The Nun II (2023) New Line/Horror RT: 110 minutes Rated R (violent content and some terror) Director: Michael Chaves Screenplay: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and Akela Cooper Music: Marco Beltrami Cinematography: Tristan Nyby Release date: September 8, 2023 (US) Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Storm Reid, Anna Popplewell, Bonnie Aarons, Katelyn Rose Downey, Suzanne Bertish, Leontine d’Oncieu, Anouk Darwin Homewood, Peter Hudson, Tamar Baruch, Natalia Safran, Maxime Elias-Menet, Pascal Aubert, Alexandra Gentil, Florence Mestais. Box Office: $86.3M (US)/$269.5 (World)
Rating: **
And the fall movie season has begun! With the last of the summer movies already fading from memory, it’s time for a whole new batch of films to forget. First out of the gate is The Nun II, a so-so sequel to the equally so-so 2018 fright flick and latest entry in the ever-expanding Conjuring Universe. They really needn’t have bothered.
I wasn’t a fan of The Nun when I saw it about five years ago. A second viewing this past week didn’t change anything. It’s still a slow and murky slog through familiar territory. I feel the same about The Nun II. It repeats a lot of the same mistakes as its predecessor including and especially the tendency to show the titular malevolent entity at every opportunity. That would be Valak (fourth time around for Bonnie Aarons), the “Demon Nun” still making life hell for young Sister Irene (Farmiga, American Horror Story). As with the first Nun, I couldn’t resist saying “there’s that news van again” when Valak showed up for the umpteenth time. Philadelphians will get the reference.
Four years after the events of The Nun, Sister Irene is once again called upon by the Vatican to investigate something strange and possibly supernatural. It would appear that Valak wasn’t sent back to the depths of hell at the end of the OG. Somehow she escaped and is currently wreaking havoc on religious figures across Europe. The latest victim is a French priest who was immolated in his own church. Although she’d prefer not to, Irene accepts the assignment. She’s joined by noviciate nun Debra (Reid, The Invisible Man) who’s going through a crisis of faith (of course she is).
If you saw the first Nun, then you know the source of the evil is Maurice (Bloquet, Elle), the French-Canadian villager who helped Sister Irene conquer the evil infesting the Romanian abbey. He’s possessed by the Demon Nun who’s looking for another ancient holy relic that will give her unlimited power unless she’s stopped. He’s working as a groundskeeper at a girls boarding school in France. He’s become attached to Sophie (Downey, Clean Sweep) and her mother Kate (Popplewell, The Chronicles of Narnia), a teacher at the school. The school, which used to be a monastery then a winery, houses a chapel where students are forbidden to enter. Take a guess where the relic is hidden.
That’s The Nun II in a nutshell. I’ve given you all the pertinent info in as few words as possible. Director Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) doesn’t do the audience that courtesy. He drags it out to nearly two hours. We don’t even hear about the relic until after the one-hour mark. There’s also some business about a martyred saint named Lucy. Oh, I mustn’t forget to mention the goat monster that terrorizes some of the students in the climax. Up until that point, The Nun II was operating within the bounds of believability assuming you believe in demonic possession and other Catholic horrors. When the goat shows up, any and all credibility flies out the stained glass window.
The Nun II commits the worst mortal sin a horror movie can. It’s NOT scary. There are plenty of attempts at jump-scares, but they all fail because (1) the best ones were shown in the trailer and (2) you can see them coming a mile away. That’s in addition to seeing Demon Nun in every other scene. There’s a lot of truth to the notion of the unseen being scarier than what can be seen. There’s a reason the most effective horror movies keep their ghosts and boogeyman hidden in the shadows. The pacing is another problem. It’s deathly slow. That’s not to say The Nun II is completely disinteresting. On the contrary, some of it sort of is. Unfortunately, all of it is predictable. When two characters have a conversation about converting wine into the blood of Christ early on, you know it’s somehow going to factor into the finale. It isn’t just a random discussion.
Farmiga does a decent job as Sister Irene who’s having mom issues this time around. I won’t get into it except to say she lost her mother at a young age and still struggles with it. It gives her character a little more depth. Bloquet is okay as Maurice, a kindly man grappling with the evil inside him. His friendship with little Sophie is sweet and not at all creepy. Reid is fine as young Sister Debra, an American who dealt with racism and poverty back home in Mississippi. She’s mostly around to act as the helpful sidekick while Sister Irene plays a holy version of Nancy Drew.
The effects in The Nun II are nothing special. It’s the same old CGI we’ve seen in other Conjuring-related movies. There’s no shortage of that here. What’s missing is the atmosphere of the first movie. That’s about the only thing the OG got right.
Let me sum it up for you. The Nun II is the same old claptrap. It’s a collection of horror clichés and tropes familiar to fans of the genre. The problem is nobody seems to care enough to make a legit attempt at making them work. The Nun II is as clockwork as horror movies come. It’s not a bad movie and it’s definitely not a good movie either. It’s an indifferent one. As such, I’m indifferent about it too.
P.S. Be sure to stay for a mid-credits scene featuring a couple of characters familiar to the Conjuring Universe. You can leave after that. There’s no end credits scene.
