WILL LOVERS OF THE CONJURING FIND THE NUN EQUALLY TERRIFYING?

The Nun is a pretty powerless horror film with jump-scares here and there, with no real effort to admire and a trashy third act. Horror, Conjuring and demon movie fans will find the film predictable, boring and even stupid on occasion.

A priest with a dark past is sent with a novice preparing for her final vows to investigate the mysterious suicide of a young nun in Romania, only to be confronted by a malevolent force appearing in the form of a demonic nun.

Director: Corin Hardy
Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Demián Bichir, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Ingrid Bisu, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Release Date (Australia): 6 September 2018
Runtime: 96 minutes/1h 36m
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Country: USA
Language: English, Romanian, French, Latin

R (for terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images)

The Nun is a lazily-written and slackly-crafted (horror) movie from the Conjuring Universe that doesn’t know what it is and needs to properly pick its genres. The screenwriters and storytellers need to be given the time to carefully select this film’s, which alone will already be a step in the right direction for self-improvement. It’s just really discouraging to see a horror movie with such potential give up by the third act and become a supernatural satire. The screenwriters actually made an attempt at humour towards the end, but the poor effort leads it to miserable failure.

The main question horror buffs should be asking is if the film scary, unique or does anything truly exciting? Well, unfortunately not. A priest is sent with a young soon-to-be-nun to investigate the mysterious suicide of a young nun in Romania, only to be confronted by a malevolent force that’s meant to appear in the form of a demonic nun. The positive elements strike in the form of plausible performances, a chilling atmosphere and the very dark shots around the location. If you aren’t bored out of your mind during the questionable first act/set-up, you’ll probably have a reasonably good time.

However, this is a horror movie where even the biggest of idiot will see the jump-scares coming from minutes away and audiences will be watching their watches tick as they wait for the credits to begin rolling. Who payed for this movie to witness terrifying sightings of the nun and to find entertainment in the story? It turns out that the actual demonic nun shows up very rarely and sides more towards the label of the ‘looming threat villain’, which would be fine if the filmmakers knew how to unsettle audiences with what’s unseen and implied. The plot is also too simple, with no complex themes or ideas, and it feels like a rushed idea that was pulled out of a hat because they couldn’t think of a decent story to pair the antagonist with.

It’s also a film that feels completely aimless, with no particular goals in mind. For example, there’s an excuse for a nice claustrophobic sequence in which the demonic entity is somehow able to trap a character in a buried coffin under a grave. But each of these gravestones involve little bells for the purpose of people buried alive to let people on the surface know that they’re trapped underground alive. This whole scene just feels like a pointless scare prank pulled by the nun which is somehow supposed to scare us as well. The film is packed with these ridiculous moments, many which eventually lead to nothing. The Nun was an opportunity for these filmmakers to do something really cool and effective, but they let it go to waste.

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