While a little scarier than its predecessor, this spin-off sequel feels like it’s running on fumes.
James Wan’s The Conjuring has always stuck with me since I first saw it in theaters a decade ago, rekindling my passion for the horror genre by simply (and quite effectively) scaring the absolute hell out of me. It was a landmark moment for scary movies of the 2010s; when paired with Insidious (which also happened to be directed by Wan), it brought forth a wave of throwback haunted house flicks that would dominate theaters for years.
So it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that The Conjuring would go on to become its own huge horror franchise, complete with sequels, prequels and spin-offs. While there are certainly some strong outliers, the various films have been….uneven. The Nun II is the latest entry to hit theaters, acting as a sequel to 2018’s The Nun. That spin-off film was a mostly forgettable addition to the Conjuring mythos, but it did at least have a unique setting at a Romanian abbey that offered some interesting imagery.
But The Nun II has even less going for it. Michael Chaves (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) takes over directing duties from Corin Hardy this time around, and while he does imbue some solid style into the film’s many scary sequences, that ends up being about all the movie really is – a series of characters wandering around dark rooms and alleys until a demon or two pops up. Rinse and repeat for an hour and forty minutes.
Taissa Farmiga returns as Sister Irene, still reeling from her first deadly encounter with the demon nun, Valak (Bonnie Aarons), back in Romania. She and fellow survivor Maurice (Jonas Bloquet), who you probably won’t remember unless you rewatched the first movie right beforehand, find themselves in France this time around. Some new mysterious deaths appear to be linked to Valak and when Irene is sent to investigate, she finds herself facing off with the terrifying demon once again.
What ends up working for The Nun II is that it’s a good bit scarier than its predecessor. Chaves and cinematographer Tristan Nyby create a chilling sense of suspense and tension throughout the film’s various spooky scenes, while Aarons once again dominates the screen with sheer physical presence alone. The Nun herself is still pretty frightening, and is one of those rare movie ghosts / demons that can and will actually cause harm rather than just turn the lights off or move some furniture around.
The scare factor is there, but it’s hard to find much of anything else to enjoy or latch onto with this spin-off sequel. The plot is paper thin and the characters are exceptionally dull. Farmiga gives the role her all in a movie that can’t match her dedication, while Storm Reid, who joins the cast as Irene’s new companion Sister Debra, looks like she’d rather be doing anything else. Bloquet gets to play a little with Maurice being possessed, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen from better movies a thousand times before.
The Nun II comes across as a bunch of ideas for individual scare sequences and not much else; the actual story and characters feel like afterthoughts. Like the majority of the various Conjuring-verse movies, it’s not as if it’s a disaster by any means, it’s just overall unimpactful. There are certain moments from the original The Conjuring that have stuck with me for a decade and counting. I’d be surprised if I remember anything from The Nun II within the next couple of weeks.
‘The Nun II’ is now playing in theaters.
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