The Nun Review - (Non-Spoiler)
"The Nun” is the newest spinoff to The Conjuring universe following the Annabelle films. This is actually based around the demon that briefly appeared in “The Conjuring 2” that originally wasn't actually going to be in the film but was later added via reshoots and ended up being one of the most iconic characters in the entire film. I was actually looking forward to seeing this film because not only do I like the Conjuring universe and I’m a massive horror fan. But because this summer was kind of disappointing when it came to movies. There were a lot of films I was looking forward to that ended up just being okay so I was hoping that the fall season would have a nice start with “The Nun” and…. it's a movie with noises.
The central plot of the film is that we have a young woman who has yet to make her vows and a priest who are going to Romania to investigate some evil goings on. The Nun demon is there, and things pop out a lot.
That is "The Nun" in a nutshell. This movie could have been really awesome and it frustrates me. It's one of those films that as I watched it I kept seeing what it could have been and they just didn't care to take it to that level. There are so many scenes where someone looks through a hallway. We panned to the hall. What do you think's going to happen when we pan back to them?
Of course, it's just a bunch of sequences like that. There are no frightening jump scares. There are tons of them but you can see them coming from a mile away. Beyond that, I think the worst offense that “the Nun” has to it is that it feels almost storyless. Yes, we have these characters going to investigate some evil stuff that is happening. There is a pretty cool opening scene, but the film feels so narratively slight that I just couldn't get invested in the characters. Since “The Nun” demon is why most of us are there to see this film. She's actually not in the film that much. So that was also very disappointing. Her appearances were highlights, but they are so few and far between that I'm just waiting for random things to pop out because that's all this film really does.
There are so many scare scenes that are entirely about the demon messing with the main characters. She locks the priest underground somehow in a coffin and he's trapped there for a while until he has the means to communicate to the other woman. She comes in and she's like, “Oh my god, you're underground.” What is the purpose of this scene? Why is the demon locking him in a coffin underground so we can have this claustrophobic sequence? Or is she actually trying to kill the guy because if she was trying to kill him then the demon would find a way to remove the bell that he's pulling on a string that's in the coffin that lets people know he is buried down there. There are so many scenes that are just the demon pulling really elaborate pranks. That is what it comes off as you watch the film because they don't lead to anything story wise.
Of course, there is the backstory that someone reads about in a book in which we learn the demon’s name. Even though if we had seen the other Conjuring films we would have heard it a few times before. It just follows all of those cliches we've seen a thousand times in these films and it just boggles my mind that a film that could come from something as good as the Conjuring films is just this rote throw away movie with a demon that likes to play pranks all the time.
It is similar in quality to the first Annabelle. I found this film very underwhelming. Maybe they'll make a sequel to the Nun like “Annabelle Creation” and it'll be a lot better. I don't know, this movie is nowhere near on the level of what James Wan brought to the first two Conjuring films so I wouldn't go to it expecting that. Unless if you just want to see a film with some very dark and very blue visuals. I'm going give "The Nun" a 3 out of 10.