The Nun

This review may contain spoilers!

They took the scariest part of The Conjuring 2 and made it relatively not scary to watch in its own film. I would give The Nun a 5.5/10.

This feature does a great job when it functions as a dark fantasy, exploring an ancient demonic threat and laying out the adventure needed to counter the threat. The Nun crafts an interesting history around how the Catholic Church confronts supernatural entities, and in particular shows how Valak came to find a means of entering the material world. Throughout there are some exquisite establishing shots that capture the rich setting; there is also a sense of constant motion through cinematography which allows many scares to be set up.

Ingrid Bisu, who played Sister Oana, is a very earnest role who is driven by a need to drive out the darkness; Bisu really deftly evolves her earnest desire to help into a developing anxiety and fear for the evil that stalks the abbey. Gabrielle Downey, who played The Abbess, is surprisingly more frightening than her nun counterpart; Downey instils a sense of dread for events to come and her delivery is classic horror film.

However, the best performance came from Demian Bichir, who played Father Burke. Bichir has an incredible sense of gravitas when it comes to this role; you sense that there's a history to him and that he has seen some absolutely horrific sights. The steady resolution that stems from Father Burke makes him an interesting protagonist for a horror feature, he seems ready to confront threats of the supernatural which is what makes these Conjuring universe films so interesting. Bichir is extremely good-natured, sharing some great on-screen chemistry with his co-stars. Ultimately, this is an incredibly unique heroic figure who perfectly suits the horror scene.

The problem with this film is that it doesn't really know what it wants to be, often toeing the line between horror and dark fantasy. The two genres borrow from one another quite distinctly yet when the film starts feeling more like an adventure than a group of protagonists being terrorised by an entity you know you've lost your horror qualities. The film delivers in-depth exposition about this supernatural history between the Church and demons but fails to build up a sense of dread within the plot. The entire second act is devoted to a litany of jump scares or horror scenes but never takes the time to explore the plot further or establish motives for the antagonist. When the film takes a turn to hunt the threat rather than surviving it you get the sense things have lost their way and this can't be made any clearer than the overly sweet happy ending and loose connection back to the Conjuring films. The antagonist isn't very well explored considering she's the title character; she has several moments that seem to conflict with her role in Conjuring 2 and watching her attempt to banter with one of the protagonists is a fairly cringeworthy third act development. The editing for the film is pitifully slow, even when there's a need for quicker moments in the scary scenes. Worse than this there's a multitude of poor production moments; such as the obvious smoke machine fog or the way make-up has been applied to the main antagonist and zombie nuns. The score comes off as generic and cheesy, while the soundtrack is barely there, offering up a morsel to give this film some semblance of a time period setting.

Taissa Farmiga, who played Sister Irene, gives a very soft performance; you don't always follow her motivations or drive to remain in the scenario she is in. Jonas Bloquet, who played Frenchie, is an ill-fitting role for a horror film; Bloquet plays a suave action hero capable of banter but this can really draw you out of a scene that is doing it's best to be scary.