The Nun

Starring: Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, Ingrid Bisu, Lili Taylor, Charlotte Hope, Sandra Teles
Directed by: Corin Hardy
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A priest (Demian Bichir) and a woman (Taissa Farmiga) about to take her vows and become a nun travel to Romania to investigate the strange death of a nun.

Review:

Tim: I've been a big fan of the Conjuring franchise, although the main movies have been significantly better than the Annabelle spin-off movies. I was interested in seeing The Nun, as this character has been one of the creepiest of the entire franchise. Unfortunately, this film is closer in quality to the Annabelle movies than the Conjuring ones. There's no way to look at this other than a disappointment.

I enjoyed the placement of this film both in Romania and in 1952. It felt like a worthwhile distinction from the other movies. A secluded monastery with a dark secret was the ideal setting for a film centered around the possessed nun. While the movie does an admirable job of creating a creepy atmosphere, there's so many other problems with the film.

The biggest issue is that the script is just weak overall. There's very little here we haven't seen numerous times before. The film might shed some additional light on the character of the Nun (which was an obvious requirement for this spin-off), none of it is especially interesting. It's your typically obvious demon from hell who possesses a human body story. The movie tries to be clever, but it never really feels like it succeeds. Even when the movie manages to surprise us, it's dull enough that it just elicits a shrug. In perhaps the biggest twist, my response was, "Huh, so that's what happened." It had been done numerous times before.

It doesn't help that the characters feel poorly written. I like Demian Bichir, but his character has to be the most ineffective priest character in any movie like this. Supposedly, he has extensive experience with hauntings and possessions, but doesn't really accomplish anything throughout the course of the film. He becomes a secondary character, marked by a series of stupid actions. It was so frustrating to see a solid actor like Bichir wasted. The writing for his character was atrocious. Taissa Farmiga's character is not much better. She perhaps does less pointless things, but I can't say I loved her character. Farmiga actually gave a surprisingly strong performance. I actually loved her casting. She looks so much like her sister, which gave the film this interesting sense of having come full circle. The familial resemblance aside, I thought her performance was strong. Farmiga is easily the best part of the film. Jonas Bloquet gives a good performance, but again, he's hampered by poor writing. His character doesn't make much sense. He continually acts in illogical ways. Towards the end of the film, when the most dangerous, darkest events are happening, he suddenly remembers he's supposed to be the comedic relief and utters a bunch of unfunny one-liners. It really made me shake my head. I do give credit to Bonnie Aarons- she's so creepy in that makeup playing the nun.

This movie is fairly creepy and I did feel an appropriate amount of dread throughout the film. The problem is that the movie far over-relies on jump scares. It's like director Corin Hardy has learned nothing from the dozens of horror movie failures over the last ten years. You can't make a good horror movie by delivering jump scare after jump scare. It cheapens the entire experience. Yes, this movie has a few frightening moments, but they're lost amid the many annoying jump scares. It really hurts the film a lot.

Now, while I was disappointed in The Nun, it's at least a decent horror movie. The Nun is such a creepy character- there's something so uncomfortable about the unholy union between an evil entity and a woman of the church. I did feel some level of fear while watching the film, so it's not a complete waste of time. However, it still damages the overall quality of The Conjuring franchise. It's frustrating that the two main movies could be so good, and all the spin-offs be of such inferior quality. It's still cool to think about a horror franchise with five films that are so different, but this entry leaves too much to be desired.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation