James Wan’s The Conjuring was a huge hit, bringing forth The Conjuring 2 and spin-off Annabelle — as well as spin-off sequel Annabelle: Creation (due in August) and Conjuring 2 spin-off The Nun (due in 2018). And now, yet another movie inspired by the series is on the way.
The Conjuring 2. Photo: Warner Bros
Can you guess what it is? If you’ve seen The Conjuring 2, you certainly can. With the film’s most memorable villain — demonic nun Valak — already getting her own origin story, and haunted toys a proven commodity thanks to Annabelle, it has to be the lanky creep who emerges from an eerie wind-up music box to add secondary terror to the storyline: The Crooked Man.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, we more or less only know the title and the writer, Mike Van Waes (the same guy who wrote a horror movie set in the world of The Wizard of Oz), who’ll craft the script for producer Wan. So far, there’s no word on who will direct, when or where the film might be set, and whether or not any familiar faces from the Conjuring series will factor into the story.
As THR points out, the Crooked Man is actually an old nursery-rhyme character (“There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile…”), though his appearance in The Conjuring 2 has no doubt helped raised his pop culture profile. Eagle-eyed horror fans will recall that another film entitled The Crooked Man, not affiliated with but no doubt inspired by the Conjure-verse, was already out On Demand earlier this year. Wan is just a little busy these days — what with directing Aquaman and producing the next entries in his other horror series, Saw and Insidious — but you can’t help but wonder when plans for a rumoured Conjuring 3 will be formally announced. How else will this ever-growing spooky cinematic universe keep spawning spin-offs and sequels?