Within the course of a week some six years ago, aspiring genre filmmaker Michael Chaves’ life changed forever.
Bloody Disgusting had posted his haunted house horror short The Maiden, which stylistically in its sneaky shots, steely hues and earth tones is oh-so-close to the gist of The Conjuring franchise. Off of that, Chaves, a Pasadena Art School & Design alum (which includes Michael Bay and Zack Snyder) gets a meeting and is signed by James Wan and David Sandberg’s CAA rep, Scott Henderson, a guru in the genre space. Chaves then winds up in front of New Line execs Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter pitching himself for the directing gig of The Curse of La Llorona. Wan was wowed over by The Maiden, too.
Chaves’ oversee of The Curse of La Llorona goes so well, the movie turns a net profit near $46M off its $9M production cost and $123M global grossing box office. Chaves is invited back by the New Line house of horror he grew up with to helm The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and now The Nun II which is set for a $30M-plus opening in the post Labor Day space next weekend.
Chaves chats with Deadline’s Crew Call about building out The Nun franchise, how the Catholic villain stands alone from all others, and some of the riveting visuals you can look forward to in the sequel.
Tessa Farmiga returns as Sister Irene, a young nun whose not afraid to go toe-to-toe with a notorious Mother Superior who has the power to possess others, and spread evil like Covid — in France. Jonas Bloquet is also back as the blue collar Maurice, a guy who when was last saw him in The Nun, had a hex on his neck.
Chaves explains it all right here:
Also, watch Chaves’ short The Maiden below:
THE MAIDEN – short horror film from Michael Chaves on Vimeo.