The Nun, the latest and fifth instalment in the Conjuring Universe and brought to us by director Corin Hardy (The Hallow, 2015), takes us back to 1952 where a young nun in a cloistered abbey in remote Romania takes her own life. Father Burke (Demian Bichir, The Hateful Eight) is sent by the Vatican to learn the truth, joined by novitiate on the threshold of her vows Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, Scream Queens) to investigate the events leading up to the suicide.
The events of the film take place in this remote abbey, which has a Gothic feel to it, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the film, Once inside the abbey, we get candlelit corridors that are soundless, as our characters investigating the incident are separated.
This movie does have its issues, the first being that Father Burke is a man who has been sent to investigate mysterious events for the church for the Vatican, yet he doesn’t seem to understand how the abbey works or how nuns operate in their own abbey. He also seems to be easily driven following the unexplained events. I do however understand this is his way to try and locate the evil to confront whoever he is against.
Then we come to Sister Irene, who just so happens to have the ability of visions to help her in her side of the mission, even if it is mostly convenient. Frenchie is the comic relief with natural reactions to the hauntings, even if he wants to give the quote, ‘I’m French Canadian,’ like it makes a difference.
The main draw to this film is the figure of the Nun, and this is the character we first met in The Conjuring 2, and who easily has one of the most frightening scenes in the movie. It is enough to make us want to know more about this character too. When we see the menace this character brings to the story, we get most of the best jump scares.
The story in film does feel flat though, and we get a confusing loss of time throughout the film, where we almost have one line and suddenly it is night or day depending on when the line happens. The story takes the complete back burner for the slowly built-up jump scares, which follow the normal occurrence of lowering the volume to near mute before the character turns around to nothing and BOOM! the volume is full blast, and something is thrown towards the camera. This does happen a lot in the film, so if you want jump scares this one will get you with ease.
Overall, if you were to place this in a ranking of the Conjuring Universe, this would sit between the two Annabelle movies. It does feel like we could have had a lot more from the film and while the twists in the story do work nicely to the bigger universe.
Written by Darren / Movie Reviews 101
Opmerkingen