The Nun II is the latest horror film included in The Conjuring franchise. Michael Chaves is the director of this film in which it took three people to write the script for some inexplicable reason. Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and Akela Cooper all put their heads together for this one and still managed to not hit it out of the park. Taissa Farmiga reprises her role as Sister Irene who encountered the demonic nun in the previous film entitled, somewhat unsurprisingly, The Nun. Storm Reid is introduced as the young, hip Sister Debra, who doesn’t mind an occasional cigarette. Jonas Bloquet, Anna Popplewell, and Bonnie Aarons are included in the cast. Aarons returns as the demonic nun and does a fine job of looking creepy and, well…. demonic.
Sister Irene has found a convent to serve in Italy after her previous encounter with the Demon Nun. Maurice, played by Bloquet, is working at a boarding school in France, but he is not quite himself since he has become a carrier for the Nun. A series of gruesome deaths has caught the attention of the Cardinal, and Sister Irene is asked to take a look to see of the Demon Nun was not yet out for the count. She is joined by Sister Debra, the almost obligatory streetwise nun, and the two of them set off to France to find an old friend of Irene’s and an ancient foe in a habit. They learn of the Nun’s latest unholy quest and try to get ahead of her so they can send her back to where she belongs.
A nun with a rebellious streak has become par for the course for movies steeped in Catholic overtures. Saying that, I did find Sister Debra’s spunk kind of endearing though not that original. Reid is rather interesting and charismatic addition to the cast. Farmiga did well enough in the lead role, but there was not much that was not seen before. There were some moments in the film that were effectively creepy but not terribly original. There’s a weird goat creature that shows up suddenly which I found to be more distracting than anything else.
This is another offering that I found to be a mixed bag. It was not without some merit. The special effects worked well enough. It was shot on location, so I enjoyed the background setting. The performances were pretty good. It does well enough on hitting all the expected notes for a film in this genre. Not everything in the plot made sense, but that’s also a somewhat expected crack when it comes to this series.
The overall film was pretty average, but at least managed to be somewhat entertaining and occasionally startling. Basically, this is not the horror film that’s going to keep me up at night. The film was still done well enough to leave me curious enough to see where the franchise goes, so all was not lost in this cinematic indulgence.
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