The Nun (2018)

The Nun: A Gloomy Misstep | 2/5

Written by Noah Dietz: 4/16/2025

Four years after the generally middling but positively received The Conjuring 2 and a mere year after the “scared me when I saw it, but that’s ’cause I’m afraid of dolls” Annabelle: Creation, The Nun stumbled its way into our collective lives.

I saw The Nun on opening night and, at the time, I was pretty pleased about it. I talked at work about how I thought it was pretty cool, and one of my guys roasted me for the next year about it. I couldn’t mention a film without him saying “Oh, but was it as good as The Nun?” I always laughed and told him that, obviously, nothing was as good as The Nun, but I’d never revisited the film. I’m happy to have come back to it so I could reevaluate my previous 7 or 8 out of 10, even if I’m sad to drop things down to a 4 or 5.

The Nun primarily takes place at a convent in Romania. This abbey was originally built by an occultist duke in the dark ages who, through some form of dark magic, opened a portal directly to hell. Though he was struck down by soldiers of the church who managed to seal the gate with the blood of Christ, a convent was put into the castle to maintain 24-hour prayer over the site. Though the sisters were able to keep things under control for years, stray fallen bombs in WWII cracked some of the foundations and allowed evil to seep out again. After a suicide is found by the man who supplies food to the convent, Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) are sent by the Vatican to investigate what seems to be happening at the convent.

I maintain that Bonnie Aarons's portrayal of Valak is a fun villain. Her presence in The Conjuring 2 is enjoyable, and much of what made her great was the chokehold she managed to hold her scenes in. Happily, some of that remains in this film. Shots of her lurking the halls manage to conjure similar feelings, and when she’s moving slowly or with purposeful action, that gravitas remains. Unfortunately that’s where a lot of the fun of The Nun ends. We’ve also continued the natural evolution of what the mainline films were doing, where our characters abandon almost all preamble and simply say directly what is happening without subtlety. We learn every important story point via unobscured monologue and overserious whispers.

One of our greater failings is how dark this film is. I don’t mean in its themes, but rather in the lack of lighting in many important scenes. What could have been a brooding, candlelit abbey is reduced to the “natural lighting” trend that results in murky, grey mush. This is an issue that’s been plaguing horror since the peak of the streaming era, and we haven’t been able to dig out of it quite yet. That’s not to say none of the lighting moments in this work, but with a majority of the film lurking in dark, unlit halls you can’t help but wonder what you’re supposed to be seeing.

Another unfortunate failing is the lack of urgency the film seems to have. We’re here to investigate a cardinal sin having taken place, and nobody is willing to talk outright about these very important plot points. Due to the cloistered nature of the convent only Sister Irene is allowed in, and she doesn’t ask any of the important questions we need her to. This is handwaved off as “we’ve very secretive here, the other sisters would prefer me not to talk at all,” but that’s a weak way to cover the plot holes in your story. Couple this with a confusing element of comedic relief in the final scenes, and the whole thing fell a little flat the second time.

It’s obviously no secret that we’ve passed the halfway point of the Conjuring universe at this point, but it’s still a shame to see something that started out so relatively strong fall this far so quickly.