On Sept. 8, 2023, The Nun II was released as the sequel to The Nun, and the ninth installment in the conjuring universe franchise. The Conjuring film series, loved by many horror fans with its gripping storylines and beloved characters, is a dramatization of the real-life cases of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The original three films in the series, The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made me do it, follows the Warrens as they attempt to help people who find themselves being terrorized and possessed by demonic spirits. The spin-off films, such as Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle Comes Home, and The Nun, are more focused on the origin stories of the entities encountered in the previous movies.
Directed by Michael Chaves, and distributed by Warner Bros, this gothic supernatural horror film follows Sister Irene, four years after the ending of the first film, as she once again comes face to face with a demon nun, Valek, at a boarding school in 1956 France.
Based on characters by James Wan, who directed all the previous Conjuring movies, and Gary Dauberman, the cast consists of the original actors like Taissa Farmiga, who acted in the tv-show American Horror Story, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons, with the addition of new characters played by Storm Reid, who was in the adult TV-show Euphoria, and Anna Popplewell who played Susan in the film series The Chronicles of Narnia.
Tristan Nyby, who did the cinematography, and Akela Cooper, who produced the story, The Nun, is a prequel of 2016’s The Conjuring 2. The first film follows a Roman Catholic priest and a nun in her novitiate as they uncover a dark and benevolent secret in 1952 Romania. The Nun II picks up from the original storyline.
The movie, similar to the first, shares a familiar dark and eerie color contrast, full of darker color palettes like dark greys and blacks. The music adds to the foreboding essence and feeling of the movie and for the evil that is to come.
The film touches on religious subjects, and tackles those more in depth than the first movie. We follow the idea of salvation from evil and how the faith of those who believe in their religion are what can defeat evil.
Compared to the first movie, the jumpscares are more frequent, and far more intense than the first. Not cheap jumpscares, but genuine stomach wrenching scares that have you questioning what you’re seeing. The movie does well in blending the jumpscares into the scenes without revealing them instantly, and instead having them come up out of nowhere to frighten viewers.
The film itself is fast paced, and thrilling. There are no particular moments where the movie truly slows down, which made it a bit underwhelming. The plot of the movie itself was intriguing, leaving somewhat of a vague ending, having viewers question the plot of the previous films, and what truly happened in the time period between the last nun film, and the first conjuring film.
Unlike the first, it’s slightly more religiously driven. Covering the history of saints and stories told and passed through the catholic faith. The brief history intertwines itself into the storyline, and to some degree compliments the movie well.
Yet at the same time it weakens some aspects of the movie by not having it completely develop efficiently enough. We get some information on the saint whose story we’re following, but the concept feels rushed and jammed into the overall story, not developing well enough to have a larger impact. Although it does have a somewhat satisfying ending.
