The Nun is a 2018 horror film where a priest with a haunted past and a novice on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.
The latest scary movie spin-off from The Conjuring series has arrived with this weekend’s The Nun. This movie offers some more background into the evil nun character, Valak, that was behind all of the hauntings that the Warren family battled in The Conjuring 2. While I went into this movie with the hope of a simple fright-fest, where The Nun fails is in finding its style. A scary movie should either be a simple concept and have you jumping out of your seat every few minutes, or a smart film with a creative plot that mixes in a few good scares throughout. Because The Nun didn’t commit to either of these ideals and found itself in the middle, it leaves you feeling unsatisfied as you exit the theater.
The movie begins at an abbey in Romania where two nuns are attempting to find a relic to banish an evil spirit. Their plan is foiled as one of the nuns is attacked and killed by the spirit, leading the other nun to hang herself out a nearby window. Following the suicide, the Vatican sends a priest of theirs who specializes in miracle investigation, Father Burke (Demian Bichir), to look into what happened. They also order him to bring along a young nun who has yet to take her vows, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga). Upon arriving in Romania, Father Burke and Sister Irene meet up with a local farmer, Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), who had discovered the young nun and also agrees to show them the way to the abbey.
Upon arriving to the abbey Father Burke begins being haunted by a young boy from his past who was killed during an exorcism, and Sister Irene starts having visions of the evil nun that is haunting the abbey. Father Burke also discovers that the evil nun is a spirit that had initially been summoned during The Crusades by an evil duke. However, Crusaders were able to trap the spirit using a vial containing the blood of Christ. Years later, bombings during a World War break the seal and release the spirit back into the abbey. It is now up to Father Burke and Sister Irene to figure out how to banish the spirit before it can escape the abbey and unleash its hellish evil.
The Nun was a movie full of half measures. It would introduce a piece to the plot, but never commit to developing it. For instance, at the beginning we see Father Burke having a confrontation with a bishop at the Vatican, but we never get a full explanation of their issue with one another. Later, we see a brief clip of his exorcism gone wrong, and now all of a sudden he has a dark, haunted past. We learn that Sister Irene has visions, but it doesn’t turn into a major plot point. Then, director Corin Hardy forced the backstory on us about an evil duke unleashing a demon from hell, who is stopped by Crusaders, but later pops up after the abbey is bombed. It felt like a very unoriginal plot that could’ve used more creativity and depth. Any of these things could’ve been developed deeper to either build stronger backstory or be used as a foreshadowing vessel, but they all wound up feeling wasted.
A stronger plot would’ve been great, but to be honest all I was hoping for was a simple scary movie that loaded up on jump scares. Unfortunately, we don’t quite get that either. Sure, there are undoubtedly a few moments throughout when I was uneasy in my seat and then something popped out and made me jump, but it didn’t happen nearly enough. More than one time the movie builds suspense rather well, only to have the climactic scary moment feel lame or laughable. The one thing I will say is that the movie ends with a nice tie-in to the first Conjuring film, and gives you an “a-ha” moment right before the credits roll.
The nun was probably the scariest part of The Conjuring 2 in my opinion. The part where Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) is following the nun around her house until she gets locked in the room with the creepy painting was masterful. So, naturally, Hollywood had to capitalize on that aspect and monopolize it the same way they did with Annabelle. Similar to Annabelle, we’re left with an unmemorable movie that was lazily churned out to make money. The Nun is, unfortunately, not one of the sleeper horror hits of 2018.