+ Best Religious Horror Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Actress of the Year: Taissa Farmiga
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| The malignant titular character greets us from her Gothic home on this ominous poster for Corin Hardy's The Nun |
In 1952, a nun hangs herself in a countryside convent in Romania. The Vatican sends an investigator out with a young woman, who is about to take her vows as a nun herself, to look into the suspicious convent and death.
The Nun is written by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle (2014)), with James Wan (Saw (2004)) supplying story elements, and directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow (2015)). It is the 5th film in the Conjuring universe, following The Conjuring (2013), Annabelle (2014), The Conjuring 2 (2016) and Annabelle: Creation (2017).
I was positively surprised by the film, which has garnered many sour reviews and may disappoint audiences who expect a detailed account of the origins of the evil nun demon Valak first encountered in Conjuring 2. On the other hand, SPOILER The Nun stays true to the previous films by having its evil not stemming from a single person's cruelty but rather from the pits of hell, using one deceased person as a vessel for its demonry.
The Nun is a true Gothic horror, like a modern, more horrific version of one of Roger Corman's 1960s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, laced with a dash of Mario Bava's output from that same era. The film has a ripe setting in its Rumanian convent and its grounds, which is revealed to be harboring a portal to hell, which the nuns have protected through prayer since its tragic reopening during bomb shelling in recent WWII.
Demián Bichir (Lowriders (2016)) has authority as Father Burke, Jonas Bloquet (Elle (2016)) is cute as the French-Canadian helper, who is also the film's comic relief, but it is Taissa Farmiga (Higher Ground (2011)), little sister of the Conjuring's Vera Famiga, who breaks through here: Farmiga has an enchanting radiance and a powerful presence as the young novitiate, which insists on our full attention.
The Nun has plenty of elements that can be discussed and possibly frowned upon afterwards, but with the added value of an appropriately gloomy score by Abel Korzeniowski (Escape from Tomorrow (2013)) and terrific, very vivid practical and digital effects, it was a delicious horror ride in my opinion, loyal to its franchise, - indeed scarier than the two Annabelle films, - with some good scares and lots of goosebumps-inducing sequences.
Related posts:
Conjuring franchise: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess
Annabelle: Creation (2017) - Sandberg's orphanage doll prequel is slow but rewarding
The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Wan's sequel is a long horror treat with terrifying periods
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Annabelle (2014) - Leonetti's creepy if derivative Conjuring spin-off
The Conjuring (2013) - Best horror film in 7 years (cinematographer)
Cost: 22 mil. $
Box office: 136.6 mil. $ and counting
= Already a huge hit (returned 6.2 times the cost)
[The Nun premiered 4 September (MOTELX, Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, Portugal) and runs 96 minutes. Hardy, hired based on his Irish debut horror The Hallow (2015), was reluctant to hire Farmiga due to her sister's central position in the Conjuring movies but changed his mind based on her stand-out audition. Shooting took place in 38 days in Romania, including Bucharest and Transylvania, and in California from May - June 2017. A teaser for the film was removed from Youtube in August 2018 for being too scary. The film opened #1 to a franchise-best 53.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has grossed 57.3 mil. $ so far. The film is successful globally and has several major markets yet to open in: Sep. 19 (France, South Korea), Sep. 20 (Hong Kong, Italy, Russia) and Sep. 21 (Japan, Norway and Turkey). Its gross is almost certain to cross 300 mil. $, possibly reaching a franchise-best of 330-350 mil. $, which will make a sequel almost inevitable, which Wan has also already teased plans for. Hardy has no scheduled next directing job coming up yet. Farmiga returns in American Horror Story (2011-18) and theatrically in We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018); Bichir in Chaos Walking (2019), and Bloquet in Bus N (2018). The Nun is rotten at 26 % with a 4.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Nun?
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