VALAK

 I have lots of issues with modern horror movies, they range from being too goofy to being way too boring (The Witch), very few are worthy of amy interest and one of them is the Conjuring, wich i find way too chessy and inocent. The only Conjuring movie i kinda liked was the second one, mostly for its great monster design in Valak and Crooked Man.

The "Nun" or Valak; the Marquis of Snakes turned out to be a really good monster design simple enough to not be ridiculous and revolting enough to not be boring, mixing the demonic and sacred elements of a demon disguised as a nun in a brillant way. Too bad the character was wasted in a pretty basic and generic movie of his own.

I was susprised when i found a statue based on the character, from Diamond Select; a brand of very questionable quality...but i ended getting it anyway because of the impact this statue had even inside its box. It was expensive!! But it was worth it for sure. He is REALLY BIG...like a Hot Toys figure, this creature is one of the tallest figures i own.

He can stand perfectly, and have no articulations or accesoryes, its an sculpture on all sence of the word. Valac is standing, on a pretty static pose and pointing out with his hand at the front with a menacing face expression. There is nothing more to ask for a character like this, a serious and powerfull pose to give him an aura of danger.

Valac is not static tough thanks to his nun outfit and coif that is sculpted moving around as well as the belt and the long sleves. The other element that gives it movement is the base; a whirlwind of green fire around the creature feet. This fire is not only green to stand out against the black and white character, but is made with transluscent plastic wich makes it shine and is really helpfull to add it a led to give even more impact to the display.

The sculpt is really good but simple, most of the sculpting comes in the rugged texture of the outfit as well as the wrinkles that flow with the subtle movement. The hands are nicelly sculpted in a claw like pose but most of the sculpt is on the face, wich is really fantastic and have all the bizarre face features this character portrai: the long nose, sunken eyes, big jaw and pointy teeth on an almost serious expression since it looks like is about to scream or growl.

I have my doubts about the face expression tough....is not bad, but a screaming face with all the piranha teeths out would have been much more impresive but maybe too unnerving? I am not sure...i wish they added an extra head for display options.

The color is pretty simplistic: non on the base and the entire body is just jet black and pure white. No shadows or shade of any kind, just black and white like a domino piece. The hands and face are different tough, since they come in a grey tone with green almost rotten fingernail and lots of blue veins. The face have black lips with black eye bags aside of the soft and tiny veins covering the skin.

The little yellow rings stand out nicelly from the darkness in the eyes. The figure not only looks really creppy and menacing on any display, but is pretty easy to handle and is very sturdy. I just wish they added an extra face screaming, but aside of that i am impressed by Diamond quality in here.