THE NUN ■ Nun too pleasing
It seems that the creators of THE NUN are all too aware of how unfrightening and unoriginal their movie is. This is made increasingly more evident as you watch a movie whose biggest supernatural feat is to make the 96-minute running time feel like it’s oftentimes excruciatingly long.
You’ll likely start to clue on to the trajectory of lacklustre or even absent scares when you’re laughing more than gasping. The fact the humour is more effective than the scares is concerning. Despite an opening that’s effective in terms of setting a creepy tone, even if it’s not terribly logical in terms of the characters’ motivations, THE NUN quickly descends into a snore-fest with occasional stabs at flirting with wanting to be a gore-fest. This tonal confusion persists throughout.
As a prequel to THE CONJURING movies, there aren’t any surprises to be had, so you should know from the outset that the trio of Nun hunters are fated to fail. There are occasional moments of creepiness, but because the creators lean more into the humour, occasionally bordering on the goofiness of ARMY OF DARKNESS (minus the execution), THE NUN doesn’t deliver on the promise of its pitch: to scare the hell out of you.
There is a silver lining, though. THE NUN is performing well at the box office, and while that would normally be disappointing for the cons listed above, the quality shift between similarly themed spinoffs ANNABELLE (terrible) and ANNABELLE: CREATION (surprisingly sinister) means there’s hope yet that this particular nun can break her tame habits and have a shot at fright-filled redemption in the inevitable sequel.