Movie Review: “The Nun” (R)
After the success of the horror hit that was “The Conjuring,” James Wan had the intriguing notion that perhaps his own version of a shared universe was a concept worth exploring. After all, if it’s good enough for superheros, it’s good enough for evil spirits, right? So following “The Conjuring,” audiences would eventually see a couple of “Annabelle” spinoffs and a “Conjuring” sequel — and now we’re being treated (or mistreated, depending on your particular point of view) to “The Nun,” an origin story of sorts that brings us face to face with a malevolent spirit that was first introduced in “The Conjuring 2.”
“The Nun” opens in the early ’50s and finds Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate on the verge of taking her final vows, accompanying veteran man of the cloth Father Burke (Demian Bichir) on a trip to a cloistered abbey in the heart of the Romanian countryside where they have been sent to investigate the horrific death of a young nun. Eventually, Irene and Burke discover that things are far from normal at this particular abbey. As it turns out, an evil force lurks on these sacred grounds, and only a novice with a special gift and a man with a haunted past can potentially put a stop to it.
Sometimes a supporting character is best left a supporting character, and this is certainly the case with the evil spirit that is Valak (aka The Nun.) The truth is that this entity was much scarier in its introductory film, because it proved to be more effective in smaller doses. In “The Conjuring 2,” this supernatural presence was lurking around the corner, masked by the darkness. But here, The Nun is front and center, and in the end, the idea of this evil force is considerably more terrifying than the force itself.
“The Nun” was directed by Corin Hardy (“The Hallow”) and while this storyteller gets a lot of mileage out of his goth locales and stunning Romania, countryside backdrop, he’s ultimately let down by a script with very little meat.
Furthermore, “The Nun” can’t rise up to its rather hefty aspirations. A lot of the film is clearly influenced by “The Exorcist,” but it’s often done in by a severe lack of character, boring jump scares, and dull CGI effects.
Not that “The Nun” doesn’t offer up a few spirited moments, mind you. A scene in which one character is buried alive and another in which a man is pursued by something evil in the woods crackle with a sense of dark and morbid fun. Likewise, a sequence involving bells in a graveyard brings to mind that effective clapping gag in “The Conjuring.” As a whole, though, “The Nun” is disappointing and uninspired.
Even talented performers like Farmiga (so good in underappreciated meta slasher parody “The Final Girls”) and Bichir (terrific in “The Hateful Eight”) are unable to truly elevate the proceedings, because the routine script rarely gives them that opportunity. Speaking of Farmiga, it’s interesting to note that Taissa is the sister of Vera, who stars as Elaine Warren in “The Conjuring.”
Spoiler alert
You’d think the makers of this film would have more fun with that connection, but they don’t. In other words, if you’re one of the countless “Conjuring” fans (myself included) who thought that perhaps Sister Irene might be a young Elaine Warren, you’d be wrong. That fan theory has been debunked by the filmmakers.
“The Nun” is far from bad. Again, it has a few effective moments, and it’s certainly a more worthy viewing experience then the first “Annabelle.” But for the most part, this film is of the been-there-done-that variety, and it doesn’t really do anything substantial to elevate the Nun mythology. Here’s hoping that a proposed “The Crooked Man” spinoff has something more creative up its sleeve, because in the end, “The Nun” is plagued by a little too much nunsense.
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