New Line Cinema did not come to San Diego Comic-Con to play. They came to scare the pants off of you.

Armed with plenty of first-look clips, “The Conjuring” universe mastermind James Wan and even walls lined with actual faceless nuns, the studio’s ScareDiego event wowed the horror film fans that assembled at the Horton Grand Theatre on Wednesday night.

Highlighted was New Line’s upcoming horror slate, including “It: Chapter Two,” “The Curse of La Llorona,” and “The Nun.”

The biggest surprise, however, was saved for the end, when “Annabelle” and “It” screenwriter Gary Dauberman announced a third “Annabelle” movie is on the way. And this time he’s also directing.


FULL COVERAGE: San Diego Comic-Con 2018 »

Wan described the film as “basically ‘A Night at the Museum’ with Annabelle.” In this third installment, as he and Dauberman explained, the Warrens take the possessed doll home to store in an artifact room where she isn’t supposed to be able to do any harm. Except she activates all the other haunted artifacts in the room instead.

The new “Annabelle” movie is slated for release next summer.

Another star of the presentation was “The Curse of La Llorona,” scheduled for an April 19, 2019 release.


“La Llorona” is based on the folk story of a woman named Maria who, after finding her husband in the arms of a younger woman, drowned her two young sons in a fit of jealous madness. The weeping woman, la llorona in Spanish, is cursed to roam the Earth looking for other children to snatch away and call her own. It’s a story told to kids (usually by their abuelas, according to director Michael Chaves) in order to frighten them into behaving.

Cast members members Patricia Velasquez and Raymond Cruz shared that they grew up scared about La Llorona and were thrilled that people outside of the Latinx community will now be just as scared by her existence.

Set in the 1970s, “La Llorona” stars Linda Cardellini as a social worker whose children become the target of the titular ghost, who starts to wreak havoc in her home.

The cast and director shared three first-look clips from the movie and they definitely did not skimp on the terror. Clad in a white dress with a veil covering her ghostly face, La Llorona will soon be a part of everyone’s nightmares.


Absent physically from the presentation was “It” director Andrés Muschietti, who is busy shooting “Chapter Two.” But he sent along a behind-the-scenes video that gave a first look at the Losers Club all grown up.

“The Nun’s” Ingrid Bisu, left, Taissa Farmiga, director Corin Hardy, screenwriter Gary Dauberman and “The Conjuring” universe mastermind James Wan at the “ScareDiego” event at San Diego Comic-Con. (Tracy Brown / Los Angeles Times)

The evening full of scary women was not complete without some creepy faceless nuns.

“The Nun” director Corin Hardy and actresses Taissa Farmiga and Ingrid Bisu were joined by Wan and Dauberman on stage to discuss some frightening experiences from filming the movie in Romania.


The movie, due out Sept. 7, tells the origin story of the demon nun from “The Conjuring 2” and takes place in a Romanian convent where a nun has recently committed suicide.

And if the footage they showed wasn’t scary enough, when the lights went up faceless nuns lined the walls, chanting (hopefully) to keep the mysterious spirits at bay.