49% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 114 reviews)
Runtime: 110 minutes
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Storm Reid, Anna Popplewell, Bonnie Aarons
From: New Line Cinema
I wasn't expecting to see a cosplayer at a screening of this Wednesday evening, but there you go. To clarify, on that night I saw A Haunting in Venice then this film back to back; it saved me a trip to a cinema and back. As it's been out almost a week when I saw the film, a young woman dressed as a regular nun (rather than Valak) was quite the surprise. Unlike a lot of film fans, The Nun was a good time for me; it was mainly due to the strong Gothic vibes rather than the plot.
It turned out to be wise to read the Wiki article on the first film before seeing this; it's not a regular habit but was needed on this occasion. I didn't have the time to give it a second viewing and even if II presents a Cliff's Notes version of the first due to the presence of two key players from the original returning, that refresher was still needed.
This time, the setting is late 50's France. Valak has returned, but thankfully so has Taissa Farmiga. She is asked again to stop this threat, this time with Storm Reid who literally tags along with her despite only being a student in a nunnery. Plenty of time is spent at a boarding school for young girls (IRL an actual abandoned church in France which made for a great setting) as that's where Valak ends up. Revealing much more would... be a sin, but is it a surprise to reveal that the boarding school has a gaggle of mean girls who bully a teacher's daughter?
Plot-or specifically, plot progression-can be questioned, along with some moments that are implausible even by the standards of The Conjuring Universe. The Gothic atmosphere isn't as strong, although it's still present and there are some nice aesthetic vibes. What impressed me the most were the scares; from memory-and hearsay from others-they were a noted improvement over the first; that's what many who hated the original were praying for, anyhow. There were some fine horror setpieces. Overall, I had a good time; seeing a young woman in a nun's habit was only the cherry on top of the sundae.
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