The Nun

Appallingly cliched. Slow and boring. Not even the Conjuring hype could save this film. It moves forward at a painful pace, brings nothing new to the table, and is not even scary.

Overall I liked The Nun it was a spooky fun movie with some pretty good shots and scenes (lighting, camera angles, and such). The transitions from one scene to another was a bit off and the story overall had a more fantasy tone over the more grounded and realistic tone The Conjuring and Annabelle movies had. Much of the story felt like it was just forced to setup a shot or scene which does hurt it. It isn't a perfect movie but I'd watch it again. It is like Indiana Jones meets Silent Hill. None of the character actors felt out of place or superficial either, I really appreciate that. Everyone felt believable and natural to their roles and environment, not forced.

Horror is baaaaack! And with a vengeance.

The Nun is not for people that don’t like horror movies or burnt out on them. Don't expect character development either. Don't expect to be shock like you were when you watched The Exorcist. I’ve read several critic reviews were they just don’t get it. They use words to describe it like “using every trick in the horror trope” or “predictable”, “throwing the kitchen sink at”, or “not enough character development”. Well forget what you heard because there is more bite to this movie than you’d expect.

Okay, so we begin with a spooky opening sequence where two nuns are fighting to save humanity from a malevolent presence that is about to enter our world. One is dragged into a room and the other commits suicide by hanging. Suicide is a sin, right? Makes you wonder what type of evil is powerful enough to destroy Catholic nuns?

Being the beginning of The Conjuring movie universe, this story begins like this, Father Burke (Demién Bichir) is summoned by the Vatican to investigate the suicide of a nun at The Abbey, a castle located somewhere in Romania. Apparently Father Burke has a trauma and a shameful past after having failed to save a teen from an exorcism he performed. Makes you wonder why The Vatican would send a priest like Father Burke on such a dangerous mission. The Vatican doesn’t send Father Burke alone on this task though. They assign Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), who hasn’t yet taken her vows. A nun that hasn't taken her vows yet, and not your typical nun either. She's contrary to the average nun. She seems so innocent.

Father Burke and Sister Irene are taken to The Abbey by a local delivery man, Frechie (Jonas Bloquet). (You may remember Frenchie as the first exorcism performed by The Warrens from the original The Conjuring. Lorraine Warren has the painting of The Nun at their home and references it in the film.) Sister Irene was chosen to go on this assignment because she experiences visions, these visi...

I wanted to like this movie because it's connected to Conjuring movies, but it was awful, even from the start it was obvious.

It was a dull, boring movie with cheap jump scares. The only reason I'm giving it 4 and not 3, because it was shot nicely and acting wasn't that bad.

The Nunjuring!

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...

So here we have the latest spin-off from the one time high quality "Conjuring" franchise. Sticking strictly to a formula that will either infuriate or satiate horror genre fans, "The Nun" delivers enough creepy boo-jump tropes to keep it above average. There's plenty of roaming about dark corridors and churchyards, with lanterns our only prominent saviours from the terrors of the dark. If, and it's a big if, you don't mind that Corin Hardy's film isn't trying to raise the bar for horror, and is in fact staying safe, then there's a decent enough good time to be had here. If you be one of those who constantly moans about bringing nothing new to the table, don't bother with this one, in fact, think of something new to bring to the table yourselves then...

The set-pieces hold up well enough (buried alive shiver shiver), the atmospheric dread only occasionally punctured by Abel Korzeniowski's bombastic score. The story is interesting enough, such as why the entity is bringing terror to the abbey, what is the link to the "Warren" family, and the backstory axis for Father Burke (Demián Bichir) brings another demonic layer to the plotting. While talking about "bringing something new to the table", for the first time in this series we actually get a bit of humour, mostly from Jonas Bloquet's likable Frenchie character. Taissa Farmiga holds the lead well, where she has a very appealing visual reaction style that will serve her well if she stays in genre mode. While Maxime Alexandre's cinematography (low lights and fogs) is a big improvement from "Annabelle: Creation" and is tonally compliant.

This formula has been done much better previously, such as Hammer's take on "The Woman In Black", but even then they were going on about new stuff being brought to the ta...

Not the literal worst entry in the series (that laurel still rests firmly upon the crown of Annabelle) and there was a couple of cool design moments, like creepy hands busting out of statues, even the acting is of acceptable level. But that's about everything positive I can say for The Nun, 'cause this is pretty dang bad.

Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.

It looks like they attempted to make an inoffensive horror movie...not really in the PC sense of the word, but in the "we are going to do just enough to get an 'R' rating in an otherwise PG movie" sense of the word.

It's not really frightening. It's not really scary, it's not really gory, and the nun herself is not really ominous.

It just sort of is.

And, really, it could be a lot better.

'The Nun' is a let down. Based upon the glimpses we kept getting of this character in the preceding films from 'The Conjuring' universe, I was looking forward to seeing a movie about this character. Sadly, it's not a good watch.

Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga (surname makes sense, I did think that she looked like Vera) and Jonas Bloquet aren't the worst actors to follow, in fact I didn't mind them, but their performances and their characters are equally forgettable. No-one else makes a mark onscreen.

How Valak is portrayed is the issue, the close-ups really do take the creep factor away - same can be said for when the demons speak too, that village idiot line is very out of place. I do approve that The Nun moves about though, which is better than it largely staying still - à la 'Annabelle'. Longer shots and more silence would've done wonders.

Six releases in, this franchise has been a rather large disappointment. Fingers crosssed the most recent four movies manage to satisfy me.

It had good (not great) horror potential given the build up from 'The Conjuring' Franchise. However, the storyline just bottomed out completely from the very first few minutes. The dead "evil nun" haunting and killing the living became a cliché faster than it took for the sequel to be released. Which was, dare I say, worse. May all of your upcoming movies be far less wretched. May The Force Be With You! (whoops! wrong quote!)