THE NUN 2 is not a complete waste of time. It is a superbly shot film, and directed with a certain understated flair by Michael Chaves, who, along with Taissa Farmiga, gets about as much as can be extracted from an anemic script. The result is decidedly underwhelming, verging on dull despite all the ickiness.
This is a standard jump-and-scare horror film with The Nun (Bonnie Aarons under all that effects makeup) from part one back in for another go at Sister Irene (Farmiga). The demon in nun’s clothing is wreaking a swath of ecclesiastical muck and gore across Europe, and once the Vatican figures that out, it only took them four years making it 1956, they call on Irene to once again exorcise the demon. Sure, she didn’t quite finish the job last time, but as the Cardinal who summons her puts it between bites of a lavish meal in which the sister is not invited to share, there’s no one else even remotely qualified. After the near-death experience of part one, naturally Sister Irene is reluctant to go, but obedience being one of her vows now that she’s a full sister, off she goes, but without Father Burke for reasons that make all kinds of sense, including Demián Bichir’s reluctance to take part in a dumpster fire.
In tow is Sister Debra (Storm Reid), a reluctant novice who would rather smoke than go to confession, and to fight a demon than to spend another day in the cloister. Reid is a feisty presence, and her character provides the essential expository device for Irene to work through her own issues as she solves the mystery of The Nun’s new rampage. Surprise, it’s a relic, a saint’s eyes to be specific, and the first to find them will be given the usual limitless power over the mortal realm. Fortunately, this is a bumbling kind of demon, giving Irene plenty of time to reconnect with the hunky Maurice (Jonas Bloquet), aka Frenchie, the guy who saved her life in part one, and is currently working as a handyman in a girls’ boarding school in Aix-en-Provence. There, he’s pining for Kate (Anna Popplewell) a comely Irish teacher there, and playing protector of Kate’s winsome tween daughter, Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey) who is being bullied by the school’s requisite gang of mean girls.
Among the many problems with the narrative is the fact that this boarding school, sited in an old monastery, seems to have fewer than a dozen students and just the one teacher. Sure, part of it retains the bombing scars from WWII, and the headmistress (Suzanne Bertish) is one of those tough-but-fair types lacking any overt warmth, but the economics of the situation are questionable at best. Add to that a plot rife with convenient synchronicities that is painfully rote. Maybe that old fake-out of a dead body suddenly jumping to life was meant as a joke or was included because someone lost a bar bet. As an aggregate, it prevents the film from generating the least semblance of urgency as Sister Irene struggles to save the world (again).
Farmiga is again a touchstone, slight but steadfast with a welcome sense of humor as well as a perspective that is almost ecumenical for a time before Vatican II. She also has a commitment to the seriousness of the material that shows team spirit in the face of that material’s obvious faults, using her gift for making a goody-two-shoes more layered and interesting than that sort of role allows. Even the special effects seem as rote as the plot; the best of them involve a magazine stand with a preternatural gift for collage, and the opening sequence, the creepiest section of the film not including roaches, that involves The Nun’s incendiary vengeance.
THE NUN II, billed as the sequel to the worldwide smash hit, coasts along on its predecessor’s success, and takes a mighty tumble. Let’s hope the madness stops at part two (not that I really think that will happen, alas).
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