The Nun (Mini Review Series)

Initial release date: September 7, 2018

Studios: Warner Bros./ New Line Cinema/ Atomic Monster/ The Safran Company

Tagline: Witness the Darkest Chapter in The Conjuring Universe

Pray For Forgiveness

She Doesn’t Forgive

Plot: 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 a demonic nun.

Cast

Demian Bichir (Godzilla vs. Kong) - Father Burke

Taissa Farmiga (The Mule) - Sister Irene

Jonas Bloquet - Frenchie

Bonnie Aarons (Jakob’s Wife) - The Nun

Ingrid Bisu (The Conjuring 3) - Sister Oana

Charlotte Hope - Sister Victoria

Sandra Teles - Sister Ruth

Lynette Gaza - Mother Superior

Ani Sava - Sister Jessica

Michael Smiley - Bishop Pasquale

Writer: Gary Dauberman (Annabelle trilogy)

Director: Corin Hardy

Rated R for terror, violence and disturbing/bloody images (96 min)

‘The Nun’ is the last of the ‘Conjuring’ Universe that I will be taking another look at.

The opening few moments of this ‘Conjuring’ spin-off is actually quite chilling, and honestly, a great way to start the horror flick off. ‘The Nun’ does feature a couple of decent, little scares and the dark atmosphere that is shown throughout the movie is really cringey and creepy.

The haunting music that is heard also helps set the tone and mood for this gothic horror flick.

Besides the dark and creepy atmosphere and the haunting music, those are the major highlights of this horror movie. The origins of the “Demon Nun” and some of the scares that happen toward the middle of the movie are kinda bland and very predictable.

The final act of the horror flick is all over the place and the last couple minutes leads into the first ‘Conjuring’ with the possessed farmer shown during one of the Warrens presentations being one of the characters in this movie. It could’ve worked alright if they used the same actor that portrayed the bit role of the farmer in the original movie to tie it in better. You can easily tell that it was re-shot just to fit it into the ‘Conjuring’ narrative. But, they probably just couldn’t think of a better twist to end the movie.

Here are a few interesting tidbits about ‘The Nun:

• The movie was shot entirely in Romania. Filming took place at the Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, and in Sighișoara, Transylvania, Romania, and also at Mogosoaia Palace, near Bucharest, Romania.

• The events take place before ‘Annabelle: Creation,’ making it the first movie (chronologically) in the film series. Although the opening scenes of ‘Creation’ take place before ‘The Nun,’ the rest occurs afterward.

• After the “Demon Nun” from ‘The Conjuring 2’ proved to be a popular horror antagonist, a spin-off focusing on the character was green-lit, making her the second character to get her own feature after ‘Annabelle. The Crooked Man, also from ‘The Conjuring 2,’ is rumored to get his own spin-off feature.

• The movie was originally set to hit cinemas in mid-July 2018 but was pushed back closer to Halloween season on September 7, in hopes of being as successful at the box office as 2017s ‘It’ did the previous year, which smashed records and earned more that $700 million worldwide.

• At the end of the movie, a scene from ‘The Conjuring’ is shown where Ed and Lorraine are performing an exorcism on Maurice. This scene links the Maurice from that video as being the same Maurice from this movie, but they edited the scene to fit into the narrative of ‘The Nun’: they edited Jonas Bloquet into the exorcism scene, as he used to be played by a different actor. They added in dialogue of Ed saying “they called him Frenchie,” so as to make a better connection.

• A potential ‘Nun’ sequel is currently in development.