Director
Michael Chaves
(THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT)

Starring
Taissa Farmiga, Storm Reid and Jonas Bloquet

It’s been 5 years since the first installment of the The Nun and its contribution to The Conjuring universe. The first film lent very heavily into the silliness of its premise; a demonic nun preying (pardon the pun) on other religious figures. It had an ominous score that only added to the thrills and overall corniness of the production. That’s all gone though in this second installment.

What is familiar is a couple of the returning cast members in Taissa Farmiga and Jonas Bloquet as Sister Irene and Maurice/Frenchie respectively. Set a number of years following the original possession, the demonic nun has raised her sinister head once again, this time on a quest to retrieve the gouged out eyes of a 1700 year old Saint. Having followed Maurice to a boarding school in Italy, this time the Nun is terrorisng school girls as well as well as members of the clergy.

With a new director on board in the form of Michael Chaves, who has experience with the franchise, having previously directed The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, we find a trope filled endeavor this time around. The story development is very much lacking and Chaves relies far too heavily on a relentless tirade of worn out scare tactics. There’s nothing new to see here and due to the underwhelming lack of a substantial plot, it’s the kind of film where you could miss 30 minutes and still be able to follow along perfectly.

It’s disappointing as a fan of the franchise to see such little effort put into the production. There’s something extra creepy about horror with a religious backdrop, especially when you weave some historical elements throughout, and The Nun II had the opportunity to really lean heavily into that. Instead we get a lazy offering that offers very few legitimate scares. When lined up against another religious themed horror from 2023; The Pope’s Exorcist, which admittedly I had very low expectations for, The Nun II pales in comparison. The former had a great historical hook, wasn’t afraid to be a bit silly, and even made you forgive Russell Crowe’s terrible Italian accent. The Nun 2 however lacks any real charisma, which isn’t helped by Taissa Farmiga’s total lack anything resembling a personality.  If you’re going to take the serious route with horror, it needs to be exceptional (something The Conjuring achieved). But if you’re not going to achieve exceptional, you need to be able to lean into the ridiculous. The Nun II sadly did neither.

Hopefully this forgettable farce will be the last we see of the demonic nun.

THE NUN II is in cinemas now.