Movie Review--The Nun

"Like many places in this world, the abbey has a long history."
--The Abbess, The Nun


The universe of The Conjuring is one of my favorite cinematic universes at this time.  Ever since its announcement, I have been looking forward to The Nun, thanks to its use of the villain of The Conjuring 2.  For all its successful elements (and it does possess some), The Nun excludes what made The Conjuring 2 such a phenomenal film: the splendid characterization and intimate moments between the protagonists.  The Conjuring 2 is not merely a well-executed horror tale; it is a movie with beautiful performances, excellent writing, and genuine emotionality.  The acting in The Nun is mostly effective, but viewers hoping for character depth will find disappointment.  Despite this, the movie still showcases the horror atmosphere of the series well in some scenes.  It also leads right into the main Conjuring movies in a clever way, just as Annabelle: Creation leads directly into the narrative of the first Annabelle film.


Production Values

As with many of the past films set in this universe, the effects are splendid.  The practical and CG effects work together quite efficiently.  The demons, from Valak to a possessed child, seem right at home in the dark world portrayed onscreen.  In fact, the demons outnumber the people for many scenes.  In movies with only a few characters, weak performances can be much easier to detect.  Thankfully, The Nun's major flaw is not the acting of the leads, but the simplicity of the story and characterization.  Since The Nun so prominently features only two people for much of its story, it was a relief to find that Taissa Farmiga, who plays Sister Irene, and Demian Bichir, who plays Father Burke, perform splendidly.  If the two fail to act well alongside each other, then a great deal of the movie collapses--but both manage to invest themselves into the story.  The problem is that the story doesn't give them much to work with.  Yes, there is an intriguing twist, there are moments of horror glory, and there is also a great connection with the first Conjuring, but the story remains rather simplistic for most of the runtime.

The demon Valak has an appropriately macabre appearance, though she is drastically underutilized as a full character in her own spin off.  Instead of developing her carefully, the scriptwriters add her into miscellaneous scenes--some of which are fantastic--and merely summarize her seemingly first manifestation on earth in a brief flashback.  Though she has a great screen presence at certain points, the director does not do much with the character, which is a travesty considering how cleverly and skillfully Valak was handled in The Conjuring 2.


Story

The Conjuring universe chronology:
1. The Nun
2. Annabelle: Creation
3. Anabelle
4. The Conjuring
5. The Conjuring 2

Spoilers!

Two nuns walk at night to a door which reads "God ends here," one entering the room behind the door, only to emerge bloody, offering the other a key.  After the nun inside the room is attacked, the second nun hangs herself as a demonic figure follows her.

Sister Irene, who has not yet taken her vows, accompanies Father Burke to the Romanian abbey where a suicide was reported by the man who brings food to the abbey (Maurice), only to discover that some sort of malevolent spirit seeks to harass them.  An investigation produces evidence that the abbey was once a castle inhabited by a duke who conjured up a demon named Valak.  Soldiers killed the duke and sealed the dimensional rift using an artifact containing blood of Jesus, though the impact of a bombing raid allowed Valak to escape into what had been converted into an abbey.

After conversing with several nuns, Irene realizes that she has been experiencing visions, as the last nun of the abbey was the one who committed suicide, killing herself to prevent a possession that might enable Valak to escape.  Irene takes her vows, helps Father Burke and Maurice find the artifact, and successfully reseals Valak behind the gateway--of course, Valak somehow escapes before the events of The Conjuring 2, but this has yet to be explained onscreen.

However, Maurice now bears a marking of a cross on the back of his neck, foreshadowing his future possession that is shown in The Conjuring.


Intellectual Content

I am still waiting for one of the Conjuring universe films to describe the interactions between demons--which are, in themselves, purely immaterial spirits--and the material objects that they hurl around and manipulate.  Such a thing is not logically impossible, but it would be nice to receive an actual explanation for how it occurs.  There is no contradiction involved, and my immaterial consciousness interacts with my physical body on a constant basis, so I have immediate proof of not only the possibility of consciousness controlling matter, but also its actuality--however, I still want one of these movies to eventually explain how unembodied spirits can use abilities that impact the material world, like telekinesis.


Conclusion

It does not reach the same heights as The Conjuring 2, but The Nun also does not plummet to the same depths as the first Anabelle.  Whether a viewer will enjoy The Nun depends on what they want out of it.  A fun horror movie set in a well-established universe?  Then the viewer will probably have a great time, even if the previous two entries in the Conjuring universe eclipse the movie in many ways.  A story with deep characters?  If that is what a viewer wants, he or she might want to wait for next year's new Annabelle movie instead.  Either way, horror fans can thank The Conjuring series for helping open up the cinematic landscape for its many recent horror films, a number of which are original, independent projects that demonstrate the genre's potential.


Content:
1. Violence:  Most of The Nun's horror is derived from the atmosphere and imagery, but it still makes room for scenes where characters grapple with physical manifestations of demonic presences, quite brutally at times.