Movie review: The Nun

THE real horror here is how quickly The Conjuring franchise seems to have run out of ideas.
While the two core The Conjuring movies are solid, the two other spin-off films (Annabelle and Annabelle: Creation) are unimpresssive. So you can imagine my concern going into The Nun.
All the same, I gave the film a chance. After all, it supposedly told the backstory of the frightening demon nun, otherwise known as Valak, who featured in probably the best scene from 2016’s The Conjuring 2.
The Nun, which is set in 1952, starts off promisingly enough, with a chilling scene of a nun in a Romanian convent hanging herself rather than be possessed by an evil spirit.
We then cut to the Vatican, where a priest named Father Burke (Demian Bichir) is tasked with investigating the nun’s suicide. Burke is accompanied by Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate who sees holy visions.
Their guide to the convent is Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), a farmer who first discovered the nun’s body.
Literally from the moment the trio arrive at the convent, it is clear that there is something very wrong, and on the very first night, all three suffer demonic attacks, and one character is even buried alive, but is rescued.
Any normal person would immediately leave the convent, or at least try to contact the Vatican to let them know of a demonic presence, but Burke and Irene seemingly have no sense of self-preservation. Or common sense.
The two characters are then rushed across an assembly line of ‘scary’ scenes, none of them particularly noteworthy or original.
The only thing remotely interesting is the appearance of a zombie (yes, really!) but otherwise, everything else is just bland.
There are no quiet moments to allow tension to build, or to allow the story or characters to develop. Even the jump scares are predictable.
Bichir and Farmiga are good actors, but their talents are wasted here. Bloquet has a few good lines, but has very little to do otherwise.
And the story itself is terribly lazy. There are plot threads that go nowhere or are forgotten, such as Father Burke’s past troubles, and Sister Irene’s psychic powers.
Gone is the creativity that was the hallmark of The Conjuring films, and the film’s ending even copies the end of last year’s Annabelle: Creation in the way it ties things together.
Unless you are hardcore fan of this franchise, don’t even bother with this one.