The Nun is the fifth film in the improbably Conjuring cinematic universe. It’s a prequel to all the other films (some of which are already prequels)… the Conjuring (very good), Conjuring 2 (good), Annabelle (very bad), and Annabelle: Creation (surprisingly not bad). The Nun character showed up in Conjuring 2 and was referenced in Annabelle: Creation.
The Nun is set in a Romanian convent/castle where one of the nuns has committed suicide. The Vatican is curious so sends a priest and a novitiate with visions to investigate. The convent is the opposite of blessed (as one character says)… it’s profane. Evil. It also may or may not have anyone living in it… hard to say since there are so many dream sequences and visions in the flick.
Anyhow, the titular Nun is a demon… and… I don’t know. World War 2 is involved, blood sacrifices, etc.. She needs a soul to escape the castle. I dunno. Things happen. Jump scares and and other generic scares that you’ve seen before dozens of times.
Which is unfortunate because this film LOOKS great. There’s real production value and great cinematography here. Everything looks solid and believable and I had hope this was going to be a good flick in the first fifteen minutes. This film had a budget… nothing feels cheap. It’s just a tragedy there’s barely a plot and there’s no character moments of any note. Just a great looking flick services by a mediocre script, storytelling, and dull, predictable spook show stuff. If this was a thirty minute short, it’d have been great. But they need to expand to ninety minutes and pad the story with the usual junk.
So, yeah, there’s no real reason to see this film. It really adds nothing new to the Conjuring cinematic universe which is weird with all the build up they were doing in the previous films. The director clearly has talent…. he just needs an original script.
Score: 68