The Nun (2018) - Review
Originally published April 2019Continuing the tradition of taking a creepy highlight from one of the Conjuring films and building an extensive bit of lore around it to the point of creating a brand new horror franchise "within the same universe," The Nun sets out to do what Annabelle did years ago. Having managed to see every movie in the franchise somehow, one way or another, I think it's safe to say that the Conjuring universe has already peaked (with the first movie) and every other film that has been split off from it has only managed to fumble around in the realm of mediocrity. So then, the question to ask is: where does The Nun land among its respective sibling titles?
I'd say The Nun is somewhere between Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation, which are all below The Conjuring 1 & 2. I think one of the problems is that when the writers of each of these films wanted to create their own spinoffs of the creepy "characters" that were in the Conjuring movies, they managed to perform the cardinal sin of horror movies by explaining too much in the process. Not to mention, they seem to take the wrong inspiration from those films as well. The first Conjuring was a good blend of historical fiction, horror, and mystery, with only a few moments where it outstretched itself for the sake of the drama. The second movie got a bit more carried away with the drama by adding some extra demonic backstory that wasn't necessary and by making Ed and Loraine Warren superheroes fighting evil ghosts and whatnot, instead of just sticking to the creepy stuff around the primary story. Well, in that process they managed to create The Nun, which was a good creepy moment in The Conjuring 2, however, now we have a whole movie based on a small sequence, and the writers decided to take a lot of the extra drama with them.
Image: Warner Bros
Pros
Like every one of these movies, there are specific moments that are creepy and effective
Decent makeup effects
Not overly long
Cons
A little too much suspension of disbelief in most scenarios; how does any of this stuff work?
A lot more physical interaction with the demonic presence than there ever was in other movies like it, making it less of a legitimate psychological horror experience
Plot is needlessly convoluted and more complicated due to the fact that everything the characters see might not be real
A lot of jump scares, with only a few effective ones
Why is this thing a nun and why do we have to see it so much?
Plot & Thoughts
Somewhere in Romania during the 1950s, an old castle, which was converted into an abbey a long time ago, has a slight demonic issue and has caused a bit of a mystery that the Vatican wants to be resolved. A super secret agent of the church, Father Burke (Demián Bichir) is sent to the convent to investigate what happened, along with the help of a young novitiate, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), who has never been to the place, but whom the church believes has special insight into the issue that may help. After meeting their guide, Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), the young man who discovered the body of a nun that sparked this whole mystery, the three set off towards the convent to find out more.
Image: Warner Bros
Once the three get there and the young guide departs their company, The Nun basically becomes a house of horrors with plenty of jump scares, false scares, macabre imagery, and detours to build the mystery and to give a little background to the characters. The problem is that a lot of it is ultimately pointless. The small cast of characters innately makes them too important to be disposable, making the early threats and scares rather impotent. There is a sizeable chunk in the middle that made me consider how the storytelling methods were actively working against the movie.
For example, there's a scene where Burke reveals a personal demon (no pun intended) of his past regarding an exorcism of a young boy that didn't work out well. It immediately comes back to literally haunt him in the very next scene, with the dead boy creeping around a graveyard and sending Burke into a physically compromised position that manages to defy the typical limitations of the extended Conjuring universe. Not to spoil things, but this event is too early in the film for 1 of the 2 most important characters to suddenly die off right after hearing his backstory. Had we had more time to digest his backstory, his sudden death here would have been more excusable. Good on them for not doing so, but unfortunately it still makes the whole experience lack the teeth necessary to make The Nun's bite very threatening.
Image: Warner Bros
Scenes like this pepper the whole movie. There's no real tension or danger because the movie is too concerned about explaining what's happening or using jump scares like a haunted house, to actually be a threat to the characters. There also is no real sense of urgency until the end, and that urgency is somewhat false because it's difficult to tell what is or was real this whole time, or if there was any significance in terms of what the characters encountered. By the end, the movie just has to explain away everything in order for it to make sense and for the climax to even work. That climax, aside from a brief creepy moment involving women with bags on their heads behaving like the nurses in Silent Hill, is mostly overdramatized action, which is the element of the Conjuring films that has become more and more problematic in terms of creating a creepy horror experience.
Climaxes in horror films can be exhilarating and terrifying if done well and if the movie has earned it. However, I argue that it's difficult to earn if you haven't been working towards it the whole time. Found footage films, for example, are horror films that often build towards the climax the whole time, with a lot of subtlety and quiet tension that is accumulating in the background. A fair amount of that experience is spent looking at things in the background that are only visible for a moment and then nothing happens for a long time so you are left wondering. The Nun and other horror films like it are working in the opposite direction by having so many dramatic sequences sprinkled throughout the whole thing that by the time the climax hits, it's not satisfying or scary. The Nun is bloated with big explosive moments and sequences that go on for too long and are not ambiguous enough to be scary. It's more of a dull and slow-action movie with horror elements. Of course, if you go too hard in the other direction in terms of ambiguity, you end up with something like Hereditary which has a great climax but is almost too slow for its own good.
Where The Nun works is simply in its imagery and in its occasional creepy moments. While a majority of the films in this extended Conjuring universe are rather bland or boring, they all at least have one or two really good sequences that are shot well and satisfyingly creepy, brief as they may be. The Nun has a couple of good moments that are shot well using creative camera angles and solid sound editing to make it, at the very least, interesting. While I'd argue you see too much of her in The Nun, I will give kudos to Bonnie Aaron for landing a role that gives her much more recognition for her ability to sneer and snarl in menacing fashion, especially due to the impressive makeup work done to make her that much more malicious-looking.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
If you only really liked the last 20 minutes of the first Conjuring, The Nun may appeal to you. It's a very standard horror experience with a few highlights and a fair amount of mediocrity. As the Conjuring universe continues to expand, a lot of what made the first movie special dissolves as filmmakers are compelled to explain more and more about what is happening for the sake of keeping the franchise alive. There are better, scarier, and more creative horror movies out there, but if you want something completely pointless, The Nun is, at least, watchable.
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