Director Corin Hardy
Starring Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet
Brian’s Rating: 3/5
Listen to the full review in Horror Bulletin Podcast #2
I have to admit, I saw the first Conjuring movie and haven’t kept up with all the sequels (it’s on the list for 2019), so I’m going into “The Nun” somewhat ignorant of what came before. That’s alight, as this is a kind of prequel that takes place before all the other movies and shows the original of the Nun character.
The film begins with two nuns who open a locked door and release the demon inside. Why? I don’t know, but they do it. The demon immediately kills the older nun, and the other nun throws a noose around her neck and jumps out the third-floor window. It seems the demon can only leave the old church by possessing a living body.
The Vatican hears about all this and wants to know more. They send their paranormal specialist, Father Burke, and a young pre-Nun, Sister Irene, to investigate. The two quickly meet up with a local man, Frenchie, who takes them to the old abbey.
At this point, “Valak the Defiler” makes a bunch of creepy stuff happen, mostly for no reason other than it looks good on camera. And that really is the primary drawback of this movie. It looks beautiful, the sets are excellent, the acting is good, but there’s no real reason or explanation given for any of it. It’s a fun movie to look at but don’t try to make any sense of it.