THE NUN

The Nun Movie Review

Father Burke (Demian Bichir, The Hateful Eight) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, American Horror Story) are sent by the Vatican to Romania to investigate the mysterious death of a nun. What they find in the church is an evil not quite of this world. Set in 1952, this is a spin-off of the Conjuring films, chronologically taking place prior to those two movies and the three other spin-offs of them, the Annabelle films. If you enjoy those films, and expect The Nun to be on the level of those, you will be let down. The Nun certainly lacks the sheer terror of The Conjuring or Annabelle: Creation, following more in the footsteps of Annabelle with its reliance on jump scares instead of actual horror. Our villain is one we know from The Conjuring 2...the demon nun.

She still looks like Marilyn Manson

The only thing more frustrating than the multitude of jump scares is the CGI, which is so bad at times it borders on SyFy quality. One of the things I loved about the original The Conjuring is the way it was shot--it feels like a movie that could have actually been released the year it was set in, 1971. Had The Nun taken a similar approach it may have made a world of difference--instead, this feels like a movie that is set in the early 2000's, as it visually resembles many other films from that time. The story really isn't too bad, though it's not a terribly strong lead into one of the better horror movie universes--a little slick editing at the very end of the film takes us right into The Conjuring. The atmosphere is one of the highlights of this film, though much of the action takes place in the dark, so try to watch this one at night with the lights off. While The Nun is not a bad movie, it sets up a series of films that deserved a much better place setting. It should also be noted this movie made loads of money, so a sequel is inevitable--let us pray that, much like with the Annabelle films, the sequel is better. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

The Nun Movie Trailer