The Nun -2018- -
The film wisely gives Valak less screen time than the audience might want. When we do see the figure standing motionless at the end of a corridor or emerging from a misty graveyard, the effect is chilling. The problem is that the film relies too heavily on the image of Valak, rather than the psychology of the fear. Too often, a sudden loud noise or a jolting camera movement is substituted for genuine, slow-burning tension.
For fans of gothic atmosphere and demonic nun imagery, it is a fun, haunted-house ride. For those seeking the taut, character-driven terror of James Wan’s original films, it may feel like a hollow relic. It is a film that looks divine, but its soul is a little bit lost. – A beautifully shot, uneven prequel that proves sometimes less is more. Valak was more terrifying as a 5-second painting on a wall than as a 90-minute lead. The Nun -2018-
The location is the film’s greatest asset. The monastery, perched on a desolate, rain-lashed cliff, is a masterpiece of production design. It is not merely a building; it is a vertical labyrinth of stone corridors, creaking floors, and a forbidden cemetery that holds the key to an ancient evil. The film’s aesthetic leans heavily into Hammer Horror—gothic, atmospheric, and gloriously gloomy. Every shot drips with fog, candlelight, and the threat of something clawing just beneath the habit. The film wisely gives Valak less screen time
The film’s fatal flaw, however, is its screenplay. Written by Gary Dauberman, the plot is a series of spooky set pieces strung together with logic that often unravels. Characters make inexplicably stupid decisions (splitting up in a demon-infested crypt, anyone?), and the lore is expanded in ways that feel rushed and contradictory to the original films. Furthermore, the overuse of the “holy blood” MacGuffin turns what could have been a profound spiritual battle into something closer to a video game side-quest. Too often, a sudden loud noise or a
Set in 1952—two decades before the Warrens would ever pick up a tape recorder—the film follows Father Burke (Demyán Bichir), a priest with a haunted past, and Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate on the verge of taking her final vows. They are dispatched by the Vatican to investigate the suicide of a nun at the Cârța Monastery in rural Romania.
In the sprawling, shadow-filled universe of The Conjuring , few images have proven as instantly iconic as the pale, gaunt face of Valak, the demon in a nun’s habit. First glimpsed in The Conjuring 2 —a fleeting cameo that caused audiences to gasp—the character was so terrifying that Warner Bros. quickly greenlit a solo origin story. The result, 2018’s The Nun , directed by Corin Hardy, is a film of bold atmospherics and gothic dread, even if it struggles to escape the long shadow of its parent franchise.
Where The Nun excels is in its commitment to old-school religious horror. Themes of doubt, sacrifice, and the limits of faith are woven throughout. Taissa Farmiga, whose real-life sister Vera stars in The Conjuring , brings a quiet, steely resolve to Sister Irene. She isn’t just a damsel in distress; she is a woman wrestling with a call to holiness in the face of absolute blasphemy.