Review of The Nun (2018) by Pirante — 15 Sep 2018

The movie has good and bad points but the big issue are the key elements the movie gets wrong. I'll briefly sum it up.

Positives:

- Excellent visuals, no less than you'd expect from the franchise.

- Good film score that compliments the on screen action well.

- It is scary at its core and, whether or not you enjoy it, you will likely feel those hair-raising moments.

- A good villain. The imagery (a demonic nun) is a strong, evil character to be the antagonist.

- In terms of tying in with the franchise I feel the movie connects itself adequately to the others.

Negatives:

- Over does the jump scares. They frighten in the moment but add little to the sense of dread/tense atmosphere and, after a while, negatively affect those atmospheric elements.

- The three main protagonists are all weak characters. 'Frenchy' does the annoying thing of making humorous quips at moments were a humorous quip would be the last thing somebody would utter. The priest is simply useless and continually gets himself into trouble without really helping anyone. The main lead again lacks any sort of power and it makes the plot feel very unbalanced - Valak should be able to, given how weak and ineffectual they are, be able to kill them all within the first 10 minutes of the movie.

- Lack of padding. The characters are not good because a back story, for any of them, is almost entirely lacking. We're given glimpses of the priests and that is it (the demon boy Daniel is given literally zero explanation, he simply provides a mechanism to keep haunting the priest). The reason for the main protagonist's selection to accompany the priest is very sketchy and not explained well (if at all). 'Frenchy' and his background is by the same measure completely lacking. It makes the characters feel very hollow and makes it very difficult to empathise with said characters predicament(s).

- Pacing. I found the first half of the movie scarier and better paced. There were genuinely scary moments (graveyard of crosses scene, initial moments at the castle) and these were helping build a story. The second half loses its way and jumps to a series of increasingly unlikely events in order to move the plot forward. These feel forced and, though individual scenes still pack a punch, the disjointed nature of the plot causes the film to lose its way. This is probably the weakest aspect of the movie. -- The ending. It feels weak and somewhat anti-climactic. I may be alone in this but after previous events in the movie this lacks impact and feels cheap. It seems obvious to me that 'Frenchy' would be possessed, surely you would try to check this given what we are told about the demon (it needs a human soul). There are also plot holes that remain largely unexplained i.e. is the demon was cast back into the protective gate how/why was it also in possession of Frenchy at the close? Not a deal breaker but there are too many of these holes in the plot.

- Over using the same horror elements. The possessed nun is used, and not just for Valak, repeatedly in the movie. I felt it was far too much and, by the end of the movie, the demonic nun (a horror character I actually like) loses pretty much all of its impact.

- It is not believable. This sounds stupid because few horror movies are. But with the precedents set by The Conjuring 1 & 2 and other James Wan projects they have a feeling of being real. You can suspend reality for a few hours and allow yourself to buy into the story they sell. I never had that feeling during this movie and always felt the movie was too far-fetched in its execution (the blood of christ a particularly daft idea).

Conclusion:

An OK horror movie that has serious flaws. It will also suffer due to being compared to the other movies in the franchise (which are far superior in my view). Maybe not one to pay movie ticket prices for but OK for a casual viewing at home.