“The Nun” Doesn’t Live Up to Audience Expectations

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(image from warnerbros.co.uk)

By Michael Willmann

Ranking: 6.5/10

For a prequel movie, The Nun was rather disappointing in revealing knowledge about The Conjuring series to its audience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely quite a thriller of a scary movie. It has its fair share of heart pounding moments that one would expect. The only issue is that the plot is… bland. For fans of The Conjuring, you will find yourselves disappointed if you had any hopes of this movie explaining the themes from its successors. It’s quite a shame really, as many were hoping for a detailed explanation of the main demon that haunts the Conjuring series, Valak, and little to none is given. Its origins are loose at best.

Moving on from plot, let’s move on to something a lot of people look forward to in a horror movie: its thrill and chill factor. While The Nun was plenty scary, it fell short of my expectations, especially when looking at the studio who made it. I was expecting more than just jump scares from the Atomic Monster Studio, but I was let down big time. The only real creepy factor in the movie was its setting: a run down, abandoned chapel surrounded by a graveyard. The studio could have really utilized this setting and could have made some eerie, bone chilling scenes, yet I never felt creeped out. So, while the chill factor on this movie was extremely low, the thrill factor was quite high in contrast. The Nun relied so heavily on jump scares that it might as well be a Jason movie. Some of the sudden frights were corny, but there were several moments that caught me off guard. From start to finish, this movie throws in scare after scare, leaving the viewer and the character on their toes. To sum it up, the thrill factor was high, but the chill factor that most viewers were expecting was low.

Characters in The Nun felt bland and some of them even felt undeveloped. On the bright side, they were still developed enough to provide for some decent banter and funny quips and moments. All the sets were beautiful. I didn’t notice anything too out of place, nothing that would distract a normal viewer. The CGI and graphics on this movie are amazing, especially when utilized on jump scares- though sometimes the movie goes overboard and it ends up making the jump scare look corny.

Overall, The Nun was a nice thriller, but didn’t quite live up to its expectations. Characters were bland, its chill factor was low and many viewers were left disappointed by the movies lack of explanation. Its CGI elements and setting were beautiful, but not enough to make up for its lack of creepiness. Combining these factors, I’m going to give The Nun a 6.5/10. Not bad, but not exactly the best either.