Harry Situation Reviews: The Nun

The Nun is the newest horror movie in the established Conjuring Universe. It serves as another prequel to the Conjuring movies, which I am a big fan of, and this one follows the demonic nun called Valak that was featured in The Conjuring 2. Taking place in the 1950s, after hearing that a nun had committed suicide in an ancient abbey in Romania, the Vatican sends a priest (played by Demian Bichir), a nun (played by Taissa Farmiga, who is the much younger sister of Vera Farmiga, who plays Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring movies), and a villager (played by Jonas Bloquet) to investigate, only to come face to face with the titular monster itself.

To quickly recap again, I like the two Conjuring movies. I’ve seen Annabelle, and didn’t like it. I never saw Annabelle: Creation, but was surprised to hear that it’s better than its predecessor. And when this one was announced, I didn’t have high hopes for it. But my mother really wanted to see it, so I was nice enough to treat her to it.

But first, let’s get a couple of the positives out of the way. The three main cast members I do like. They do deliver good enough performances that help keep you in the seats. But I think I like the villager Frenchie the most because he’s got a couple good jokes that managed to get me to laugh. But I also like Taissa Farmiga’s portrayal as a nun who has yet to take her vows. There’s a small scene in the beginning of the movie that shows she’s very open minded, which I enjoyed about her character.

The atmosphere for this creepy abbey is cool too. It is based off the Cârța Monastery that is located in southern Transylvania of Romania. The set has a bunch of tombstones, crosses, and there’s a bunch of mist and fog surrounding it. It makes it feel like it is from a classic Universal monster movie.

And that’s it for the positives because this movie was shit.

Do you like jumpscares? No? Well, avoid this movie at all cost. There’s nothing but jumpscares, and that’s what I hated most about it. As I said before, jumpscares are a cheap scare tactic abused in modern horror movies these days. And like with any jumpscare in any movie, they’re all predictable. Even worse, they’re not scary!

This movie is also super cliched too. Like the jumpscares themselves, it follows every horror movie trope in the book. You know this formula inside and out already: character sees something walk by, they go to investigate, nothing’s there, then... JUMPSCARE! Or, characters are in a group, characters suddenly split up or get lost, and then... JUMPSCARE! It repeats these tropes over and over again like a broken record and it annoyed the hell outta me.

Not only that, but this film really didn’t feel like it was set in the 1950s. Other than the clothing the characters wore, nothing suggested that this was the 1950s. I’ll name two examples.

1) There’s a scene where the priest goes to visit the Vatican, and from a distance I can see modern lamps and lighting. Stuff you wouldn’t find in that era.

2) There’s a scene where the nun (the main character, not the demon) is teaching children about dinosaurs, and she’s using modern toys that can be found from your local Walmart. I actually had dinosaur toys that were from the 50s and 60s, and I can guarantee that they did not look anything like the toys our main character was using.

And to top it off, there’s nothing really new this film adds to the Conjuring Universe, or any horror movie in general. It falls in the same old rut like in every modern horror movie. And because it adds nothing new, it makes me wonder why this was part of the Conjuring Universe at all. Heck, it’s not like we’re learning anything new about the demon either. We already learned it’s name in Conjuring 2, so why does it make a big deal out of it again in this film? Why did it have to be made? Money is too easy an answer. What is the real reason this movie was made? What purpose did it really serve?

Overall, this movie was yet another disappointing horror flop. It has a good idea, but doesn’t nothing new with it. Maybe this movie will earn enough at the box office to garner another prequel and that prequel turns out to be better, like with Annabelle: Creation. In the meantime, you can put your crucifixes away because you’ll sleep soundly tonight after watching this movie.

Positives:

-Characters & performances

-Atmosphere

Negatives:

-Fucking jumpscares

-Super cliched

-Questionable time setting

-Nothing new

-Not scary

Final Grade: D

So those are my thoughts on The Nun. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Frenchie: “Holy shit!”

Father Burke: “The holiest.”

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