The nun is directed by Corin Hardy, is supposed to be the story of Valak, the demon from Conjuring 2. When Conjuring 2 came Valak generated a lot of attention and the studio decided to go with a separate movie for the demon. This movie is a result of the success which followed Conjuring 2 and obviously, we had high expectations.
Going into this one I was hoping to see a proper origin movie for the demon Valak but unfortunately, this doesn't have much to do with the origin or backstory of Valak. Valak is supposedly a demon from hell and is now running around in Carta Monastery waiting to unleash evil upon the world. Certain events in the church gained the attention of the Pope and the Vatican folk who are never seen again after that. They then decide to send a Father and a nun who is yet to take her vows. It felt like this was more of an internship for the nun before taking her vows. Joining them is a French Canadian guy who witnessed certain events that happened in the Church.
Taissa Farmiga - Sister Irene
When Taissa Farmiga was cast, I thought she was playing young Lorraine since she's Vera Farmiga's sister and looks like how Vera would have looked a few years back. Sister Irene is sent to investigate the events of the Carta Monastery along with Father Burke. Together they discover that an evil demon is lurking around and is causing catastrophic events in and around the place. She was boring and has very little to do and mostly just runs around the place trying to rescue Father Burke. She has been chosen for this mission because she gets visions which are believed to be a gift from God. Her visions do eventually help out the mission though. I feel like anyone could have been cast as Sister Irene because there wasn't anything special about her character.
Demian Bichir - Father Burke
Accompanying Sister Irene on this dangerous mission was Father Burke, another boring character who just keeps doing things which would eventually lead to his death and then wait to be rescued by someone. His past haunts him in the form of another demon and he's mostly involved with that more than Valak. It almost gave me a crooked old man vibe feel only this time there's no reason for the other devil to be around except for a few jumpscares because it never helped the story in any way.
Jonas Bloquet - Frenchie
Frenchie is a man who witnessed an event that happened in Carta Monastery but for some reason decides to be with the father and sister for extra help. He mostly tries to hit on Sister Irene and is somewhat of a comic relief in this otherwise dark movie. Once again this is a role anyone could have played and there wasn't anything different or great about him.
Bonnie Aarons - Valak
The CGI demon was the reason I wanted to see this. Valak was the best part of Conjuring 2. It was creepy, scary and a genius. The plan of using Bill the crooked old man to lure Ed and Lorraine out of the investigation to get to Janet in conjuring 2 was truly awesome. Unfortunately, we are going to see none of that awesomeness here. Valak is just here to randomly roam around the Church and give us a few jump scares. The demon is trying to find its way back to earth from the gates of hell. It was utterly disappointing to see such an awesome demon not get a compelling storyline. There's very little here about Valak's past and that amazing theme that they used in conjuring 2 was used just once. In the end, I wasn't sure whether 'The nun' meant Valak or Sister Irene.
Overall, the movie was disappointing and failed to live up to the hype. There were scenes where I couldn't actually control my laughter and neither could the audience. Some serious scenes actually turned out to be funny and I'm not sure whether they were meant to be that way. There was very little interaction between the characters and they were boring. Maybe there was too much hype. At least the jump scares could have been better. We can see most of them coming from over a mile. There's a huge pause before every jump scare and there's no surprise element anywhere. The CGI on Valak was good and the sound effects were nice too.
This movie didn't show us anything new, mostly recycled stuff from other horror movies like the crucifix turning upside down, the power of Christ being used to stop the demon and all. I almost fell asleep in a couple of scenes. At least the story could have been a bit better. The editing was fine but the writing was really weak. They should have made Valak smarter. I'm not sure of the general public this movie didn't even scare me. After conjuring too, that post movie effect was there for at least a week, that's clearly not the case here so I guess it has failed to stand as a horror movie and in my opinion, this could have just been rated PG 13.
Another huge drawback here was the continuity issues. If they're making a movie which exists in the same universe as the conjuring, they should have made some sort of a connection between the two. In the end, I expected them to explain how Valak turned up in the Conjuring 2 but they never made any such effort to explain it. The ending felt so sudden and it made me feel like they cut something off, maybe we get to see that in an extended cut? Anyway, even if they do I have no plans on watching this again if anything I'd like to forget this even happened because it takes off all the great things about Valak we saw in Conjuring 2.
VERDICT
FAN IN ME: 5/10
CRITIC IN ME: 4/10
No matter the reception this movie gets, the universe will keep on getting bigger as they have now pushed Annabelle 3, Crooked man and nun 2, hopefully, it gets better. Maybe give James Wan a try for nun 2? Feels like Valak deserves much more than this.
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