Following a few years behind the last appearance of the Nun in The Conjuring Universe, The Nun 2 follows Sister Irene as she tries to move on from the encounter she had with the demon nun. However, after a strange group of killings of religious figures takes place, Sister Irene must face the evil she once tried to hide away.
The Conjuring movies have had a lot of rocky entries in their franchise and unfortunately, this one is no different. Starting with the positives of this movie, the atmosphere and the tone are quite good. The movie constantly feels eerie, and it almost always feels as though something is lurking around the corner. The locations and set designs add to that eerie, and creepy factor in a way that really worked in the movie’s favor. The makeup and special effects are also great! The Nun herself looks creepy whenever she is on screen, and the special effects look good enough to not make you stop and think twice about them. All the actors in the movie are also quite good, and they all feel like the characters they were at the end of the first Nun movie. They do their best with the material they were given, but unfortunately, none of the writing is on par with the performances they are giving.
Moving on to the not so good parts, this movie has one of the worst pacing issues I have seen in a movie in an exceptionally long time. The first two acts drag horribly and leave the audience so bored that when the third act finally does pick up, it feels too little too late. The third act feels so over the top and crazy that it loses any sense of scariness it had and feels like a cartoon. As mentioned previously, the writing is not on par with the performances given throughout the movie. There are scenarios that do not make sense and it feels as though the writer is just trying to move from jump scare to jump scare until the credits roll. The characters in the movie really do not go through any arcs that make us care more about them, and when the writer does attempt to give the audience a little something to sink their teeth into, it feels horribly out of place and left me saying “Is it really the time for this?”. The movie relies too much on cheap jump scares for most of its runtime, which is upsetting due to the great atmosphere they establish throughout. If the movie leaned in harder on those tones and the atmosphere, I really think the horror aspect would have landed much better than it did. The marketing also did no favors for this movie since they gave away one of the more creative scares in the trailers. There is a scene involving a magazine stand that was one of the more visually interesting moments, but the trailers gave away the entire thing, and when you are sitting in the theater it becomes abundantly clear that this moment is coming.
I hope one day another installment in this franchise has the love and care put into that the Conjuring 1 & 2 had put into them. This universe, despite all its shortcomings, is so encaptivating, and a little more effort is all it really needs to be brought back to life. I’m going to give this installment a 5/10. Don’t just take my word for it though, go see the Nun 2 for yourself and see what you think! If you decide to see it, be sure to watch to the mid-credits where there is a short scene!
Image Credit: https://www.tvinsider.com/show/the-nun-2/