The Nun II (2023) Review

 "It's okay to be scared.  I'm scared too."
-Sister Irene Palmer



Sometime after the events of the first movie, the demon Valak (Bonnie Aarons) has returned and is leaving a trail of bodies across Europe.  Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is called upon by the church to once again face off against Valak and tracks it down to a boarding school in France only to learn Valek has processed her old friend, Maurice (Jonas Bloquet).


What Works:

Like in the last movie, all of the actors do a good job.  Farmiga and Bloquet have good chemistry not only with each other, but the new characters as well.  I also really like the performances of Anna Popplewell and Katelyn Rose Downey, who play the main characters at the boarding school.  They are all trying their best, they just aren't given enough to work with.

The movie does have a few creepy moments and couple of solid kills.  It could have used some more gore, but the kill in the opening and one in an old chapel are both solid.

Finally, the 3rd act gets a bit over-the-top in parts and I really enjoyed it.  At one point demonic forces enter a dormitory and the students start getting tossed around the room.  I don't think it was supposed to be funny, but I was laughing.  I wish more of the movie was about the students trying to escape the demonic boarding school.  Those precious few scenes were all really fun.  That should have been the whole movie.  These movies are way more fun when they stop taking themselves so seriously and get silly.  At least we got some of that in the finale.


What Sucks:

The biggest problem with the movie is that it's mostly boring.  We've seen all of this stuff before and until the 3rd act, it doesn't really do anything to hold my interest.  I wanted to take a nap and hope the movie would wake me up when it decided to get interesting.  There's a big stretch in the middle of the movie where nothing happens.

Like the rest of the movies in this franchise, this film is overly reliant on jump scares.  It's just not my type of horror.

While the actors all do a good job, the characters are all pretty thin.  There isn't much for me to get interested or care if they live or die.  The Conjuring movies are all pretty generic, but they work because the characters are likable and even interesting some times.  That's where all of the spinoff movie falter.  They don't get the characters right.


Verdict:

This is another boring and generic Conjuring spinoff.  It's not the worst spinoff, nor is it the best.  It just exists and I'm sure I'll forget most of it soon.  The 3rd act is fun, there are a few creepy moments, and the actors do their best, but there are too many jump scares, thin characters, and most of the movie is a snooze-fest.

 4/10: Bad 

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