Film of the Week: The Nun

The Nun is a spin-off from the Conjuring series, and if you believe in the Warren’s stories, unfortunately this isn’t one they had experienced, but instead completely made up by the filmmakers. First introduced in the second Conjuring as a side story for Lorraine Warren. Whilst the Nun is a demon known as Valak, it isn’t a part of Ed and Warren’s vast catalogue of stories they’ve told over the years, because it never happened.

The Nun is the type of supernatural horror movie you’d expect if you want something to truly scare you. It’s primed with many jump scares, but it does fit in well with the style of the Conjuring movies, but having things stand in the background and move just out of sight to create the eerie atmosphere, to keep the hairs on the back of your neck standing up on end at all times.

You can see a few classic scenes which can be argued as being clichéd, but on defence of that; just how many times can you make a supernatural horror film with different angles here and there. You can put your own spin on the matter, which is exactly what happens in this film with entities standing and moving in the background, but the slow camera angles, the intense focus on the character’s face, the slow walk through the corridors, things going pump behind the characters – they’re all tropes which cannot be avoided when making this type of horror film, just put your own spin on it as best as you can.

There are plenty of moments in the film where the audience fully expect something to be there, but nothing’s there at all, and then once the initial expectations has subsided, the jump scare happens – designed to create the biggest scare possible. This is another trait considered to be a cliché, because if we the audience sees this enough times, we’re going to expect nothing to be there and then something happen a little later, distinguishing the fear the filmmakers want to create. What would have made this a much scarier film is if they went against the expectations and put the jump scares exactly where we expect nothing to be there, defying our expectations and completely catch us off guard – therefore we jump out of our seats and enjoy the horror movie that much more. Although I can’t really pin this down as a criticism toward the movie, rather at the genre itself.

The Nun is actually a good movie. The scare factor is purely down to personal preference. If you’ve seen a lot of horror movies, maybe you won’t be as scared as someone who dabbles in the genre not that often. If you scare easily, then this film will truly keep you on edge even during the calm moments, but if it takes a lot to scare you and your bottom stayed firmly on the chair throughout with flinching an inch, you can at least appreciate the story the film has, and it is a decent one to stay infested in. Full of enough backstory to flesh out the characters but also to keep exposition down so to focus on what is truly necessary which is telling the story via visual elements, and has a good twist near the end, a twist you’d certainly wouldn’t have seen coming but the moment it happens, it immediately becomes obvious.

Considering this is the fifth film the Conjuring Universe, because this is an original story, genuinely something which can be enjoyed – whilst also paying homage to the Conjuring films which this film is connected to. I’m happy to recommend this film.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)