‘The Nun II’: Cast & Crew
Director: Michael Chaves
Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Margot Bernazzi, Jonas Bloquet, Storm Reid, Anna Popplewell, Bonnie Aarons, Katelyn Rose Downey, Suzanne Bertish, Léontine d'Oncieu, Anouk Darwin Homewood, Maxime Elias-Menet, Pascal Aubert, David Horovitch, Kate Colebrook, Andrew Morgado, Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga
Available On: BookMyShow Stream
Duration: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
‘The Nun II’: Story
It’s 1956 - France. A priest is murdered. An evil is spreading. The sequel to the worldwide smash hit ‘The Nun’ follows Sister Irene as she once again comes face-to-face with Valak, the demon nun. Will she be able to defeat the nun again? Or this time will the nun overpower Sister Irene? Will there be more dark secrets of the church that will come out in the open? Well, you’ll have to watch ‘The Nun II’ for the same.
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‘The Nun II’: Performances
Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene is just about decent. In the first part she had a lot to do as the young nun. However, here she is unable to give that scary feel to the viewer. She somewhat misses the mark. As the lead, not only are you supposed to carry the entire weight of the film on your shoulders, it’s your responsibility to convey the feelings and emotions to the audiences which the makers want to. Sadly, that didn’t translate that much and audiences were left wanting for more.
Bonnie Aarons as the demon nun is just not there onscreen that much. Her act is what made the character so popular, and forced the makers of ‘Conjuring’ to branch out a spin-off just on the nun’s character. Now to have someone as powerful in performance and show her onscreen so less that you’re not even left half as scared as you were in the films where she had a supporting role, then there’s definitely something wrong. Aarons could have brought in a lot more fear in the hearts and minds of the audiences but sadly, she was utterly wasted in ‘The Nun II’.
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None of the others in the supporting cast had a worthy enough screen time.
‘The Nun II’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
The writing by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and Akela Cooper is weaker than the previous part and also the other films in the ‘Conjuring’ universe. While the story goes at a steady pace and makes you feel spooked there are barely any high-flying twists which just make you jump off your seat.
Michael Chaves’ direction tries to salvage the lacklustre story but isn’t able to breathe a lot of life into it. The jump scares are really low in ‘The Nun II’ and Michael Chaves should have tried to increase that number. In a horror film if you’re not squinting your eyes and trying to save yourself from a sudden jump scare when the background music goes low, then you’ve failed at making a good horror flick. Michael Chaves has definitely failed in that department.
Tristan Nyby’s cinematography is good. It gives you not just the perfect period drama feels but also gives you the right amounts of dark scenes, which build up the horror effect. Tristan Nyby gives you the exotic locales and fills them up with scary dark alleys, which in turn builds up the spooky feeling for you perfectly.
The editing by Gregory Plotkin is decent. He’s managed to not stretch out the film too long and has kept it paced decently. Wrapping the film up in less than 2 hours definitely benefits you as a viewer.
The music by Marco Beltrami is another big letdown. Usually, the horror effect gets trebled when the eerie music hits you hard. Sadly, here the music wasn’t eerie enough to give you the jitters. The makers missed out big in this department.
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‘The Nun II’: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook’s Verdict
‘The Nun II’ manages to take the ‘Conjuring’ universe ahead, but with the previous films in the same universe having set the expectations so high that you’re left wanting for something even better with every passing film. ‘The Nun II’ would have been a decent horror film probably 10 years ago, but with the audience’s taste for horror having grown this is just about an Average Watch. I am going with 2.5 stars.
