David Pierdomenico
One of the most enduring visuals from The Conjuring 2 was that of the demonic nun. Because of the enormous potential, Warner Brothers saw fit to greenlight a spinoff rather than just giving us another Ed and Lorraine story based on a real life haunting (more on that here). But despite the fact that its mere existence seems cheesy, The Nun deserves to be judged on its own merits. Which unfortunately, there don’t seem to be very many of.
Wasted Potential
The strongest part of the film is its opening, which sees two nuns fleeing in absolute terror from a mysterious and ominous presence. It’s a genuinely creepy scene with tons of atmosphere and dread. Unfortunately, none of the rest of the film lives up to this. From there, we meet Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) who are sent to the abbey in Romania to investigate the death of one of the terrified nuns. They arrive and are guided by a Frenchman (Jonas Bloquet) into a dark world of demons and terror.
Part of what made the previous films in the series so compelling was the performances and chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren. Granted, they were playing a married couple, but chemistry is still important, even among platonic characters. It’s not that The Nun tries and fails, it’s more like the film doesn’t try at all. Burke barely speaks in anything above a dull whisper, which is meant to make him mysterious, but it comes off as flat, rather than charming or interesting.
Lorraine Warren’s “Little Sister”
Sister Irene is portrayed by Taissa Farmiga, whom fans will recognize from American Horror Story, but she’s also the younger sister of Vera Farmiga. When we first meet Irene, she’s teaching children at a Catholic school in London, and seems to have a spark to her. She challenges certain notions of dogma, and teaches the children to think freely. So it’s all the more frustrating that after this scene, we never get a glimpse of this aspect of her character ever again. Instead her performance is wooden for the rest of the film. Taissa is a gifted actress, like her sister. And that first scene we get with her shows a glimmer of potential for a strong and modern-thinking character. So her flat and bland performance in the rest of the film is most likely not her own fault, but rather an issue with the script and directing.
Inconsistent Tone
One of the most glaring issues with The Nun is that it’s not sure what kind of film it wants to be. On the one hand, with its setting in an Eastern European castle-like abbey, it sets the stage for an old school gothic horror film. And to be fair, the cinematography is beautiful and helps reinforce this dark and creepy atmosphere. Part of why fans loved the original Conjuring was for its use of atmosphere as well. Additionally, it felt grounded in reality with minimal CGI, effects, and most of the scares consisting of what the audience didn’t see.
The Conjuring 2, on the other hand, went a little too far with this. The ghosts and demons were louder, in your face, and lost all sense of mystery to them. This film suffers from the same problem. The titular Nun character roars, throws people into walls, reanimates corpses, stabs people, and just seems very over the top, without an ounce of subtlety. At times the films goes full Evil Dead with its ridiculous and overt antics.
The French character also seems incredibly out of place. He’s portrayed as dashing, adventurous, and with a sense of humor; almost like Brendan Fraser’s character in The Mummy series (before that awful Tom Cruise one). It’s okay to be over the top and have characters like him, but only if the film’s intent is to be a bit tongue and cheek, like those by Sam Raimi. The Nun wants to have these elements, but also wants itself to be taken seriously, and the two simply don’t reconcile with each other.
The Future of the “Conjuring Universe”
Warner Brothers already has Annabelle 3 scheduled for release in July 2019, and hopefully it takes more after Annabelle: Creation than The Nun. If not, the future of this franchise could be in jeopardy. But honestly, they just need to get back to making Conjuring sequels featuring the Warrens. They are very much the heart and soul of these films. If anything, The Nun demonstrates the problem with deciding that just because a character looks cool, they deserve their own spinoff film. The result is a loud and flashy soulless film, that’s an obvious cash grab.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Problem with the Ending
These may seem like nitpicks, but there are two problems that this film creates that don’t mesh well with the series as a whole. Firstly, there is a line in The Conjuring 2 in which Lorraine Warren states that the demon Valak has taken on the form of a nun as an insult to her. Because of her strong Catholic faith, Valak decided to defile the holy image of a nun by appearing as one. However if this was done to insult Lorraine in the late 1970’s, then why is Valak using this form all the way back in 1952 in this film? The answer is because the studio wanted to do their spinoff and thought so little of the audience, they doubted anyone would notice or care.
The second issue is rather more troubling. At the end of the film, it’s revealed that the Frenchman’s name is Maurice, and that he in fact is the same Maurice whose exorcism we saw footage of in the first Conjuring. His full story can be found in the book “Satan’s Harvest”, co-written by the Warrens. Maurice was a real person with a very tragic story. And while the first two Conjuring films are based in fact, around real people, this film was entirely fictional.
Yet it makes the suggestion that this real person was affected later in life because of this fictional story. It just seems a bit offensive, given Maurice was real, and it confuses the viewer between what is and isn’t based on true events. It also feels like an incredibly contrived attempt to link the movies together. All the more reason why these spinoffs really aren’t necessary.
