The Nun II (2023) or, Nun 2: Second to Nun!

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The titular nun in the confession box looking less than saintly on this dark poster for Michael Chaves' The Nun II

Sister Irene leads a quiet convent life, when she is once again tasked with dealing with the lethal demon nun Valak, who seems to be sweeping across Europe, leaving behind a trail of satanic-themed deaths.

 

The Nun II is written by Ian Goldberg (Eli (2019)), Richard Naing (The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)) and Akela Cooper (M3GAN (2022)) and directed by Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona (2019)). It is the 8th film in the Conjuring universe and the sequel to spin-off The Nun (2018).

Quality plummets here in a strictly commercially mandated followup that lacks the Gothic luster and gloomy fun of the first film by Corin Hardy. Chaves' modus operandi is to quickly set up characters and situations without much believability, inherent interest or audience investment, and then to attack them; either killing them in death scenes that usually last less than 10 seconds, or to menace them for longer, - mostly if they are young females, - in which case they get expanded screen time to scream, scream, - and then to scream some more.

The film may be a scary experience for young first-timer audiences in the horror genre, but for veteran fright fans, it is regrettably a quite tiring chore to sit through. The appealing Taissa Farmiga (The Long Dumb Road (2018)) is trapped in a cynical and boring contraption here. A cast of young characters with perfect skin and perfectly plucked eyebrows attempt various European accents while failing miserably at presenting any semblance of authenticity as a present day version of 1956 Europe. No story or character details are followed up. The nun doesn't get really scary scenes that stand out. She is overcome with a nonsensical story of religious magic, and her backstory remains unexplored, despite it being the obvious place to go for a Nun movie.

The first film's unconvincing but model-looking Jonas Bloquet (Par le Sang (2018)) is brought back for a bigger, central role in the new film that also fails to deliver scares or rack up interest. Basically his lamely friendly boarding school repairman becomes overtaken by a demon at times. It is unclear whether he is overtaken by Valak the nun, because she is also busy spreading frenzied terror on her own elsewhere. 

The fright scenes are fast and rely heavily on CGI, mostly to little effect besides incessant screaming from the girls on-screen. The danger scenes lack originality and directorial vision. But despite the lowly movie at hand, its impressive commercial results mean that we might as well start bracing for more nun-sense to come.

Related posts:

Conjuring franchise: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Annabelle Comes Home (2019) or, Annabelle: Bored to Death! 
The Nun (2018) - Hardy succeeds with old-timey Gothic horror on FX steroids
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 
Annabelle (2014) - Leonetti's creepy if derivative Conjuring spin-off

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
The Conjuring (2013) - Best horror film in 7 years  

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 38 mil. $

Box office: 205.3 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say but already a big hit (has returned 5.40 times its cost to date)

[The Nun II was released 6 September (Indonesia, Mexico, Uruguay, Philippines) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting took place around October 2022 in France. The film opened #1 to a 32.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it has currently held #1 for its first 3 straight weekends. The film has one slated market left to open in; Japan on October 13. Chaves does not have his next gig announced yet. Farmiga is slated to return in a feature titled She Taught Love. The Nun II is rotten at 52 % with a 5.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Nun II? 

Häxan/Heksen/Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) - Christensen's great, otherworldly work of satanic horror

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A fascinating, extremely detailed and eerie poster for Benjamin Christensen's Häxan, which mixes sexuality and satanism in its erotic imagery

Häxan begins in a lecture-like fashion with presentation of historical representations of world views, Satan and witch culture, and later delves into these areas as both nonfiction and fictionalized fantasy.

 

Häxan is written and directed by great Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen (Sealed Orders/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X (1914)). The original title translates to 'the witch'.

The many text cards in this deeply remarkable silent film inhabit a distinct and keen, underlying intelligence, which is not without humor, and if one has the ability to lose oneself in Häxan, the film can cast an almost hypnotic spell on you. It later evolves into fictional depictions of the fantasies and practices of the Middle Ages, sometimes with acerbic commentaries added to them, and a good deal of them wholly without music.

Nothing in Häxan will make you think that it was shot in Denmark, (unless you recognize some of the few locally well-known Danish actors in it.) The impression is rather intensely otherworldly, and particularly the many devil scenes (with Christensen playing Satan!) are haunting material. Häxan is an extraordinary film about Europe's hair-raising past as it relates to witches and witch culture.

 

Related posts:

 

Benjamin Christensen: Top 10: Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The Mysterious X/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X/Orders Under Seal/Sealed Orders (1914) - Pioneer Christensen's spectacular spy thriller debut

Watch a modern trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1.5-2 mil. SEK

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Häxan was released 18 September (Sweden) and runs 105 minutes. Christensen had found a copy of the 15th century German inquisitor's guide Malleus Maleficarum in a bookshop in Berlin and then developed his script from 1919-1921, where he was able to get extensive funding - and artistic freedom, - from Svensk Filmindustri. He bought and refurbished the Astra film studio in Hellerup, Zealand, Denmark, North of Copenhagen. Shooting took place there from February - October 1921. The production was the most expensive in Scandinavia ever undertaken at the time, and is still considered the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made. The Swedish censors required extensive cuts of brutality and nudity prior to release. The film premiered simultaneously in 4 Swedish cities and 2 months later in Copenhagen, accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra performing live. It was screened in several countries over the course of many years, reportedly first coming to America in 1929. In 1968 it was re-released in North America, re-edited to 74 minutes, with a new narration by William S. Burroughs and a jazz score. Though made by a Danish filmmaker and shot in Denmark, the film is mostly considered Swedish, (because funding came from a Swedish production company.) Christensen returned with Hvem Er Hans Kone? (1923). Häxan is fresh at 91 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Häxan?

The Gathering (2002) - Everyone loses with Gilbert's thoroughly terrible calamitous horror flop

♥

+ Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year + Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.07 Times

Star Christina Ricci looks sultry in a hoodie in a dirty, cross-marked cellar on this sparse poster for Brian Gilbert's The Gathering

An American girl in England gets run down by a car and suffers memory loss. She gets accommodation at the car driver's family home. He is busy digging up a newly discovered ancient church, which was supposedly built by Joseph of Arimathea.

And on goes the utterly foolish plot, SPOILER which gathers together the witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion, the first nuclear detonation and the Kennedy assassination in some kind of bundle tied up in an English hamlet. The Gathering is written by Anthony Horowitz (Midsomer Murders (1997-00)) and directed by Brian Gilbert (The Frog Prince (1985)).
None of this religious horror flick's scenes build up suspense, so the story's pay-offs never gain any weight. The editing is retched. And the otherwise gifted Christina Ricci's (Bel Ami (2012)) acting may be likened to the work of a pair of rusty garden shears here. This Gathering is miserable.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a 3-minute video on Ricci's career here

Cost: Estimated 18 mil. $
Box office: 1.3 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.07 times its cost)
[The Gathering premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Market at the Cannes Film Festival) and runs 92 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK from September - October 2001. The film was never theatrically released in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were Germany with 727k $ (55.9 % of the total gross), Spain with 397k $ (30.5 %) and Poland with 119k $ (9.2 %). It was released in several more markets than the ones accounted for at the film's Box Office Mojo page, but these gross numbers are not made available. Gilbert returned with Hitler's Irishman: The Story of Lord Haw-Haw (2005, TV documentary) and theatrically with Allegiance (2005), his last film. Ricci returned in Anything Else (2003). 14,589 Rotten Tomatoes users have given The Gathering a 2.92/5 average rating.]

What do you think of The Gathering?

The Final Conflict/Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) - Sam Neill gets diabolical in the 2nd unremarkable Omen sequel

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Sam Neill enveloped in a ring of fire and US state and satanic symbols looking dubious on this poster for Graham Baker's The Final Conflict

Devil child Damien has become an adult and the leader of Thorn Industries, when he is appointed the new US ambassador to London, and star formations show that the second coming is getting near. - The antichrist must be stopped!

The Final Conflict is written by Andrew Birkin (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)), following Richard Donner's orignal masterpiece The Omen (1976) and turkey sequel Damien: Omen II (1978), and is directed by debuting Graham Baker (Born to Ride (1991)).
It is a bit better than the preceding, ridiculous Omen II: Sam Neill (Tommy's Honour (2016)) is good as Damien, - although his speeches about the Nazarene are a bit long. Final Conflict also has a production size and several fine ideas, which made me want to pay attention to it. Lisa Harrow (Sunday (1997)) is also good as the journalist character. And Jerry Goldsmith's (Mulan (1998)) score does its part for the film.
The Final Conflict has a dog attack scene that is severely involuntarily comedic.

Related post:

Omen franchise: Damien: Omen II (1978) - Mimicking follow-up is a true turkey

Watch a 30 second TV ad for the film here

Cost: 5-6 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 20.4 mil. $ (North America only)
= Big hit (returned 3.4 times its cost in North America alone)
[The Final Conflict was released 20 March (USA) and runs 108 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, and in Wisconsin and Washington DC in and around May 1980. SPOILER Reportedly the scene in a TV studio of the death of a priest, who burns while trapped in melting plastic, was the hardest to shoot, taking 2 weeks to get right. Stuntman Vic Armstrong did the backwards 100 foot fall from a bridge for the film, calling it the most frightening stunt of his career. The story changes the franchise's chronology to make Damien's adulthood in 1981 possible. It opened #1 to a 5.5 mil. $ first weekend in 918 theaters in North America, where its gross dipped 6 mil. $ from the previous film's earnings. Globally, a conservative gross estimate might be 30-35 mil. $. The franchise returned only many years hence with Omen IV: The Awakening (1991, TV movie), a flop, and was attempted rebooted later with financially successful but critically panned The Omen (2006). Baker returned with Impulse (1984). Neill returned in Attack Force Z (1981). The Final Conflict is rotten at 32 % with a 4.43/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Final Conflict?

The Lords of Salem (2012) - Zombie's disturbing satanic radio witch horror lacks a compelling center

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+ Most Sinister Movie of the Year

Sheri Moon Zombie in satanic goth emo getup on this decay-tinted poster for Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem

A woman rock radio host in Salem, Massachusetts receives a record with a mysterious melody, which awakens something sinister in her and other women, which hails from the witches of Salem's past...

The Lords of Salem is written and directed by Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses (2003)). Zombie denies us conventionality in the form of murders and relatable characters here: Instead Bruce Davison (Return of the Killer Shrews (2012)) researches around, (he is a Salem witch trial expert), while Sheri Moon Zombie (Halloween (2007)), the filmmaker's wife, gabbles with her maybe-boyfriend with occult stuff in her surroundings.
It never becomes really exciting or scary; the plot is simply too feeble-minded for that. It is a shame, because The Lords of Salem features strong and highly unpleasant imagery; the sabbath in the beginning is enormously hideous; the mystical melody does sound like something straight out of hell, and there is no shortage of strange and disturbing images overall, springing from a concert hall of a religious variety. The Lords of Salem is blasphemous or more accurately satanical, which makes it especially tough diet for Christians. 

Related posts:

Rob Zombie: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker
The Devil's Rejects (2005) - Zombie's crazy serial killer Americana

Watch an interview with Rob Zombie about the film here

Cost: 1.5 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 1 time the cost)
[The Lords of Salem premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 101 minutes. Zombie was given free reins with a low budget from horror producer maestro Jason Blum to do something supernatural. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles, and in Salem, Massachusetts from October - December 2011. Zombie toured with his band, while the film was edited. It opened #16 to a 642k $ first weekend in 354 theaters in North America, where it decreased from there, playing a total of 4 weeks, grossing 1.1 mil. $ (73.3 % of the total gross). The only 2 foreign markets accounted for are Italy with 373k $ (24.9 %) and Spain with 5k $ (0.3 %). Rob Zombie returned with a video promo, a concert film of his own metal band Rob Zombie and theatrically with 31 (2016). Sheri Moon Zombie returned in said promo and theatrically in 31. The Lords of Salem is rotten at 46 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Lords of Salem?

The Nun (2018) - Hardy succeeds with old-timey Gothic horror on FX steroids

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+ Best Religious Horror Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Actress of the Year: Taissa Farmiga

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)

Watch a trailer for the film here

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?

End of the Line (2007) - When making a low-budget horror movie becomes the substitute for treatment

[ZERO]

+ Worst Movie of the Decade

+ Worst Movie of the Year

This creepy poster for Maurice Devereaux's End of the Line teases the film's subway-set religious horror

A group of people find themselves trapped in a subway train, as an apocalyptic event seems to rage on the ground above them, and religious madness breaks out.

In the course of the very first minutes of End of the Line it is crystal clear that this gory, low-budget religious horror flick is a highly dubious acquaintance. Still one feels ill prepared for just how completely insufferable and fundamentally gross the film turns out to be. - I am referring here not only to its also nauseating and often unrealistic special effects, but to its very construction.
End of the Line comes off as if it is a hateful and unreasonable attack against Christians and Christianity in general from a bitter former member of Jehovah's Witnesses or some other similarly apocalyptically centered Christian sect. The film takes place only in tunnels and semi-darkness and is filled to the brim with hatred, unmotivated murders, screaming, crying, and a nonsensical dialog that is relentlessly stuffed with expletives.
The acting is understandably varying here. The film seems to expect us to follow it and its characters closely, while in reality most will find themselves several miles apart from both.
End of the Line is written and directed by Maurice Devereaux (Lady of the Lake (1998)). It is an unbelievably bad movie, which seems based on some personal issues that should instead have resulted in many years of psychotherapy. It should be seen by no-one.

Related posts:

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Here is a video from the film's screening at Fantasia Film Festival

Cost: Estimated 200k CA$, or approximately 160 $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[End of the Line premiered 28 April (England's Dead By Dawn Horror Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in Montreal, Quebec and in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from June - July 2005. The film was not released theatrically in the US. It played at 5 film festivals with the biggest being the Toronto International Film Festival and only had a regular theatrical release in its native Canada. No details about its gross are made public, - but writer-director-producer-editor Devereaux has not made a film - or any other credit - since, indicating that the film wasn't successful. 4,056 IMDb users have given End of the Line an incomprehensibly high 6/10 average rating.]

What do you think of End of the Line?

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - Boorman stuns with truly abysmal sequel

ZERO

Linda Blair is trapped in a pitch black abyss on the poster and in the reality that was John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic

Regan, the girl who was the victim of a demonic possession by the devil in the original The Exorcist (1973), has in the 4 years since become a well-functioning teenage girl, who now meets a reckless experimental psychologist in a futuristic clinic full of children with Down Syndrome. Meanwhile Father Lamont is sent to her to investigate Father Merrin's exorcism of her in the past. - Was the esteemed Merrin in fact a satanist?

These grotesqueries are merely the start of the astonishingly wretched Exorcist II: The Heretic. William Friedkin, who directed the original horror masterpiece The Exorcist, has called watching The Heretic as bad as seeing a traffic accident in the street, and indeed watching it does feel like witnessing some sort of disaster play out in slow motion. It is probably the worst sequel to a monumental masterpiece ever made; I certainly cannot remember any more abrupt free-fall in quality than this, from the very peak of splendor to the absolute depths of shlock.
Exorcist II: The Heretic awakens feelings of rage, because it isn't just poorly thought up, incomprehensible and shabbily made; it also stomps around on the brilliant Exorcist. It is written by William Goodhart (Generation (1969)) and directed by great English filmmaker John Boorman (Point Blank (1967)). - It is almost unbelievable that the central man behind it, Boorman, made the great thriller classic Deliverance (1972) just years before this. Exorcist II: The Heretic marks an abomination of a movie that he, rightly, could never wipe off his career afterwards.
Many involved should have known better than to work in this mess. Linda Blair (All Is Normal (2008)) may inspire pity, because she was still just a teenager, when she was trapped in this fecal tumbler.
The Heretic is insufferably boring and immerses itself with no limitations in grasshoppers and African mumbo-jumbo that leads nowhere. Louise Fletcher's (A Perfect Man (2013)) descent from her Oscar-winning turn in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) to this is spectacularly steep, but no-one is good in The Heretic; Ennio Morricone's (The Repenter/Il Pentito (1985)) score is not even good, and the effects just stink.
The biggest reason that this religious horror fails so epically may be that Boorman here actually tried to make a film about goodness.

Related posts:

The Exorcist franchise: Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) or, The Exorcist: Back to Africa!
The Exorcist (1973) - Friedkin and Blatty's masterpiece, one of the scariest pictures of all time

Listen to some of Morricone's score to the film here

Cost: 14 mil. $
Box office: 30.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty - flop status without foreign receipts known, - in reality likely broke even or was a box office success on the whole
[Exorcist II: The Heretic was released 17 June (North America) and runs 117 minutes (North America) and 102 minutes (European cut). Neither Friedkin or William Peter Blatty, who were behind The Exorcist, could come up with a feasible sequel and opposed The Heretic, which Boorman helmed, after he had refused directing Exorcist, finding it 'repulsive'. Ellen Burstyn, who was Regan's mother in the first film, refused to participate. The film became Warner Bros.' most expensive production in its day, partly because the production was barred from shooting at several key locations, which were then recreated at the studio. Shooting took place in Arizona, Utah, New York, Washington, D.C. and in California from May 1976 - ?. The production was fraught with problems: Boorman was sick for a month with a respiratory infection, in which production seized. Kitty Winn and Fletcher contracted gall bladder infections. Rewrites continued throughout production, and the film's editor quit. Richard Burton, who plays Father Lamont, took the job for its paycheck and the studio's promise that he could afterwards do Equus, and was reportedly frequently drunk on-set. Blair was developing a drug habit and also carried this with her on-set. Stories of the film's premieres are notorious: Studio execs attended an early screening at the Chicago Film Critics Festival and had to flee angry audience members chasing them in the street for the lousy film after it playing just 10 minutes. Other premieres caused laughter and fury with audiences throwing stuff at the screens in detriment. - Still, many simply had to see what the ruckus was all about. Boorman recut the film again and again, - with no better results. It opened #2 to a 6.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America. The franchise continued with The Exorcist III by Blatty and released for the first time in 1990. Boorman returned with Excalibur (1981). Exorcist II: The Heretic is rotten at 19 % with a 3.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Exorcist II: The Heretic?