08 September,2023 01:16 PM IST | Los Angeles | Johnson Thomas
The Nun 2
It's 1956, France, a priest is immolated while a young boy bears witness⦠and the evil is spreading slowly and steadily. How and why is this evil spreading is the question this sequel to the worldwide smash hit tries to answer.
The narrative follows Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) as she is summoned by the Pope to help banish this evil. Teamed up with novice nun Sister Debra (Storm Reid), the pair set off to try and banish the demon once and for all. The Nun 2, basically picks up from the ending of the first film wherein Maurice (Bloquet) was shown to have been possessed by the spirit of evil demon Valak aka The Nun (Bonnie Aarons). This trail of offed priests traveling west from Romania is seemingly in search of something.
The story by Akela Cooper based on characters by James Wan and Gary Dauberman takes the horror legend forward but the screenplay by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and Akela Cooper has little to offer in terms of scares and lucidity. The narrative is patchy and constricted by an edit that aims for complexity without ensuring logical flow. The convoluted plot drags along treating us to visions that Sister Irene encounters (all rather reiterative and unclear). The atmospherics generated by a dark, heavy, and Gothic-leaning visceral craft, looks credible but there's no feel to it. Since we are unable to get involved with the lead character's dilemma, there's no benefit to the picture-perfect dread envisaged here. The jump scares employed early on don't have much effect. There's not much tension to be had either. The third act replete with sound and bluster fails to genuinely terrify. The ending feels like a misstep entirely. The Nun 2 looks good but there's very little horror-related entertainment to be had here.
