Here’s How A Demon Goat Helped Conjure Up Success For ‘The Nun II’

Can you ever have too much Demon Goat? That’s a question The Nun II‘s director, Michael Chaves, asked and got answered this year.

“I can’t speak for other studios, but with New Line, they only care about the audience, and I’ve always looked at the audience as my boss,” the filmmaker enthused. After testing an early cut of the latest entry in Conjuring Universe franchise, the unholy beast proved to be a crowd-pleasing hit.

“One of the things that tested really well was the Demon Goat. That was something that I think surprised a lot of people. As we were developing the movie, I think even some people at New Line were a little unsure about how much of this monster movie concept would work in a Conjuring film. They are traditionally more supernatural.”

“After we finished filming initially, we went back and shot a whole bunch more of the Demon Goat. The irony is that we tested it with all this extra Demon Goat, and then it was just too much, so we started scaling it back. What you see in the finished movie is more than there was originally, but it’s less than everything we shot.”

The horror sequel proved to be a hit with audiences, and the film grossed $268.05 million at the global box office. The Nun II is Chaves’ third film in the multibillion-dollar Conjuring Universe, a nine-strong film franchise that kicked off a decade ago.

Although the unused footage hasn’t been included as deleted scenes on the home entertainment release, it doesn’t mean we might not see more of the hoofed nemesis in the future. Could a Demon Goat spin-off be on the cards like Valak, aka The Nun, received after being introduced in The Conjuring 2?

“I think anything is possible,” Chaves mused. “Aaron-Jon North, who plays Demon Goat, is this amazing English stuntperson, actor, and athlete. I know he would love it, and AJ totally deserves it. We would have to see, but it definitely worked and resonated with people.”

“When people ask me what the scariest scene was, whenever we’ve tested it and sat with an audience, that moment with the goat is when you can feel the terror in the room.”

The Nun II, which is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and streaming on Max, took in $86.26 million in domestic movie theaters, making it one of the year’s most successful horror movies. It debuted at the top of the box office, giving Chaves an opening weekend he’ll never forget.

“When you are making a movie, it’s hard to get perspective. When you’re making anything creative, you’re putting yourself out there so much that it’s hard to get perspective on what’s working and what’s not,” the director mused. “We did a lot of test screenings before the film’s release, and New Line supported that. They have told me I’m one of a few people who like the process even more than they do. I would still be testing the movie if I could.”

“Opening weekend, I went to the AMC Burbank 16 for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and gave a little intro. What’s crazy is that I grew up in the area and saw some of my favorite movies there. I saw Jurassic Park there with my dad as a kid. It was just such a thrill and humbling to present it to audiences then sit in and see them watch the movie.”

However, there is one thing that Chaves might have done differently, even though the end result was worth the headache – the chilling magazine-flipping street scene that creates the image of Valak. It quickly became clear he might have bitten off more than he could chew.

“Oh my God, every step of the way,” he laughed. “That was one of my first ideas for the movie, and it came from researching and looking at street photography from the time. There were all these European newsstands, and I was like, ‘This is so beautiful. It’s like this relic of the time, and I love all the graphic design,’ so I decided to do this cool flipbook collage manifestation as Valak rises. As I pitched it, pretty much everyone was nodding; some people were skeptical and like, ‘What the hell would that be?’ Then, when we got into it, I was thinking, ‘This is too complicated.'”

“Every page you see needs to be designed, licensed, cleared, and run through legal. It is a massive undertaking. There’s also the practical reality of the rigging that gets them to turn, and at a certain point, it accelerates so much that it had to be taken over with visual effects.”

The moment, one of The Nun II‘s most memorable scenes, was one of the last things to be finished before they locked the edit.

“It was in the nick of time,” Chaves recalled with a sigh of relief. “We only had a couple of days left, and the final shots were coming in. If I knew how hard it was, I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do it. I’m so glad I did, but it was really a beast.”