The Nun From The Conjuring 2 Is Unrecognizable In Real Life
Upon its 2013 release, The Conjuring was simply a stand-alone supernatural horror movie based on a true story, and thus untethered to any of the iconic horror properties of decades past. In the years since, the film has spawned its own sort of cinematic universe, including both direct spin-offs focused on some of its more iconic monsters.
In The Conjuring 2, released in 2016, the investigators from the first film, played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, return to investigate a suspected possession in a borough of London. During their investigation, they find out that the evil spirit responsible for the possession is not acting alone but working at the behest of a demonic nun.
Despite the nun's importance to the story, her total on-screen presence is minimal due to her role as a shadowy figure behind the film's supernatural events. That changed when The Nun was released in 2018. It tells an origin story of sorts for the demonic nun featured in The Conjuring 2, continuing the tradition of films in the Conjuring cinematic universe providing new context for some of its baddies.
Since in The Conjuring 2 the nun is demonic in appearance, her human features were obscured entirely behind a monstrous visage. Behind all the makeup was actor Bonnie Aarons, whose human face is virtually unrecognizable as that of The Conjuring's evil nun.
Bonnie Aarons is an experienced movie monster actress
Due to a filmography in which she has played a few different monstrous creatures, it's entirely possible to have seen Bonnie Aarons in multiple films without ever seeing her face. The list of projects featuring Aarons as a supernatural creature of some sort also includes the short The Closet and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.
In Mulholland Drive, Aarons portrayed a character credited simply as "The Bum." The character is arguably insignificant to the film's story, but nevertheless acts as the focal point of one of the film's most iconic scenes. Some fans consider that scene to be one of the scariest in film history. In 2014, Aarons described the role as her absolute favorite from her career, per Vulture.
That said, Aarons' filmography likewise includes a number of wholly human roles in movies with no such paranormal elements. Those include The Princess Diaries, Shallow Hal, and The Fighter. Among Aarons' projects currently in the works is The Nun 2, in which she'll return to portraying the iconic demonic nun once again.