“The Nun,” in which some unlikely demon chasers visit the convent of hell and battle a very nasty nun,unearths a lot of horror tropes from the crypt. It’s an impressively shot film, with the requisite special effects, but its scares are too predictable to put most people on the edge of their seats.
这部电影是一个spinoff of the popular “Conjuring” supernatural horror series, in which the evil nun, Sister Valak (Bonnie Aarons), made a memorable appearance in “Conjuring 2.” Sister Valak, with her sheet-white face, sunken eyes and ghostly habit, has all the makings of a great horror villain, so it’s a shame she isn’t utilized to full effect here, particularly when the movie was presumably intended to flesh out her story. Maybe that will happen in another sequel. Or prequel. Or spinoff.
The creepy tale centers on three characters: Father Burke (Demian Bichir), a haunted priest with a tragic exorcism in his past; Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate who loves to josh with fellow nuns-in-training back at her more sedate convent; and Maurice (the scene-stealing Jonas Bloquet), a French Canadian delivery guy whosomehow made his way to the Romanian countryside just after World War II.
These three lives collide when Maurice, while making a delivery at an isolated, rundown abbey, comes upon a shocking discovery: the gruesome hanging of a young nun. The foreboding news gets back to the Vatican, which quickly dispatches Father Burke and Sister Irene, who doesn’t look a day over 16, to the scene. It’s a rather contrived setup, but we’re still willing to go along for the ride with this trio. Unfortunately, before we can get to know them better, the characters keep getting separated for long stretches of time.
Thisis a common trick in horror films, but in this case, it does us a disservice, because the lack of character interaction reduces our rooting interest in these folks – and thus lessens the stakes of their impending peril. Most of the time, the priest, the novitiate and the delivery boy are alone in their own little set-pieces, and the dazzling effects can’t mask a slow narrative. Also, creaky floors, jump scares – and just about every horror cliche we can think of – can only take the movie so far.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment to fans of the “Conjuring” series will be that “The Nun” lacks a consistent story logic. It’s not clear what, beyond pure evil, is motivating Sister Valak. Sometimes these convent creatures seem invincible; sometimes they can be warded off with the flick of a wrist. All this has the effect of immunizing us from the scares.
“The Nun” is certainly not a terrible horror movie – the production values are stellar, and there is a decent backstory about the abbey. But the film won’t be remembered as one of the top entries in the expanding canon of the Conjuring Universe.
L修女:超自然的恐怖。德棉Bich主演ir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet. Directed by Corin Hardy. (R. 96 minutes).Trailer and Showtimes