Since weather forecasters have said that we’re entering our fall season, I decided to check out “The Nun II” hoping for some spooky fun.
The good news is that the movie finally connects the overall “conjuring” horror franchise.
It’s got stunning European locales, unique death sequences, and the shadowy, creepy overtones that the films are known for.
I mean, since the movie was filmed in an actual abandoned church in France, it’s got to be perfectly unsettling, right?
The bad news is that the storyline overall is pretty predictable and weak, but, it does end on a happy note – for the most part.
Nun II is an American gothic supernatural horror film directed by Michael Chaves, with a screenplay written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and Akela Cooper from a story by Cooper.
It serves as a sequel to The Nun (2018) and the ninth installment in The Conjuring Universe franchise.
The film stars Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, and Bonnie Aarons, returning from the first film, with Storm Reid, Anna Popplewell, Maxime Elias-Menet, and Pascal Aubert joining the cast.
Clocking in at 110 minutes long, the film is rated R for violent content and some terror.
In 1956, Father Noiret (Aubert) and Jacques (Menet) performed their daily chores in the sacristy of their church in Tarascon, France, after the celebration of daily mass.
While investigating a disturbance, Noiret is raised into the air, set on fire, and burned to death, all the while Jacques watches as he holds onto the priest’s rosary.
Following the events at Saint Cartha’s monastery, Sister Irene (Farmiga) now serves in a convent in Italy.
Maurice (Bloquet) works at a boarding school in France, where he has made friends with a young Irish girl named Sophie (Downey), as well as a teacher and her mother, Kate (Popplewell).
Irene has a vision of Maurice asking her to save him, and the next day, she is asked by the Cardinal to investigate a series of deaths across Europe.
While Irene travels to Tarascon, Sister Debra (Reid), a young novice, joins her without permission.
During the train ride, Debra expresses her difficulty in accepting miracles while Irene explains to her the importance of faith.
At Tarascon, Irene has a vision where she follows Jacques into an alley but ends up getting choked by Valak - the demon who takes the form of a nun that she thought she sent back to Hell in Saint Cartha’s four years prior.
The next morning, Debra tells Irene that she had met with Jacques and he had given her Father Noiret’s rosary, which has a strange seal on it.
Almost simultaneously in the boarding school, Sophie is bullied by her classmates and locked up in the abandoned chapel of the school where no one is allowed to enter.
The bullies tell her to look at a window with a goat on the mosaic and claim that if she looks away, the devil will appear to haunt her.
As the sun moves into position, the light shines through the mosaic and makes the eye of the goat shine red.
There is a bit of creative foreshadowing here, but, things get much darker as Irene draws closer to solving the secret of why Maurice is possessed.
Overall, the film serves as a vehicle to tie the Conjuring series together, but there is room for a third movie to solidify that fact – if writers choose to address it directly, that is.
Also, stick around for the first round of credits for a short cut scene.
