Strap in and get ready for the thrill of your life: another vaguely creepy priest movie has hit the theaters and you’ll predict every second of it! Sounds exciting, right? With October in its grasp, no wonder Hollywood has jumped on the spook factor and graced us with a fairly interesting line-up of horror films. Releases to look forward to include Blumhouse’s new take on an old John Carpenter classic, Halloween (2018), or the interesting mash-up of war and mutant experimentation, Overlord (2018). Recently released, however, was a new addition to a long-lasting series of intertwined films, The Conjuring and Annabelle film series. All have different names, except the direct sequels, such as Annabelle Creation (2017), a clever ploy to entice the viewer with only subtle linking that they feel they’ve discovered themselves. This could produce more viewers because they just have to know more. On September 6th, a film to tie up loose ends graced the market: The Nun (2018).
This film is an origin story (so it stands as a prequel of sorts) of a dark demon like figure, known as Valek. The character shows up somewhere around the release of the second Conjuring in the form of a nun, which isn’t surprising once you’ve sat through The Nun (2018). This looming figure follows a pair paranormal investigators (husband and wife), seemingly with no ties to them other than their career. The Nun (2018) changes that.
Addressing characterization is crucial because it provides the tone of the film. We all know what to expect when going into a horror film based on our experiences with similar films. However, the mood set in this film was off in comparison to those before it, particularly because of one character, Frenchie. The man is a lowly French-Canadian farmer in a small Romanian village. What throws the tone is his comedic nature. In this series, and many other possession films such as Constantine (2014) or The Rite (2011), there haven’t been characters that joke to this extent. At one point, he grabs a shotgun to fight off a demon and uses it to bludgeon a walking corpse, explaining that it wasn’t important enough to waste bullets. Later, in a more intense scene, he fires a shot exclaiming that the time was now appropriate. Whether this was character building is unclear. Frenchie becomes a conduit for the demon, so it’s possible that they were trying to offer this as foreshadowing. Or maybe the writers thought to try something new and get an audience reaction. Either way, I am not sure it worked. The film was less creepy because of it and was cringe worthy at times.
Another less than satisfying factor is the plot. Not to suggest that the audience shouldn’t know what to expect, but the extent to which the film fulfills these expectations makes it worn out and generic. The Vatican summons a priest and a not yet vowed Nun to investigate grounds where a sister committed suicide. They were to decide whether the grounds were holy (shocker: they’re not). Upon arriving they meet cheeky Frenchie, who takes them into the woods by carriage until the horse won’t go any further due to its fright. They then venture further into the woods, arriving at the convent standing next to a graveyard where plague victims were once buried. Long story short, they spend the movie finding out that the demon is Valek, who has claimed the lives of every nun who once roamed the castle halls. Predictable, right? And because it’s part of a running series, the show must go on. The film ends with Frenchie being possessed and exercised by the before mentioned investigators, clearing up the connection. The film spends over an hour and a half explaining something that could be said in ten minutes. I felt as though I had already seen the film before, and I was just waiting for the interconnection. The movie felt like a rush to produce something, despite its clean graphics and beautiful mise-en-scene.
In the end, the film is worth seeing. It’s not as exciting as other films nor is it as creative, but it is a missing piece to a puzzle with some important information. Maybe you should go on discount Tuesday at Texarkana’s Cinemark!
Check it out!
