesis is the angel Iahhel.

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Filmmaker James Wan's inspiration for including a version of Valac into The Conjuring 2 came from conversations with Lorraine Warren revealing she had been haunted by a demonic entity in her home. For years, Warren would dream of a veiled demon menacing her husband, described by the real-world demonologist as a hooded figure in a swirling vortex. Even years after her husband's death, Warren claims to be still tormented by the demon, unable to exorcise the malevolent spirit from her life.

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Wary of including a CGI-rendered character in the film, Wan instead decided that a demon personally threatening Lorraine would appear as a twisted perversion of her faith and decided to have Valak take on the form of a demonic nun instead of how Warren described her literal personal demon. The redesigned character was then added to the final film in reshoots.

"From talking to Lorraine in passing, she mentioned a spectral entity that has haunted her in her house. And it’s this swirling tornado vortex with this hooded figure in there, and I remember hearing that and my first thought was, ‘Oh crap, that’s going to be a CGI character.’ I didn’t want to do that.," explained Wan in an interview with io9. "Because it is a demonic vision that haunts her, that only attacks her, I wanted something that would attack her faith."

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As for the setting of the spinoff prequel, Cârța Monastery, the Romanian monastery is indeed a real place and has an alleged haunted history of its own. Reputed to be the oldest monastery in all of Eastern Europe, the Transylvanian abbey was built in 1206 in the shape of a cross. Over the subsequent centuries and given its proximity to several bloody battles including a Mongol invasion in 1241 and the hellish Eastern Front of the First World War, the monastery has gained its own supernatural reputation for being haunted by the various ghosts including spirits of monks long-deceased with furniture throughout the abbey moving on their own and the walls vibrating with a paranormal energy.

Finally, The Nun draws from a whole host of pop culture influences in both the story and visual aesthetic for the film both from other movies and, somewhat surprisingly, from one longrunning video game franchise. Co-writer Gary Dauberman, who also serves as an executive producer on the film, revealed that Gothic atmosphere pervading through the film was inspired by the classic Hammer Horror films of the 1950s and 1960s that brought Dracula and Frankenstein into starling full-color after years of both horror icons being confined to black-and-white adaptations.

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"Castlevania sort of comes to mind, it’s one of my favorites, I know James [Wan] loves that too, so we talked a lot about that," revealed Dauberman in an interview with Bloody Disgusting citing the vampire-hunting video game series as well as 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark as major influences behind the film's increased focus on holy artifacts and ancient structures as opposed to previous entries which leaned heavily on the haunted house motif.

For Wan, who produced and co-wrote the spinoff, the 1986 historical mystery film The Name of the Rose was a particularly strong inspiration in crafting the prequel's story. The film, based on Umberto Eco's novel of the same name, starred Sean Connery as a Franciscan friar that travels to an Italian abbey with his young apprentice (Christian Slater) in 1327 to investigate the mysterious death of monk whom the Church fears may be demonic in nature. Given that The Nun stars Demián Bichir as a priest sent with novitiate played by Taissa Farmiga to investigate a mysterious suicide at the Romanian monastery, the parallels between the two films are easy to spot.

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From actual occult text and real-life hauntings to Romanian folklore and numerous atmospheric films, The Nun has plenty of actual history behind it. While the prequel's story itself is not based on any one actual true life event, it weaves from a variety of influences to craft its own, original horror tale both as a standalone film and as part of the ever-expanding Conjuring cinematic universe.

Directed by Corin Hardy, The Nun stars Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga and Jonas Bloquet. It is scheduled to open in theaters everywhere on September 7.