—Irene's mother, The Nun II
None of the Conjuring spin-offs besides Annabelle: Creation are genuinely great films. Ranging from abysmal to mediocre, they lack the profound characterization of The Conjuring 2 or the excellent atmospheric horror of Creation. 2018's The Nun relied on a multitude of cheap and usually very telegraphed jump scares, but it had occasional moments that transcended its lackluster efforts, such as when a group of nuns is revealed to be an illusion. The Nun II has no such thing. Full of abundant yet incredibly undeveloped characters, relationships, events, and plot threads, as well as jump scares, it is an omen for the franchise as a whole: it needs to change its course of quality or be exorcised from cinema.
Production Values
Perhaps the only quality in the entire movie is found in the sets and framing of certain locations. The opening, for instance, boasts some competent cinematography to complement the acting of the extremely minor characters shown, but in every other regard, there is nothing but squandered potential far past the point of merely being mediocre. Taissa Farmiga, like practically every cast member, is wasted on shallow character development that never rises above terrible execution. Storm Reid, who plays her rebellious companion, has given far better performances than this and with more to do as an actress. Then there is the way that nothing in the lore is thoroughly addressed. Many things come to light or happen practically just to stretch out the runtime of a very random story.
Without yet even getting into the laughably irrationalistic and unbiblical theology presented very seriously, albeit in very vague snippets that do not even try to delve into any sort of depth, the plot has no aspects that are not woefully superficial or brief. One of my personal favorites is the issue of the goat in the stained glass that turns out to actually be affiliated with a demon, maybe even Satan himself. Where does the goat demon go to when it just disappears twice? It literally is unaccounted for in the story for a long period of time, even when the children it hunts are screaming at another apparition and are very vulnerable to its attacks. In a later scene, once it reappears, it impales a girl and then just vanishes again with no one commenting on it whatsoever even after Valak is defeated!
Story
Some spoilers are below, not that the story is anything of remotely decent quality.
After a priest is immolated in his own sanctuary, Irene, a survivor of Valak from the first movie, is called on by the Catholic hierarchy to tend to the matter. Priests have been dying, and Irene uncovers how Valak is involved. Still bearing the cross marker on his neck from before, Maurice works at a boarding school, unaware of how he is possessed by the demon as it searches for the eyes of Saint Lucy (the historical figure of which was reportedly killed in 304 AD), which receive very little real attention or elaboration and are only used as an, unsurprisingly, underdeveloped plot device.
Intellectual Content
As well-crafted as some of the films in the overarching story are, The Conjuring has never represented Christian philosophy very accurately despite its Catholic trappings and references to the Christian deity. One way this is evident here is the depiction of seeming human souls. Valak can take any form, yes, so it could be impersonating some of the dead, but the souls shown contradict the real Biblical doctrine of the intermediate state before eternal life (or before destruction in hell). In the world of The Conjuring, spirits of dead humans can interact with the world or be manipulated by other spirits. In Christianity, which the franchise very loosely appeals to, the only thing that stirs up the otherwise unconscious spirits of the dead is the likes of sorcery, as with the witch of Endor summoning Saul (1 Samuel 28), or, in the case of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17), divine power. They are asleep until their resurrection (Daniel 12:2, 13), experiencing nothing at all (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10).
Sister Irene also invokes God and the Holy Spirit when trying to stop Maurice's possession, not even mentioning Jesus, but the impact of various things on the demon is utterly haphazard and more about extending the plot than anything of real theological weight or narrative stakes. However, the most egregious philosophical thing related to her character is what she says about belief literally making parts of Christianity true and encouraging epistemological faith, not faithfulness to evidential probabilities, to a fellow nun. Belief does not make anything true except that one believes, of course. Even if metaphysical idealism is true and it is conscious experience that intentionally or unknowingly holds matter in existence, logical truths are not true because of belief, and neither would the existence of a supreme mind like that of God have anything to do with whether one believes in it, or, in turn, things like the presence of demonic minds or moral obligations rooted in the divine.
Conclusion
How far from the film that debuted Valak is this pathetic entry! The heights of The Conjuring 2 are nowhere to be seen here. Valak has been used yet again, but in a story that is a maelstrom of unfulfilled story ideas, poor characterization, and lore so shallowly explored that a vision scene shows something that could have made for a much better film than this abomination. Almost worse than the demon it features, The Nun II is one of the most egregious entries to ever be released in the The Conjuring franchise. Neither established horror actress Taissa Farmiga nor the limited connections to the broader story of other movies do anything to elevate this often directionless film with the depth of a puddle. This is an awful cinematic offering.
Content:
1. Violence: Some scenes include killings with blood, such as one where a hook falls on someone's head and leads to a pool of blood on the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment