UPDATE: The trailer for The Nun is now online!

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The Nun poster and first look image tease the "darkest chapter" in The Conjuring movie franchise yet, ahead of the film's trailer release tomorrow. Warner Bros. is finally getting marketing fully underway for the latest Conjuring spinoff this week, less than three months ahead of its release in theaters. To be fair though, The Conjuring brand is a pretty easy sell nowadays. All the studio needs to do is let people know that the demonic nun from The Conjuring 2 is getting their own movie, and most everybody should know right away if they're interested or not.

In addition to being the franchise's first non-Annabelle spinoff, The Nun is based on a story that The Conjuring 1 & 2 director James Wan cowrote with Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation writer Gary Dauberman. Wan has expressed his desire for these spinoffs to each have their own distinct flavor, which is why The Nun is going for a gothic Hammer Horror vibe with its setting and atmosphere. The Nun director Corin Hardy has now echoed that sentiment with his own thoughts on the film.

When interviewed by Empire, Hardy described The Nun as a callback to "really classic, old-school, scarlet-blooded horror films", with its 1950s backdrop and Romanian church setting. The film is a "character-driven mystery" (as Hardy puts it) that follows exorcist Father Burke (Demián Bichir) as he investigates a nun's mysterious suicide at a covenant in Romania. American Horror Story veteran Taissa Farmiga, who's also the younger sister of The Conjuring's Vera Farmiga, costars as Burke's assistant, Sister Irene. You can get your first look at the latter in the image below, which is followed by the movie's first poster.

Hardy, who only just stepped down as director on The Crow reboot, previously called the shots on the acclaimed low-budget indie horror film The Hallow. He's in the same position that David F. Sandberg was when he directed Annabelle: Creation, in the sense that his Conjuring spinoff will test his skills at the helm of a franchise movie for the first time. Wan and Sandberg have both gone on to make DC superhero movies since their days playing in The Conjuring sandbox (namely, Aquaman and Shazam!), so it will be interesting to see where Hardy goes next, should The Nun prove to be a success.

WB will release The Nun in theaters at the beginning of September, almost exactly one year after the studio's IT arrived on the scene and broke just about every horror movie box office record there is. Obviously, the studio isn't expecting The Nun to be anywhere near as lucrative, but its release date suggests WB does indeed have high hopes for Hardy's movie. It's been a pretty strong year for the horror genre already thanks to A Quiet Place and Hereditary, so here's to hoping The Nun follows in their footsteps.

MORE: IT Chapter 2 Casts the Final Adult Loser

Source: Empire

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