By Melissa Antoinette Garza
THE NUN (2018) was one of the few new horror films that I was looking forward to seeing. I loved THE CONJURING (2013) and its sequel (2016). I was satisfied with ANNABELLE (2014), but admittedly hated ANNABELLE CREATION (2017). When I saw the trailer for THE NUN, it appeared the series was back on track and ready to deliver scares again. Sadly, I was wrong.
First, let me address the good. Stylistically, this movie is sensational. If you saw it in a movie theater, I understand if you enjoyed it. The visuals are amazing. With the exception of some bad CGI snakes, everything is beautiful to look at. The setting and the dressings made this film watchable. Whether it was the distinct colors used, the accouterments that were scattered or the old school graveyard sequences, the techniques used were effective and done very well. If only it had an interesting story
The movie begins with two nuns going deep into a convent and getting attacked by the demonic nun. One dies and the other hangs themselves. Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) are sent to investigate.
When they arrive, they encounter Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) an errand boy to the nuns. He brings them to the convent where he is attacked by the evil demon. He survives the ordeal.
The next day, Irene meets with the nuns to try to figure out what’s going on. She’s given a history lesson and learns that the church was first fucked by its own builder during the middle ages. The Duke (Mark Steger) summoned a demon named Valak and it rose from under the ground cracking thru the floor of what was then just a castle.
The Duke is killed by the Knights Templar and the Knights use Jesus’s blood to push the demon back to hell. Things are cool until WWII, where explosives unseal the bond made by the blood and Valak is released again. Now, Valak is the demon that is terrorizing everyone.
The end does a tie in with the original THE CONJURING which was kind of cool thought shoehorned in. The acting is decent, but none of the characters have anything to work with. Birchir delivers his lines well, but the dialogue needs work. Irene is so passive and untarnished that she’s boring. She’s should have been the protagonist and definitely has the most screen time, yet lacks any charisma. I love nunsploitation movies, but this was just a horror flick about a demon that had a nun in it.
Another issue is the pace. It’s so strange because if one were to take certain scenes from this movie and change the music and slow it down, it could be horrifying. Instead, it tried to modernize the scares by going too fast, but keeping with a 70s tone of something like THE OMEN (1976). The contrasting components together failed to connect and the result was a hollow mess of cool things to look at.
If you’re looking for a modern nun flick to check out, I’d suggest LUCIFERINA (2018) over this one every day of the week. It was such a letdown and I really wanted to enjoy it. It was a missed opportunity to have a female led horror production. Rather than running with it and making a tough-as-nails nun, they instead forced the nuns to rely on the priest and handyman. In a movie that has a title referring to a woman, it would have been nice for it to have a more empowering female character. None of the ladies could take care of themselves. I love a damsel-in-distress, but not every woman should be one.
Also, it doesn’t do much with the religion aspect of it. The backstory is there and they delve into a bit of mythology, but nothing is built on. Instead, this all seems like a ploy to get a sequel so they can explain what they should have in this one.
If you’re looking for something watchable, you can get thru this. That said, get it out of REDBOX. Don’t spend the $5.99 that I was suckered into spending on this. It’s not worth it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10
