I can’t say I anticipated a lot out of The Nun II. The primary movie did very nicely for itself on the field workplace and made the character a brand new horror icon of types, however as a horror movie, its content material struggled to match the lofty imaginative and prescient of its Gothic European setting and ambiance.
The Nun is a lavish-looking ghost home for essentially the most half, and that represents a irritating missed alternative contemplating the excessive bar of the movie it was born from (The Conjuring 2). The Nun II is presumably much more irritating as a result of it incorporates one superbly-set up scene that exhibits up the remainder of the movie’s fairly humdrum nature.
I’m, in fact, speaking in regards to the newsstand sequence. It’s a largely sensible affair that you could’t assist however admire for the trouble that goes into it. Pages and imagery flip at pace to ultimately reveal the devilish determine of the demonic Nun Valak. It’s no shock it was overrated earlier than the movie’s launch, it’s simply the best-crafted sequence within the movie, and that’s an enormous downside for the remainder of The Nun II.
The Nun II suffers for 2 issues in 2023. That sequence, and the existence of The Pope’s Exorcist. The remainder of the movie isn’t horrible by any means, simply by the numbers and predictable. The latter is true of The Pope’s Exorcist, which mixed with a typically terrible stage of plot predictability, must be a dying sentence, however that movie has a robust central determine in Russell Crowe, who tears by way of surroundings like Godzilla by way of cities. His constant presence ensures it’s not a complete wash. It’s an entertaining catastrophe.
The Nun II has one scene of energy that nearly feels disconnected from the remainder of it. The movie’s false confidence within the energy of its characters and their relationships from the primary movie don’t assist it away from the scares, and that additionally impacts the sense of peril that’s wanted to make the scares work. Lord is aware of it tries to up the ante on peril within the story by setting a lot of the film in a college, however an absence of enamel is clearly seen relating to what occurs when Valak comes up in opposition to youngsters.
By the point we attain the theatrical finale, The Nun II has gone by way of each garden-variety horror scare (ooh, there’s The Nun! being the overall theme behind them). Even in that standout scene, that’s basically what it’s dressed up as one thing fancier, however that’s what the entire movie must be aiming for.
The Nun II by no means needed to be this groundbreaking horror film sequel. It simply wanted extra craft and consistency in the way it delivered its horror. The outdated favorites can nonetheless really feel recent when the construction is there to again them up.
