RECENT WATCHES: The Nun (2018)

After many fruitful years of directing, co-writing, and producing motion pictures for entities such as Lions Gate, Blumhouse, and New Line Cinema, James Wan would form his own production company in 2014. With its distinctive logo of a jet-pack hero – resembling a robot, a vintage diving suit, or a retro conception of an astronaut – fighting off massive tentacles destroying a stop-motion city, Atomic Monster has made exactly the kind of movies and TV shows you'd expect. Namely, low-budget horror films and sci-fi/fantasy action projects for Warner Bros., Universal, and Netflix. The first movie to emerge from the company was “Annabelle” and, unsurprisingly, it's had a hand in every entry into “The Conjuring” universe since. The first time I noticed the Atomic Monster name on a project was “The Nun,” the second attempt to spin one of the spectres battled by the Warrens in the proper “Conjuring” installments into its own franchise. Directed by Corin Hardy, of clever Irish zombie/body-horror/folk-horror hybrid "The Hallow," and from a script by Gary Dauberman and Wan, it would be another box office smash in September of 2018. 

Deep in the woods of Romania stands a centuries old stone structure known as the Cârța Monastery. In 1952, two nuns would attempt to fight off a demonic presence in the castle, resulting in their deaths. One body is discovered by Frenchie, a Quebecoise supplier to the chapel. Disturbed by the report, the Vatican dispatches two agents to investigate further: Father Burke, who determines whether events are miracles or not, and Sister Irene, a young nun about to take her vowels. Irene is recruited because of her familiarity with the local Transylvanian dialect. Teaming with Frenchie, they find an isolated building populated by nuns that insist on praying at all hours to ward off a great evil. The trio are beset by horrific visions and soon uncover the disturbing truth about this place. A Dark Age aristocrat summoned a demon here before Christian soldiers intervened and sealed the entity under the monastery with a holy relic containing the literal blood of the actual Jesus Christ. A bomb dropped during World War II would break the seal. Now, the demon takes the form of a nun to possess and harass anyone staying there. Irene, Burke, and Frenchie fight to stop the evil and restore the seal before the demon escapes into the world.

I'll admit that, after being thoroughly underwhelmed by "Annabelle" and "The Conjuring 2," I checked out of this franchise for a long time. However, I do recall being intrigued by the one or two positive reviews of "The Nun" that compared it to Mario Bava's "Black Sunday." Having now seen the film, I agree that it's not a totally unwarranted comparison. Maxime Alexandre, Alexandre Aja's regular cinematographer, ladles on the shadows, fog, and darkened corridors. This blackness is interrupted by some flashes of hellish reds or cool blues, recalling Bava's later work too. By the time the spin-off puts a fair maiden in a diaphanous nightgown and has her wandering down a darkened staircase with a glowing candelabra, I realized I was in comfortable territory. "The Nun" is a well photographed homage to EuroHorror of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Aside from Bava, the film most resembles the classic Hammer monster movies, with its wooded surroundings, isolated graveyards, and bright red blood. A moment where someone is buried alive and nearly has their face split open when someone tries to dig them out is an evident homage to Fulci's "City of the Living Dead." Such a deep cut makes me imagine that the appearance of some rather Templar-like knights is a deliberate shout-out to Amando de Ossorio's "Blind Dead" tetralogy. These are not influences I expected to see in a mainstream studio horror movie from 2018. It is, admittedly, a little bit delightful. 

I would like to think I'm a little more sophisticated about watching films critically though. Sneaking in callbacks to horror nerd favorites in your jump-scare fest is the equivalent of jangling keys for babies for guys who wear black "Evil Dead" t-shirts, right? Perhaps. However, actual gothic horror benefits greatly from location. You can make the case that it's a good percentage of the subgenre's strength. "The Nun" only filmed a little inside the real Cârța Monastery, an actual 12th century Benedictine monastery in the Transylvanian countryside. Said to be the most haunted place in Romania, it's been in ruins since the 1440s. However, the movie was shot on-location in Bucharest. Some scenes were filmed inside Corvin Castle and others at Castel Studios, the old stomping grounds of many a Charles Band production. In other words, "The Nun" is awash in actual old world, Eastern European ambiance. That goes a long way towards making "The Nun" feel like an actual spook show from bygone days. The film never scared me but the real gothic locations did make an enjoyably chilly feeling run down my spine. 

It is a good thing that "The Nun" has some bitchin' atmosphere because, otherwise, this is a very silly motion picture. It recalls the desperate, very loud need to constantly scare its viewer that we saw in "The Conjuring 2" and first "Annabelle." The script makes sure to give each of the central characters a tragic backstory that the demonic nun can exploit. Father Burke has a failed exorcism in his past, haunted by images of the dead child and a biting snake. Irene's anxieties of taking on the habit manifest in one spooky ghost nun after another, some of which don't have faces at all. By its last act, the film has descended into a cacophonic montage of freaky images and events happening without much rhyme or reason. Bonnie Aarons' Valak doesn't actually have much to do in the film aside from glower from the shadows and stab someone with a crucifix. Hardy's grasp of atmosphere helps cover up the goofiness of the film's scare scenes a little. When the script starts introducing actual magical relics to save the day, it's hard to ignore how very silly this entire production has gotten. 

That "The Nun" eventually descends into loud, stupid jolts and an increasingly threadbare script – which connects back to the mainline "Conjuring" duo in dumb ways, of course – is a bummer. Not only because it waters down the effective ambiance that had been built up but also because it wastes a likable cast. Taissa Farmiga plays Irene. Getting Vera Farmiga's actual little sister to star in the "Conjuring" spin-off seems gimmicky on-paper. Luckily, Farmiga has a delightfully light and charming presence. Irene is introduced explaining to little kids that God is good and she seems to actually mean it too, making her an easy heroine to follow. A way overqualified Demián Bichir plays Father Burke and never once falters in taking this silly shit absolutely seriously, while bringing enough of a wry smile to the material to let us know he's still having fun. Jonas Bloquet rounds out the trio as Frenchie, being funnier and more charming than was necessary. If the script wasn't a bunch of baloney and the film didn't pile on the CGI shenanigans in the back half, the amusing back-and-forth between these three would be enough for me to recommend "The Nun."

Alas, that's exactly what "The Nun" does. Bitchin' locations, strong cinematography, and likable heroes should've been enough to keep me entertained throughout the entire 96 minute runtime. A script that clearly doesn't have enough ideas to sustain its own premise, that gets bogged down in silly mythology, and the lack of confidence that throwing loud shit at the viewer shows nearly derails "The Nun" after a strong first half. The spin-off still made a staggering 366 million at the worldwide box office, showing that a global audience is absolutely hungry for a glowering demonic sister. Surprisingly, "The Nun" received some decent notices from actual Catholic writers. Considering these movies have probably done more to rehabilitate the Church's reputation in the last decade than every nice thing Pope Francis has said, I'm surprised it took real Catholic spiritual experts so long to catch up. [6/10]