The Nun (2018)
Directed by Corin Hardy
A priest with a dark past and a novice nearing her final vows are sent by the Vatican to Romania to investigate a nun's death and face a demonic force.
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At first I thought this was a misplaced tribute to the ending of “The Exorcist,” as if the climactic action of that film represented a heroic defeat of the Devil rather than a capitulation to him and a failure to trust in God.
Screenwriter Gary Dauberman (“Annabelle: Creation,” “It”), working with co-producer James Wan (“Saw,” “The Conjuring,” “Furious 7”), who has a story credit, has certainly streamed his share of old Hammer horror films, along with, of course, “The Exorcist” and even “The Da Vinci Code.”
Father Burke seems to be crafted as a feeble homage to Father Merrin from The Exorcist but without the character development that made that role so iconic.
Great movies about paranormal investigators struggling with doubts like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Daniel Stamm’s underrated The Last Exorcism (2010) slowly ramp up tension by presenting plausible explanations for supernatural phenomenon, making both the characters and audience guess whether or not the hauntings are all a bunch of hooey.
“Nun” lacks the constant sense of dread and unsettling doom of similarly themed films such as “The Exorcist” or even “The Last Exorcism,” though there’s one notable scene of “perpetual adoration” – the marathon prayer the abbey’s nuns maintain to keep Valak at bay – that’s visceral and torturous for poor Sister Irene.
Written by “Annabelle” screenwriter Gary Dauberman and James Wan, it’s lush, operatic, hardcore Catholic horror from the depths of “The Omen” and “The Exorcist,” with hints of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus,” washed with medieval overtones.
And Father Burke's unfortunate experience of being buried alive comes to an end when his rescuer's shovel cracks through a coffin lid and nearly splits his skull (a la 1980's City of the Living Dead).
It seems to be a rule of the Conjuring universe that each film should have a homage to a classic Italian horror film — Annabelle reprised one of the best scares in Mario Bava’s filmography, and this revisits a memorable buried-alive shock from Lucio Fulci’s City Of The Living Dead.
They both do their best to lend the film an appealingly spooky vibe that hearkens back to critically-acclaimed films with similar subjects, such as The Devils and Black Narcissus.
Written by “Annabelle” screenwriter Gary Dauberman and James Wan, it’s lush, operatic, hardcore Catholic horror from the depths of “The Omen” and “The Exorcist,” with hints of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus,” washed with medieval overtones.
The Nun could have stepped away from the rest of the franchise by fully embracing the melodramatic camp suggested by the idea of a convent full of evil nuns, much like Powell & Pressburger did with Black Narcissus (1947) and Ken Russell with The Devils (1971).
Film buffs will instantly recognize elements of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus” (1947), Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958), William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” (1973) and Richard Donner’s “The Omen” (1976).
The artifact containing the Blood of Christ seems to have rolled in from the set of Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight.
It’s too kind to say borrowed-from, so let’s say this film outright bastardizes films like Demon Knight, Beauty and the Beast, Dracula, Silent Hill, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, and even The Serpent and the Rainbow.
That being said, The Nun does feature some truly inspired moments of gothic horror, particularly a harrowing sequence involving Farmiga’s character being whipped violently during an attack by Valak, and while I may have uttered the words “Demon Knight” a few times during the movie’s conclusion, I must admit that I applaud The Nun for just full on embracing its Hammer Horror-esque tendencies during the film’s final showdown between good and evil.
The biggest jump scare is a riff on The Exorcist III and the climax climax flogs a major beat from Demon Knight.
There are also aspects of the climax that seem to be derivative of Demon Knight .
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The script takes its inspiration from the character initially created for 2016’s The Conjuring 2, and the concept behind this sequel is a fascinating and creepy one.
Introduced tormenting Vera Farmiga’s clairvoyant ghost-hunter Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2, the demon nun Valak (Bonnie Aarons) now follows devil doll Annabelle as the latest antagonist in the Conjuring/Annabelle horror-movie universe to be granted a standalone prequel.
Demonic nun Valak (Bonnie Aarons) first appeared in The Conjuring 2 , in scenes reprised at the beginning of The Nun. Directed by Corin Hardy ( The Hallow , 2015), the new film is set long before those events in America, and on the other side of the world, as Father Burke (Demián Bichir) is sent by the Vatican to investigate the suicide of young Sister Victoria (Charlotte Hope) at the isolated Cârta Abbey in Romania’s backwoods.
Look, The Conjuring and its sequel are both terrific horror movies ( The Conjuring 2 is a near classic, if you ask me ), but this is the third spinoff that has proven to be hit or miss.
When you’re a filmmaker playing in the James Wan-iverse sandbox, expectations are going to be high amongst fans, and for the most part, I feel like director Corin Hardy rises to the occasion with The Nun, his lovingly crafted tribute to Hammer Horror that dives into the backstory of Valak (Bonnie Aarons), the demonic force introduced in The Conjuring 2. While The Nun has some issues with tone and pacing, especially in the first half of the film, once the story settles in for the finale, that’s when Hardy’s love for the genre shines through, with this newest piece of The Conjuring cinematic puzzle coming together to deliver a solidly entertaining finale that finally taps into just what makes Valak so terrifying on screen.
Aside from Frenchy, the actors match up well with the material — directed by Englishman Corin Hardy from a story by Gary Dauberman and James Wan, as the next spin-off from previous horror flicks Annabelle: Creation and The Conjuring 2.
Obviously, Bonnie Aarons—who, fun fact, also played the terrifying creature living behind the diner in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive—rips into the title role with snarling gusto; the character may be doing the same thing over and over, and the malevolent musical cue that often marks her appearance is pretty corny (the audience at my screening started chuckling at it by the end), but Aarons never phones it in, especially when it’s time for a close-up.
Actress Bonnie Aarons was terrifying in a smattering of seconds as the homeless hag behind the Winkie’s diner in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”, yet here, she doesn’t register much at all as the titular demon.
Actress Bonnie Aarons, best known as the nightmarish bum from David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive,” reprises her role from “The Conjuring 2,” lending the now-title character all the malevolent energy anyone could reasonably ask for.
That was her 15 years ago hiding behind the diner at Winkie’s in Mulholland Drive’s scariest scene —a moment that David Lynch, who understands horror, would never try to explain.
The story is essentially a riff on The Keep (1983), with an evil force locked inside a Central European castle, potentially unleashed by the effects of the WWII: in this case, the demon had been contained long ago, but an Axis bombing raid reopened the gates to Hell.
Hardy steeps the whole Romanian excursion in gothic ground mists, with forests of inverted crosses, muttering peasants down at the Hammer Films inn, bells attached to graves so that the prematurely buried can summon help (when they all tinkle at once, panic ensues), an impressively castle-like convent which has a few things in common with Michael Mann’s The Keep (it’s more prison than church), and a plethora of veiled, wimpled, looming figures.
Great movies about paranormal investigators struggling with doubts like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Daniel Stamm’s underrated The Last Exorcism (2010) slowly ramp up tension by presenting plausible explanations for supernatural phenomenon, making both the characters and audience guess whether or not the hauntings are all a bunch of hooey.
“Nun” lacks the constant sense of dread and unsettling doom of similarly themed films such as “The Exorcist” or even “The Last Exorcism,” though there’s one notable scene of “perpetual adoration” – the marathon prayer the abbey’s nuns maintain to keep Valak at bay – that’s visceral and torturous for poor Sister Irene.
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No one should ever leave a movie and have the thought cross their minds of, “You know, maybe ‘Exorcist II: The Heretic‘ isn’t so bad after all.”
Bichir, who can be a wonderful actor when given good material (as in his Oscar-nominated turn in A Better Life), is boringly stoic as the sort of character that Richard Burton was smart enough to play for high camp in Exorcist II: The Heretic.
Set in 1952 and partially shot on location in Transylvania, The Nun had a lot of potential to be a moody, atmospheric gothic horror flick that recalls the grand old days of Hammer Horror films or even the more modest thrills of something like Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).