I have a great respect for the first two Conjuring movies and for one of the two Annabelle movies. All told, this shared universe of horror movies is a very strong one and I enjoyed immensely with that one exception we don’t talk about with the evil doll and the boring white people with the baby and it was the first Annabelle movie. Now, we have The Nun… the story of how Valek, the demon from The Conjuring 2, came into our world.
This is a weird one to me because, in my opinion, Valek’s story was over with in The Conjuring 2. It didn’t seem to me like there was any more story to tell. Mind you, that’s not going to stop The Nun from telling the story that didn’t need to be told.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that The Nun is a horrible movie because it most certainly isn’t, but it is dull and that’s almost worse.
I respect many of the choices in this movie, as a matter of fact. Changing up the time period, the locale, and the setting from the other Conjurverse movies is inspired and sets this movie apart from the others. Unfortunately, what this movie does is almost indistinguishable from what thousands of other movies have done before it. This change in scenery might be new to The Conjurverse, but it’s old hat for horror.
It’s not all bad though. There are some ideas here that are interesting and there are a few scenes that actually are pretty chilling, but they’re all mixed into a movie that feels old and relies on old tricks and tropes. It just does not justify giving The Nun its own movie.
Annabelle and it’s sequel, even with their numerous faults, felt justified and felt like stories that had to be told. The Nun feels like a movie that was made simply to make money and never makes the case for itself.
The end result is a movie that is unsurprising, cliched, and more often than not, boring.
Jason Gaston 