by Daniel Goodwin
Five years after The Nun spun off from The Conjuring 2, franchise familiar Michael Chaves directs its first follow-up, which sees returning Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) travel to France after being assigned by the church to investigate a series of suspicious deaths thought to be connected to Demon Nun (Bonnie Aarons). Irene’s investigation leads her to an ancient relic stashed by a monk in a monastery, which may help finally defeat the evil.
A flaccid set-up resorts to textbook scares and synthetic CGI within a story that, at first, feels like a series of set-pieces with characters treading precariously down dimly-lit corridors leading to inevitable jump-scares and/or death. The second act reunites Irene with Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) from the first film, who is now the Boarding school groundskeeper and features a few sharp shocks at a magazine stand, within twisted vision/dream sequences involving a hooded figure getting stabbed in the face, and a scene with a pasty-faced alter-boy.
The subplot follows child student Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey) being preyed upon by bullies but taken care of by Maurice. Maurice is befriended by Sophie’s mother (Anna Popplewell) but suffers from potentially paranormal sleepwalking, which may bring harm to his new-found friends.
The Nun 2 starts as a tepid follow-up but deviates into a rollicking monster mash as the pace escalates, events intensify, and the story buds into supernatural bedlam involving possessed caretakers, gnarly monster goats and the titular nun who wreak havoc and turns an initially dull sequel into big daft, punchy, by-the-numbers nun fun that’s better than its predecessor but somewhat hampered by CGI overkill and a cumbersome first act.
The Nun 2 is in cinemas from September 8th.
