The Nun II Review
This week The Conjuring: Last Rites hits theaters. This is the final film in The Conjuring franchise. That means today is the last day of my Conjuring review series and today we’re talking about The Nun II. Is this movie any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Review
This is an interesting film that I sort of forgot came out. Granted this was the first time I watched this film but there really wasn’t much buzz when this film came out. Beyond that The Nun from 2018 isn’t a great film so I didn’t go into this film with particularly high expectations. I’ll say, this film is right on part with the original. If you saw my review of the 2018 film you know that I didn’t hate the film, but it was a film that fell into that mediocre middle ground of being bland and generic. The Nun II continues to follow that and it’s just another bland and generic film. When I told a friend of mine that I was watching this film, he used a lot of words to describe this film and they were not friendly. Maybe in a sense this film surprised me because my expectations were pretty low due to the first one and then my friend not being kind to the film.
There’s a number of things about this film that I do think are better than the original. First up, the film is directed by Michael Chaves who has sort of become this franchise’s go to guy to direct several of the films. He also directed The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and the upcoming The Conjuring: Last Rites. I think he’s a better director than whoever directed The Nun. He’s a more competent director that has a visual style that’s more interesting and unique. There’s a scene that’s shown in the trailers of The Nun creature appearing through magazines and the way it’s visualized was very cool. It’s this very unique way to do a scare and to add something different into the mix. It’s not a scare or a visual that we’ve seen done before. The entire film feels a bit more polished, it feels more competent that the creative behind this film put more thought into this film and therefore they made a better film. I’m not trying to praise Chaves as one of the greatest horror directors of all time. James Wan is still the best director of this franchise but if Wan is out and not directing anymore Conjuring films, Chaves is a decent but not great replacement.
From there I think one of the best things they did to this film was they made the film much bigger. The 2018 film largely took place at this old castle in Romania and so there’s just this big creepy environment that they’re in, it made the film as a whole feel dull and bland. With this film there’s scenes that take place at a church, but there’s also just scenes that take place in the city and outside that just feel bigger. Our characters are going to different environments all throughout the film. There’s more characters in the film which means there’s a higher body count so there’s more scares and carnage happening. There’s a kid involved given the nature of the plot. I’ve said in some of my previous Conjuring reviews I said that I was getting a bit tired of the franchise constantly putting kids in danger. I thought this film earned the kids being in danger given the nature of the plot and where the film was set. I didn’t mind that the kids were in danger because it tied into the plot and some of the character arcs in the film.
At the same time, going back to what I said earlier, this film is fine. I didn’t find it offensive or the worst horror of the franchise of the decade. But it’s just so frustrating and weird that none of these spinoffs in the Conjuring universe are fantastic. I don’t know what exactly is going on or why they can’t recruit better talent for these films like how they did with James Wan for the first couple of films. It’s a film that you watch and it’s fine, it’s watchable and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. You get to the credits and you kind of just move on. I watched the film a couple of days ago and don’t really remember much about it. I hate to sound like a broken record here, but that’s sort of the case with so many of these films. You watch them, you enjoy them well enough, and then you move on.
Final Thoughts: When I do my Conjuring ranking this weekend, don’t expect this film to be ranked very high. But also don’t expect this film to be ranked at the bottom. For me, this is probably the film of the franchise that’s just sort of there for me. The films above it and below it have elements about it that are more memorable and stand out to me. When I watched The Nun II, there’s better direction with a bigger scope but that’s really all I remember about this film which probably isn’t a good thing.
The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)
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