Black Girl Horror

You know that feeling when you have been craving some super bomb food for a really long time from your favorite place? Then you go to your favorite place and you order it and it’s not good? Like at all? That’s what The Nun was like.

With a tagline that boasts “Witness the darkest chapter in The Conjuring Universe” some big scares were definitely expected. The Nun is a spinoff of 2016’s The Conjuring 2. In that film, Lorraine Warren is haunted by a demon that looks like a nun. This film, set in 1952, is the prequel to The Conjuring movies. After seeing Annabelle Creation last year (one of the scariest movies I have ever seen) I expected way more from The Nun.

Let’s start here- the movie didn’t really have a plot. The Vatican sends a priest (played by Demian Bichir) and a “nun in training” (played by Vera Farmiga’s sister Taissa) to a cloistered abbey in Romania to investigate a nun’s suicide. They are aided by a man from the local village named Frenchie. Frenchie found the body of the nun and Father Burke and Sister Irene use him for information on the history of the abbey. The narrative has lots of holes in the plot. The movie never really explains why the Vatican selected Father Burker and Sister Irene other than they both have troubled pasts. The main story of the movie was really how these two people who are supposed to have the strongest of faith can question God. Sister Irene ends up taking her vows to become a nun during the climax. Their happy ending was their ability to stand firm in their faith after vanquishing (or so they thought) the demon.

The Nun also alters a scene from The Conjuring 2 to show that Frenchie is the possessed man shown during the lecture the Warrens are giving. This seemed like a really forced way to tie these movies together, unlike how they found a way to connect the two Annabelle movies.

The movie is full of jump scares that make you feel dumb for being scared after you jump. The movie is very dark and has an ominous feel to it. This movie delves the most into religion and spirituality, but mainly to tell the story of the main characters’ test of faith. The Nun is a great example of a movie franchise that should quit while they’re ahead (hello Insidious: The Last Key).

Definitely the darkest chapter in The Conjuring universe. Definitely not the scariest.