Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 50 minutes, Director – Michael Chaves
While Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) follows demon nun Valak’s (Bonnie Aarons) attacks across Europe a French boarding school experiences supernatural hauntings.
When the credits come up after the ghosts and creatures of The Nun II’s third act and reveal Malignant writer Akela Cooper as a co-writer, and story creator, for this Conjuring Universe spin-off sequel some of what appears makes sense. Certainly, this isn’t Malignant where the third act takes a completely out-of-nowhere off-the-wall bounce into chaos but certainly one or two of the creature elements bring about something of an oddity. There were plenty who found humour within Malignant, whether intentional or not, and The Nun II is a film that’s funnier than it is scary – with the one or two moments of amusement seemingly being intentional.
Such brief points are the highlights of the film, short asides from the attempted horror which constructs much of the run-time. As Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene travels across Europe investigating the potential return of demon nun Valak (Bonnie Aarons), following a series of supernatural attacks in churches, a French boarding school begins to experience familiar hauntings. As with the first film jump scares are not the primary style of horror on the menu – unlike most of this surprisingly expansive franchise (now on its ninth instalment in ten years) – although there are a couple here and there. Yet, while The Nun had a sprinkling of eeriness to help it along, the sequel feels rather bland.
We jump back and forth between Irene, alongside fellow nun Sister Debra (Storm Reid), and the events unfolding in the boarding school – particularly the friendship between young student Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey), whose mother (Anna Popplewell) teaches at the school, and caretaker Maurice (Jonas Bloquet), often stopping her from being bullied by older students. In just under two hours the film does a lot of jumping yet doesn’t entirely make as much progress. The developments feel staggered between chunks of supernatural goings on as Valak hides behind people or shows her face without actually doing anything. Things plod along in generally unengaging fashion as the narrative takes a while to build-up to the destination it’s made obvious as the beginning of the third act.
Even the consistent attempts to bring in creepiness with the supernatural forces at play in the final 20 minutes, and the hints of strangeness brought about by the look of one particular demonic animal, aren’t enough to properly bring you in to the piece. As everything comes together a similar style continues to be present. There might be one or two new details, but they fail to give the film a kick and it continues with as little excitement as beforehand. The ultimate downfall of The Nun II is that it’s rather boring. Not so much as to be dreadful, there are occasional moments to interest – such as points of humour – and there’s something to like about some of the attacks; even if they don’t contain much to create a scare. But, overall The Nun II simply draws out a simplistic narrative meaning that it often feels as if its pandering for time.
With a restrained narrative The Nun II often feels stretched out, leading to further blandness amongst the scattered bursts of scare-lacking interest.
Just A Little Bit Random 