THE NUN
MOTION picture production companies including The Safran Company and Atomic Monster have no love lost for members for the Christian faith—clearly demonstrated in its presentation of a demonic nun who runs amok in the amply titled, “The Nun.”
A prequel, “The Nun” is the fifth in “The Conjuring” series of horror films; a cash machine that has generated more than $1.2 billion at the box office, which includes the original, “The Conjuring 2,” “Anabelle” and “Anabelle: Creation.”
Here’s the official synopsis: ”When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together, they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.”
“The Nun” should have been clearly labeled to all film goers as “anti-Catholic” as everything possible that could go wrong to the faithful in this haunted abbey certainly
happens, with the fledgling Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) along with Sister Oana (Ingrid Bisu), Sister Ruth (Sandra Teles) and Sister Jessica (Ani Sava) are all under the “heat vision” gaze of Mother Superior (Lynette Gaza) and Bishop Pasquale (Michael Smiley)—to their ultimate doom.
An avid fan of anything “undead,” slouching and moaning in the dark, the film critic has to wonder out loud: Why in the world to these people do the stupidest things possible?
For example, as people are dropping around you left and right, the neophyte Sister Irene is walking alone in an underground cave, in pitch darkness (with only a flickering lamp) and being followed from behind by … wait for it … the Nun it/herself.
The Nun (Bonnie Aarons) is initially presented as a vulnerable sympathetic figure but in truth is completely evil—a “missionary” of the dark side.
It isn’t a film only about the evil that the Nun emanates but more so the uber creepy atmosphere (clearly filmed on a sound stage) of the ancient abbey.
Dear Readers, if you have a hankering of traveling to Romania and visit the “Romanian Abbey” of “The Nun” then check out Corvin Castle in Hunedora where the exterior was used for this film.
Be sure to this castle to your family’s vacation schedule.
NOT!
“The Nun” provides the backstory of the previous four “Conjuring” films and in that regard, does a serviceable job in explaining the evil that the Warrens (paranormal ghost hunters) were confronting in the first two conjuring films. The Nun was actually presented for the first time in “The Conjuring 2” as a monstrous portrait that briefly attacked Loraine Wilson (Vera Farmiga) before being acknowledged as an ancient demon, named Valak.
Now the demon is placed front and center in “The Nun” where Sister Irene apparently has been having visions of this terrifying creature. Word of her apparitions have reached the Vatican and she was dispatched to the Romanian Abbey for further investigation which is akin to throwing gasoline onto a raging fire.
Taking advantage of the controversial subject matter, producers have been pre-screening “The Nun” at Brompton Cemetery which provided a terrifying “immersive” experience.
Of course, at midnight.
Award-winning director Corin Hardy pushes through the 96-minute screenplay by Gary Dauberman, one of Hollywood’s most sought after writers who also penned both Annabelle films, keeping the tension almost solely on Sister Irene in lieu of all other cast members who become “nun-fodder.”
Pardon the pun.
And it is the complete innocence that not only makes this neophyte the perfect foil but her genuine kindness that saves her at the end.
Parents beware of this movie and do not allow your young children—anyone under 18—to watch it. It is truly “Satanic” in all aspects and (without spoiling it) has no happy ending. If you are looking for one, I suggest “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” instead.
No one should actually want to take a personal vacation to the ninth-level of Hades but with “The Nun” you can take a vicarious stopover that you know will end in less than two hours.
Or will it?
Questions, comments or travel suggestions,
write me at theruffolos@readingruffolos.com.