The Nun

The Nun is part of The Conjuring universe, and that probably explains why I’ve not watched the film before now.

I’m not saying that films in this franchise are bad, it’s just that they’re not as good as the films they are attempting to imitate. Think of The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist. They were all horror films that defined the genre and a generation and one thing they had in common was they asked the viewer to question things, there were no easy answers and quite often a resolution was only on the surface, beneath was still something lurking ready to show itself when people least expected it.

But, as I mentioned in my In The Mouth Of Madness review, modern films tie everything up in a nice neat bow for the characters within the story and they live life happily ever after. Now whether that’s because films are catering to audience’s changing tastes, or if audiences are adapting to how films are presented to them now is a bigger question outside of this review, but what it means is that films like The Nun automatically suffer as you know whatever supernatural forces are at work will be vanquished by the end of the film, and that ruins it for me before it’s even started.

Now, that was a bit of a moan, but I felt it was important to set up where I stand on films like this and why I generally avoid them in case you feel this review is a bit harsher, or less involved than my others.

The film opens with two Nuns approaching a door, on it is etched the phrase “God Ends Here”. Not at all disturbing.

One of the Nuns enters the God-free room, as you do, and is then attacked by an unseen force. She manages to escape long enough to hand over a key to the other Nun, telling her that the evil needs a human soul to escape and she knows what she must do. That thing? Tie a noose around her neck and yeet herself out of an upstairs window.

After being discovered by a deliveryman, news of the Nun’s apparent suicide makes it back to the Vatican because all supernatural films need some kind of Papal involvement, it’s like the ultimate law or something. They ask Father Burke to investigate as a Nun’s suicide could have drastic implications for the church and the Convent.

Burke is also assigned Sister Irene, well he calls her a sister but she’s not quite completed her Nun training yet and still has to take her vows which makes her wonder why she’s being asked to travel from cosy London to chilly Romania were the suicide happened.

Meeting up with the delivery man who found the Nun, a French-Canadian imaginatively named Frenchie, the trio head back to the Castle/Convent so they can talk to the Nuns about what happened and why the Nun may have taken her own life which is a mortal sin in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Committing a mortal sin means that you cannot be granted entry into heaven which is why everyone is so shocked a Nun would take this course of action.

Frenchie shows Burke and Irene where he stored the body, in the Convent’s ice room, but when they find her she’s in a different position to how Frenchie left her. Ignoring this massive red flag, Burke sends Frenchie away to return in a “few” days and he and Irene make their way into the Convent proper.

After meeting with the Abbess, they are told they they are unable to leave the Convent or talk to the other Nuns until the morning as they are observing silence from dusk until dawn.

In the morning, Burke starts to take a look around the Convent, and Irene begins to question the Nuns. Most of them are unwilling (or is it unable?) to talk to her but one breaks her silence and explains the history of the Castle — centuries before the Lord who lived there started to dabble in the dark arts. He began to conjure an unimageable evil and was only stopped when church forces stormed the castle and used the Holy Relic of the Blood of Christ to seal the portal to evil. Ever since, the church has had a presence in the castle using the power of prayer to keep evil at bay.

Problems started to arise when, during the Second World War, bombs were dropped on the castle which broke the magical seal. As evil started to leach out, it infected the Nuns while trying to find a way out into the world.

With the evil spreading outside the walls of the convent, seemingly impacting the local village, and with Burke and Irene being terrorised by unknown forces who will prevail?

Will Good overcome Evil, or is the power of darkness that has been building for centuries too much for even the mighty Catholic church?

Knockoff Nuns

🎃Waring! Spoilers for The Nun ahead!⛪

There isn’t really much I can say about this film as it is basically a cookie cutter modern horror film: background is set with something spooky happening in the past, this reoccurs during the current day, 2 people turn up to investigate, these people are attacked in a variety of ways, a couple of jump scares with figures appearing in the background or walking in front of the camera, some religious event takes place and the evil is thwarted.

There’s nothing new or novel about this film, the directing is generic as is the music. The acting is fine but not standout, the effects are okay but some of the CGI of the Nun (particularly at the end of the film) lets the scene down somewhat as you’re taken out events thanks to the poor effects.

I think that’s all I have to say about this film. I wasn’t particularly engaged while watching it, nothing in particular shocked me or piqued my interest, it’s very similar to the hundreds of cheap Exorcist and Amityville knockoffs I watched during the 80s and early 90s.

Maybe if you’re not familiar with previous films of this type, or are a massive fan of The Conjuring series then you’ll find something interesting and novel but for me it was just a generic film that is using the popularity of a franchise to find an audience I don’t think it would have had being a standalone film.

Watch this if you’ve always found Nuns a little creepy and suspect they’re probably up to no good behind those convent doors.

Where to Watch:

Apple TVGoogle Play MoviesFandango At HomeAmazon VideoYouTubePlexHBO Max Amazon ChannelHBO Max

If you liked this, I think you'll like:

Bram Stoker’s Dracula Masters of the Universe (1987) The Conjuring 2 Candyman (2021)