The Nun takes place twenty years before the events of The Conjuring. When a nun commits suicide, a priest and a novitiate are sent by the Vatican to investigate. They uncover a spooky spectral nun, plaguing the people of the Catholic church. The movie chronicles the first encounters with the nun, which first appears in The Conjuring 2.
The movie starts off rather promising, giving off a creepy atmosphere. The old Catholic tabernacle setting, combined with the ominous lighting and creepy sound design, showed promise for what was to come. Plus, the characters were introduced as rather likeable and intriguing characters. They each had a story that promised fascinating character studying throughout the film. However, after those first few minutes, the movie shifts hard into a territory that no movie should ever trek: boredom.
The Nun is easily one of the most boring films of the year. It’s a shame, because the story has good foundations. It has a neat premise, but it’s marred in how it’s told. As a result, the story is dull, emotionally flat, and rather dumb. There are no surprises, and the writing itself was not compelling in the slightest. And while the characters started out interesting, as the movie went on, they became boring, one dimensional, and completely forgettable. Talk about potential being squandered.
It’s a shame, because The Nun has some great qualities. For example, the set design is amazing. The architecture of the cathedral is gorgeous, with colossal, pointed walls and shimmering stain glass windows. Plus, the performances are solid. The three leads, Demian Bichir as Father Burke, Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene, and Jonas Bloquet as Frenchie, all do a fine job as their characters, and they work together well throughout the picture. They had good chemistry with each other, and it made some scenes tolerable because they got to interact with each other.
However, there is one cardinal flaw that makes this movie hard to watch: it’s not scary. At all. The movie offers nothing substantial other than jump scares, and they bog the movie down a lot. Now, like most things in life, horror is subjective. One person may find something scary, while not having the same effect on a different person. For me, this movie was not scary. But why? It’s not because the movie is full of jump scares. The problem with The Nun is how it uses its jump scares. The movie telegraphs the jump scares so poorly to the point where viewer’s can practically predict when the loud noise will play by the second. What this film does is slow everything down to a crawl, completely cut off the audio, have the character look confused in the distance, and the bam! A loud noise plays while something jumps out onto the screen. They were so poorly executed, and they were so uninteresting to watch.
The best part of the movie is, without question, the last fifteen minutes. Everything that happened in the movie escalates into the final act. It’s enjoyable not because it’s thrilling or scary or well executed. It’s enjoyable because of how unintentionally hilarious it is. The way the spectral nuns looked made the final moments of the film an absolute blast to watch, and the scares are so awkwardly executed, it’s amazing. The film tries to go for a big, climactic finale with its horror and settings, and it reaches so far in that realm, that it comes off as silly. It’s a shining light in a dull sea. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make up for the rest of the film.
The Nun was a disappointment. Despite an interesting setup and an enjoyably dumb finale, the movie was dull, boring, and not scary. Those that are fans of The Conjuring might enjoy this movie, although the ties to The Conjuring universe are quite flimsy. There are clips from the previous Conjuring films shoehorned at the beginning and end of the film, and they are completely out of place. Besides the point, The Nun was not good, and it’s not worth the trip to theater to watch it.
Score: 4/10 (Mediocre)
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