Most people would probably look at Warner Bros. Pictures’ attempt at a cinematic universe as being poorly done at this point. That’s primarily because they would be looking at the DCEU or whatever it’s called at the moment. If I’m correct, those people are ignoring the nice work this studio has done with the cinematic universe of The Conjuring. Including The Nun, most of these movies (except for Annabelle) have been decent at the very least.
Serving as yet another prequel within The Conjuring universe, The Nun follows a priest (Demián Bichir) and a novitiate (Taissa Farmiga) who are sent to Romania by the Vatican to investigate the apparent suicide of a young nun. What they meet when they get there is a mysterious type of resistance. Undeterred, the two move forward in the face of a rising tide of danger until they eventually run into a malevolent force that threatens the lives and souls of anyone who comes into contact with it.
One thing that I noticed about The Nun is that they actually tried to turn this into a real movie rather than just having it be a typical horror film. As someone who wants to see more of an effort to make horror movies into legitimate films more often, this is something that I can respect and appreciate. This also helps in this particular case because it doesn’t allow for what we get in the early going to be as boring as it could have been.
In the first couple of acts, there aren’t as many attempts to scare us as you might be hoping for going in. Under normal circumstances, this could really damage a scary movie, but because they try to create an authentic cinematic experience, the movie never really gets to the point where it’s incredibly uninteresting. That’s not to say there isn’t a lull after a while as we wait for the horror. Since we’re watching for that reason, I did find myself getting a little impatient waiting for it to take on a more prominent position.
When we do get to the scares, I think most people will be satisfied with what they get. Of course, most of that is seen in the third and final act. What we get here is good mainly because of how it’s all handled. From the start, it isn’t really rushed and actually builds like you would expect the first act of a film would as it heads into its second act. This causes a feeling of tension that increases as everything begins to escalate. Because of this, there’s a sense of danger that rushes in when it’s needed.
All things considered, The Nun is a horror movie that I would watch again even though I can’t definitively recommend it to others. It’s not the high quality horror film that it aspires to be, but it eventually delivers much of what you will be going to see it for. That’s something I didn’t think I would say while watching the early parts, but the movie left me satisfied as it concluded. In the end, I guess that’s a large part of what counts.
Rating: R
Director: Corin Hardy
Cast:
Demián Bichir
Taissa Farmiga
Jonas Bloquet
Charlotte Hope
Ingrid Bisu
Bonnie Aarons
Film Length: 96 minutes
Release Date: September 7, 2018
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
