'The Nun 2' Review — A Haunting Addition to 'The Conjuring' Franchise – Collider

This evaluation was written through the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. With out the labor of the writers and actors at present on strike, the movie being lined right here would not exist.

Eight films in, you may count on a franchise to start out getting stale, however The Conjuring is probably the most profitable horror franchise to this point — having grossed a mixed $2.1 billion {dollars} on the field workplace — and The Nun II is right here to double down on the whole lot that retains style lovers coming again to those movies time and again. A direct sequel to The Nun, this movie picks up 5 years later, discovering Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) at a brand new convent in France, having successfully escaped the demon Valak (Bonnie Aarons) assuming she’d despatched it again to hell. Nonetheless, when key figures of the church begin mysteriously dying, it seems that the demon has returned. When a Cardinal calls upon Irene as the one surviving member of the church able to defeating such an evil, she’s thrust again right into a life she thought she’d escaped.

The Nun II is an efficient, gory, and impressively scary addition to the Conjuring universe that provides depth to the present canon whereas additionally delivering a strong possession film that stands up all by itself. Primarily based on a narrative by Akela Cooper, from a script written by Cooper, together with Ian Goldberg and Richard Niang, The Nun II is miles higher than its predecessor with pacing that strikes alongside at a biting tempo and retains viewers members on their toes. The affected person, pulse-pounding scares are evenly balanced with lighter moments and even a sprinkling of comedy right here and there. Cooper’s presence is throughout this film, and that is one other glorious entry into her full mastery of the horror style. Having beforehand penned scripts for immediate classics, Malignant and M3GAN, Cooper has quickly turn into an extremely thrilling title to see within the credit of a horror film. The Nun II advantages lots from its tight script which successfully vegetation seeds all by means of Act One which come to fruition in Act Two. Cooper, Goldberg, and Niang arrange the movie’s epic climax fairly naturally, with items falling into place earlier than you even notice they’re a part of the movie’s final puzzle. The viewers is given simply sufficient clues to start fixing elements of the unfolding thriller with out feeling apparent or heavy-handed.

‘The Nun II’ Possesses Audiences With Highly effective Sensible Results

Michael Chaves, who beforehand helmed The Conjuring: The Satan Made Me Do It, returns to the director’s chair and provides a much-needed breath of contemporary air into the Nun movies. Regardless of its success on the field workplace, The Nun is arguably one of many extra lackluster entries within the Conjuring franchise, with a gradual story and considerably underwhelming scares. Blessedly, its sequel exhibits none of these weaknesses. Together with Cooper’s well-paced script, Chaves provides a stage of heat to the undertaking that was sorely lacking from its predecessor. The characters and their relationships really feel an ideal deal richer on this movie. Charming flashbacks and achingly emotional performances fill this department of the franchise up with a stage of coronary heart that has seldom made it into the Conjuring films exterior the primary trilogy — not you Annabelle Comes Dwelling, you have by no means carried out something improper.

RELATED: ‘The Nun’ Recap: Every little thing To Bear in mind Earlier than Valak Haunts Once more within the Sequel

On prime of that richness, The Nun II additionally delivers a number of heart-pounding scares that can have viewers members flinging popcorn throughout the theater. Whereas one of many main criticisms of The Conjuring: The Satan Made Me Do It was that it wasn’t scary sufficient, The Nun II is a a lot better present of how Chaves fastidiously builds pressure in order that the rubber band snap of terror is that rather more efficient. Chaves additionally makes good use of a wildly spectacular variety of sensible results on this movie, giving it that old-school really feel whereas pulling off scares that can have audiences questioning, “How did they try this?”

Probably the most spectacular, which has been teased within the trailers main as much as the movie’s launch, is the scene when Valak assaults Sister Irene from the pages of a newsstand. In a dialog with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Chaves revealed {that a} majority of that individual scare was carried out in-camera, with some a serving to hand from visible results to get it throughout the end line. After proposing the idea for this second, Chaves mentioned, “All people was like, ‘How are we gonna try this?’ I assumed, ‘Nicely, we must always simply do all of it in-camera. We must always print all these magazines after which mechanically rig all of them to show, and we blow some with wind, after which a few of them are a bit bit extra managed.'” That tough work pays off within the movie, because it steadily builds past what may be seen within the trailer.

The Nun II additionally options some fairly epic set items. The ultimate battle, which takes place in an previous monastery turned vineyard turned boarding college, has characters preventing for his or her lives because the flooring give means beneath their toes. The way in which that Chaves movies these scenes makes the viewer really feel as if they’re on a twisted amusement park experience akin to one thing out of Halloween Horror Nights. Whereas it might appear misplaced to some, as a self-professed rollercoaster lover, it introduced me to the sting of my seat. The ultimate act of The Nun II additionally introduces a brand new monster conjured up by Valak, to terrorize the younger women on the boarding college. Enjoying on centuries-old satanic lore, this grotesque new determine is a chilling addition alongside the likes of Valak and Annabelle, and whereas he could not want his personal spin-off, viewers will likely be hard-pressed to shake his horrific visage.

Chaves additionally pays homage to many previous scares and different visible components from the franchise. The newspaper stand scene alone parallels the opening scene in The Conjuring 2 wherein Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) is first attacked by Valak. The Nun II makes use of a number of visible cues like this to hyperlink Sister Irene and Lorraine and eventually reveals precisely how the 2 are linked — past being performed by real-life sisters, after all. By way of each the usage of earlier footage and cleverly explored lore, The Nun II bridges collectively previously disparate elements of the Conjuring franchise in a means that’ll have followers itching to rewatch previous entries.

Taissa Farmiga Leads a Proficient Solid in ‘The Nun II’

The Nun II introduces a number of new characters, and whereas we do not get lots of backstory on most of them, the well-written script offers every of them a powerful quantity of depth in beneath two hours. The complete solid delivers lived-in performances that basically make the film come to life. Coming back from the primary Nun movie, Jonas Bloquet performs Frenchie with renewed allure and charisma that serves as a skinny veneer to his tortured soul making the last word heartache that his life is headed for — as established in The Conjuring — one thing rather more painful. On this film, Frenchie strikes up a romance with a schoolteacher named Kate (Anna Popplewell) and he is made much more endearing to the viewers by his candy, protectiveness of her daughter Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey). Downey is a superb standout, with the makings of a future style star, she delivers an emotional and real efficiency.

One other incredible standout is the addition of Storm Reid as Sister Debra. Having beforehand advised Collider that her character “provides some funkiness to the story,” Reid does simply that and it makes her a welcome addition to the Conjuring universe. Sister Debra serves because the skeptic to Sister Irene’s believer — a tried and true dynamic inside the horror style — and he or she is ready to add some moments of levity to the movie whereas additionally occurring her personal journey of self-discovery. In the meantime, Taissa Farmiga delivers one in all her finest performances to this point, additional establishing herself as a formidable scream queen. Threading the needle between the tender, tender-hearted nun she strives to be, and the incandescent adversary worthy of taking over one in all hell’s most evil demonic forces, Farmiga actually will get to flex her vary in The Nun II. There are additionally moments of vulnerability for Sister Irene wherein she proves that nobody cries on digital camera just like the Farmiga sisters.

With out giving something away, The Nun II provides some deep lore to the Conjuring franchise that brings the entire universe collectively in an creative and fascinating means, and audiences will wish to stick round by means of the end-credits scene to soak up each piece of these connections. With its tight script, well-balanced characters, and bone-chilling scares, The Nun II is the primary Conjuring spinoff working on the similar caliber because the franchise’s core movies, proving that this universe is much from performed out.

Score: B+

The Nun II premieres in theaters September 8.