Nun, The (2018) [Blu-ray]
Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline: Witness the Darkest Chapter in The Conjuring Universe

A priest with a haunted past and a novice on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun in Romania and confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.

Storyline: When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in 'The Conjuring 2,' as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned. Written by Warner Bros.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, December 13, 2018 One of the scariest images from The Conjuring 2 gets its own movie in The Nun, the latest entry in James Wan's house of horror tales. The film picks up the story hinted in the teaser at the end of Annabelle: Creation, and it appears to close the circle that began with the initial Conjuring, as it loops back at the end to reconnect us with the case that first introduced us to paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). But loops are never closed for good on a successful franchise, and after The Nun's worldwide success (approximately $366 million in box office against a production budget of $22 million), a sequel is inevitable. Wan has already declared that he has a new chapter in mind.

In The Conjuring 2, Lorraine Warren experienced a terrifying vision of a demonic nun in Ed Warren's study. The Nun takes us back to 1952, where the same spirit, which is identified as "Valak", haunts the corridors of a crumbling abbey in the backwoods of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. When one of the nuns dies under gruesome circumstances worthy of The Omen series, the episode is reported by "Frenchie" (Jonas Bloquet), the local youth who delivers supplies to the abbey—except that he's not really a local, but a transplanted Canadian, who just happened to settle in Dracula country after taking off from his native Quebec to see the world. (Do you think there might be a story there?)

In a move that confirms screenwriter Gary Dauberman's familiarity with The Exorcist—Dauberman is a veteran of the Conjuring universe, having scripted multiple entries—the Church sends a pair of investigators to the abbey, one older and one younger. The older one, Father Burke (Demián Bichir, A Better Life), is an experienced exorcist. The younger one is Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, American Horror Story), a novitiate, whose innocence and history of visions make her both useful in this endeavor and perilously vulnerable to demonic attack. In what is no doubt a conscious reversal, in this story it is the older of the Church's two soldiers who brings a heavy weight of conscience to the task. Father Burke is haunted by memories of a boy who died from an earlier exorcism, and just as The Exorcist's demon taunted the young Father Karras with visions of his deceased mother, Father Burke will repeatedly have to contend with the specter of the boy he couldn't save as he attempts to free the abbey from the spirit possessing it.

Director Corin Hardy (The Hallow) neatly orchestrates an alternating rhythm of spooky foreboding, abrupt jump-scares and terrifying confrontations with Valak and its manifestations, of which the most fearsome is the title character played by actress Bonnie Aarons in heavy prosthetics. The Nun is more effective than several of its Conjuring predecessors, in large part because it is more efficient, avoiding narrative bloat and getting straight to business with creepy dark spaces, frightful encounters with evil spirits and supernatural threats to life and limb. It also doesn't overstay its welcome, speedily wrapping up after a tautly edited hour and a half. Still, if you're familiar with the many sources from which Hardy and his creative team are drawing, whether consciously or not, you can't help but sit back and tick off the references instead of being drawn into the chilling atmosphere that The Nun works so hard to establish. It's an effective haunted house ride, but everything in it has been borrowed from a long list that includes The Exorcist, The Omen, The Shining, Hammer horror (check out the unearthly mist in the opening scene), The Evil Dead series, John Carpenter's fright canon (especially The Fog), Don't Look Now and Dracula films from Browning to Coppola (the setting is, after all, Transylvania). Wan & Co. have hit on a clever formula by updating established horror tropes with modern filmmaking technology, and The Nun is one of their better efforts, but it can't escape the lingering sensation that we've seen it all before. It should come with a label reading "Made from Recycled Materials".

Horror remains one of the most popular genres in movies, which is why aspiring independent filmmakers so often get their first break with horror scripts, because there's always financing available. Wan and co-producer Peter Safran have created a gold standard with their mini-studio inside Warner, reliably cranking out thrills and chills on an annual basis. Given The Nun's success, don't expect them to quit anytime soon. Warner's Blu-ray is well-produced (except for the usual SDA™) and is highly recommended for fans of The Conjuring universe.

[CSW] -2.3- The Nun boasts strong performances, spooky atmospherics, some decent set-pieces, and the environment, setting, and score are satisfyingly daunting. But its sins include inconsistent logic and narrative slackness. For fans of The Conjuring universe, this film fits well as a prequel to The Conjuring or as sequel to The Conjuring 2. As a prequel to the Conjuring movies, The Nun delves into the history. In actuality there is a history even inside this movie that DOES show the true beginning. Play close attention to the beginning and the end as they will tie everything together.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box slightly enhanced this movie.


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