THE NUN Review

After the debut of the wildly successful Conjuring franchise, Warner Bros. greenlit a series of spin-offs and prequels. We are now on the third film, The Nun (2018), which is unfortunately a film that solely relies on its prior properties to makeup for its mostly run of the mill scares and characters.

Taking place before all of the previous films, The Nun (2018) begins with a young nun taking her own life after an encounter with dark forces. After her body is found, the Vatican enlists Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to investigate the circumstances around her death as well as the castle that is suspected to be the cause of the tragedy.

For a film with stellar production design as well as direction, it is still unfortunately a mostly standard horror flick, packed with disposable characters, jump scares, and story beats that you can see coming from a mile away. This franchise has undoubtably strayed very far away from its roots.

This isn’t to say it isn’t fun or entertaining, because it very much is. Fans of the franchise as well as horror junkies will likely enjoy this as a one time watch, especially since the Halloween season is approaching, but it’s a film that probably won’t be as enjoyable the second time.

The production design is stellar as well. Between the atmospheric woods, to the creepy castle, they really nailed the look. This is also in part because of the incredible direction from Corin Hardy. The way the camera navigates each scene is stellar, and gives the film a overall creepy vibe.

It also does a pretty incredible job at fitting into the universe. All of the various easter eggs and callbacks (including the ending) to the other films are extremely delightful for fans of the franchise like myself, and the film does a pretty good job at establishing the Valak character in the mythology.

Overall, The Nun (2018) might not be the most original horror film, and often becomes pretty run of the mill, but it is definitely going to please casual horror fans and fans of the franchise alike.

Final Score: 7 out of 10.

The Nun • Run time 1:36 • Rated R - for terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images