The Big Picture
September 8th marked the return of Valak (Bonnie Aarons) with The Nun II, which is also the latest addition to the Conjuring universe. The film, which takes place four years after the events of The Nun, once again enlists Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to face off against the terrifying Valak. This time we’re in France, where a priest has just been found brutally murdered. While investigating the murder, Sister Irene discovers that Valak is behind the horrors and is using Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) from the first Nun flick as a vessel. Alongside Sister Irene’s investigation, we also spend some time in a boarding school, at which Frenchie is a handyman, and the horrors begin to take place there as well. This is where the really scary stuff begins. Believe it or not, as frightening as Valak may be, there is actually another character who proved even more terrifying
‘The Nun II’s Chapel Scene Foreshadows the Demon Goat
Early in the film, Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey), one of the young girls at the boarding school, is picked on by some of her classmates. They bring her to the abandoned chapel in the school, sneaking in through a flimsily locked door, and order her to stand in front of a stained-glass window. On the window is a pretty mosaic with a goat front and center, and the girls tell Sophie that when the goat’s eyes glow red it means the devil is watching her, and if she leaves while it’s watching it’ll come to life and haunt her. One would think this is simply a mean prank, but this is a Conjuring universe film, so really anything goes, and the tension is thick. Sure enough, the sun hits just right and the goat’s eyes begin to glow red, as the girls sneak off, leaving Sophie scared and alone in the chapel.
This later plays a prominent part when Sister Irene and Sister Debra (Storm Reid) are looking for the eyes of Saint Lucy, Sister Debra shines a light through the mosaic and the goat’s eyes once again light up — showing the exact spot where the eyes are hidden. But when they look at the mosaic again, the goat has suddenly disappeared, sounding alarm bells for Sophie.
‘The Nun II’s Demon Goat Is Absolutely Petrifying
After finding Saint Lucy’s eyes and the goat disappearing from the mosaic, it’s gotta be only a matter of time until the thing shows up. I mean, why else would it be such a big focus? And show up it does! In perhaps the most frightening scene of the film, we’re brought to one of the bedrooms, where Sophie’s tormentors from earlier are awoken by the sound of thumping above them. One of the girls gets out of bed to check what’s going on and is frightened by Sister Debra. She tells her that she thinks someone is upstairs, and when Sister Debra looks up, she sees the culprit: The goat. Only it’s seemingly human-like as well, making the children’s claims of it being the devil feel all the more believable.
Sister Debra bolts up the stairs as the goat makes its way down, intent on coming for the child, and it’s an incredibly tense moment — either one could make it there first. Sister Debra makes it first, but the goat is in hot pursuit and looking positively terrifying as it races down those stairs. It’s nothing like the other famous horror goat, Black Phillip of The VVitch — this devil goat is gross-looking, long-limbed, and petrifying, and he feels much more dangerous as well. Sister Debra and the children manage to escape the goat and hide inside a room, staying as quiet as mice so as not to alert the goat of their presence and lead it to them. But after a rather successful jump scare of the deceased headmistress, the group is on the run once more. As one of the girls helps hold the door closed, she’s suddenly stabbed through the shoulder by the goat’s horn. It’s absolutely brutal… seriously, this thing is terrifying!
The Demon Goat Outshines Valak in ‘The Nun II’
The scenes with the goat may be rather brief in the long run, and done with primarily shaky camera work and dark lighting, but it’s still the most frightening part of the film by far. Valak is scary, sure, but there’s something about this goat that is so unsettling and freaky. Perhaps it’s because you’re not expecting it. Yes there’s the “game” the kids play but in the moment it just feels like a convenient way to have Sophie encounter Valak for the first time. When the goat actually does show up, you’re led to think that whatever is stomping around above the girls’ room is Sister Irene or perhaps Valak being a menace. There’s no anticipating this demon goat sprinting down out of nowhere in hot pursuit of an innocent kid. And it doesn’t look great in the moment for Sister Debra either. It’s all so tense, and really gets the blood pumping. And though Valak does have some seriously great scares, as usual, I genuinely believe her presence was sort of veiled by the demon goat and I found myself craving much more of that storyline.
Perhaps the demon goat is something that will be explored in a future Conjuring film; it clearly has some deep roots, and we never figured out how the girls’ knew of this game with the goat. We’re already so deep into the lore of the Conjuring movies, why not add a demon goat spin-off into the mix? It’s hard to place a finger on just what made the goat scenes so frightening; after all, goats aren’t often used to scare people. Perhaps it was the unexpectedness, after all, we were all just seated for Valak. Maybe it was the design or the way all of its scenes were done. Heck, maybe it was just that it provided a pretty solid jump scare and subsequent chase sequence. Whatever the reason may be, it’s easily one of the scariest horror movie moments of the year.
