During the past decade, Hollywood has made several attempts at replicating Marvel’s success with its cinematic universe approach, only to see most of the attempts flounder before ever getting off the ground. Warner Brothers is responsible for the most high-profile and infamous misfire in the DC Extended Universe, currently sputtering its way to a complete universe. However, the stalwart studio also boasts the second most successful cinematic universe in THE CONJURING and its various spin-offs. You have to wonder if someone futzed around with a monkey’s paw on the Warner lot at some point because it’s pretty ironic that the studio has struggled to translate its pre-existing comic book universe to the big screen while James Wan and company have orchestrated a horror franchise from the exploits of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a pair of relatively obscure paranormal researchers whose cultural influence is dwarfed by the likes of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
And yet here we are talking about THE NUN II, the eighth (or ninth, depending on if you count 2019’s THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA) entry in the CONJURING cinematic universe. First glimpsed as an ominous harbinger of doom in the second film, the titular demonic nun took center stage in its own gothic-tinged spin-off in 2018 to mixed results. While the change in locale to 1950s Europe gives it a distinct flavor, it also resorts to some familiar spook-a-blast parlor tricks that aren’t as inventive or intricately staged as its predecessors. It’s mostly fine, the cinematic equivalent of a dark ride in search of a compelling mythology to hold it all together, but ultimately leaves you wishing for something either more substantial or totally off the rails. Five years later, THE NUN II hints at taking the latter approach by bringing Akela Cooper (MALIGNANT, MEGAN) aboard as a writer, giving this sequel some immediate intrigue. If nothing else, Cooper’s presence inspires some hope that the film will at least indulge the blasphemous potential of its premise, or, at the very least, just go buck wild in a way the first film rarely did.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly bear out since THE NUN II is mostly more of the same. Set a few years after the previous film, it finds Sister Irene in an Italian convent, where she carries out her duties in anonymity. Her exploits at Saint Cartha’s monastery have become the stuff of legend, campfire tales shared by her fellow nuns who are completely unaware of Irene’s heroic efforts to exorcize Valak (Bonnie Aarons). Soon enough, though, the Vatican comes knocking due to a resurgence in demonic activity because she’s the only one with any kind of paranormal experience following Father Burke’s (Demián Bichir) recent death. Like Russell Crowe’s Pope’s Exorcist, she’s dispatched as Vatican 007 to investigate a rash of hauntings, only to discover that her old pal Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) has been present for each of them. Correctly surmising that Valek has attached itself to her friend, Irene and a novice nun named Debra (Storm Reid) embark for the French boarding school where Maurice serves as a gardener.
THE NUN II takes the safest, most obvious sequel route by offering up more of the same, an approach that comes as no surprise because THE CONJURING series is nothing if not safe and obvious. Formula is to be expected with franchise filmmaking, but this particular franchise ruthlessly adheres to the notion of “dancing with who brought you.” Despite spanning different time periods and continents, these films are all reliably built spook-a-blasts whose minor cosmetic changes do little to distinguish the cinematic haunted attraction approach. You pay your token, and the carnie pulls the lever, sending you on a thrill ride. In this case, it’s franchise vet Michael Chaves at the helm, and he doesn’t do much to upend the experience.
He also doesn’t do much to liven it up, either. Lapsing into formula isn’t inherently lousy, as the strongest entries in this series have managed to be quite playful and inventful while coloring inside of the lines. It’s no surprise that this has happened most often with James Wan at the helm or when his replacements put on an inspired James Wan imitation. For his part, Chaves did an admirable enough job of this with THE CONJURING 3; his other outings, however, leave a little to be desired. There’s just something altogether dry about THE NUN II that’s especially disappointing: outside of a handful of sequences, it feels entirely on the rails, and the ride wears especially thin with a 110-minute runtime that never quite feels necessary since there’s very little sense of atmosphere or escalation to its predictable procession of scare sequences. You know the drill here—something vaguely menacing lurks in the distance of the frame (or perhaps just off-frame) before it roars on screen with all the subtlety of a pile of dishes crashing to the floor. Some occasionally clever imagery — like when Valak forms an image of itself out of magazines in a newsstand — emerges here, providing a fleeting glimpse of a more inspired take on the material.
Formulaic films tend to either feel content or confident in their familiarity, and THE NUN II falls in the former category. Mostly, it feels afraid to be truly confrontational or disreputable. Characters often insist that Valak is the most abhorrent of fiends because he takes the most blasphemous form imaginable as the titular nun, yet the films themselves rarely dare to be truly transgressive in any productive way. The first one at least had the decency to echo the gothic grotesquerie of Hammer Films for a couple of fun freak-outs, but this one is largely stripped of that critical ambiance. If anything, this one owes more of a debt to the likes of Indiana Jones since Irene and her sidekick spend a lot of time decoding clues and exploring the mythology of St. Lucy, some admittedly cool lore that unfortunately underscores what a missed opportunity these films have been. Like its predecessor, THE NUN II doesn’t dive deeply enough into the mythology, nor does it do much to bolster the presence of Valak himself. We’ve had two movies titled THE NUN that haven’t done much to make their title character anything more than an anonymous boogeyman fully capable of playing peek-a-boo.
Of course, that’s fully in line with THE CONJURING, a rare horror franchise where the recurring protagonists are often the draw in lieu of its boogeymen. THE NUN II embraces this by continuing the exploits of Irene and Maurice (despite the fact that the first film damned the latter to eternal torment, effectively undercutting any kind of happy ending these movies could have). Farmiga acquits herself well enough in this family business of sorts by providing the same steadfast presence her older sister has as Lorraine Warren, and her rapport with Reid provides that signature CONJURING melodrama. As much as these films are hailed for their oppressive, atmospheric horrors (they’ve all been R-rated despite featuring very little explicit violence or sex), they’re just as schmaltzy in their heart-on-sleeve sentimentality, and this one’s no different. During an early conversation, Irene’s young charge expresses her doubts about her faith, scoffing in particular at the absurdity of the eucharist. Irene gently reminds her that it’s faith that turns unassuming wine into Christ’s blood before expressing her belief that Debra will find her faith at the right time, a heavy-handed exchange that leaves no doubt that the climax will involve reheated EXORCIST leftovers. You’ve got to hand it to THE NUN II, though: this is no doubt the first instance of Chekhov’s eucharist in cinematic history.
But as admittedly fun as that is, it’s just another reminder that this franchise’s reliability has curdled into the doldrums. In adopting its characters’ steadfast faith, THE CONJURING has become fervent about its own sense of righteousness, promising what reality can’t: a happy ending where evil can always be vanquished. And, as the end credit tag here suggests, when evil resurfaces, help is only a phone call away as the franchise’s good Christian soldiers are always ready to do battle. You can set your watch to this series at this point, which might provide a sense of comfort for the devoted; however, THE NUN II suggests it’s time to shake up the formula going forward since this film also indicates that THE CONJURING isn’t being exorcized from our pop culture landscape any time soon.
Tags: Akela Cooper, Anna Popplewell, Bonnie Aarons, Demián Bichir, France, Gary Dauberman, Gregory Plotkin, Horror, James Wan, Jonas Bloquet, Marco Beltrami, Michael Chaves, Nuns, Patrick Wilson, Religion, Sequels, Storm Reid, Taissa Farmiga, Tristan Nyby, Vera Farmiga
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