Review by Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong
This Sequel, which comes five years after its predecessor, sees Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and the Demon Nun (Bonnie Aarons) come face to face once again.
Now living in France, Sister Irene feels at peace knowing she defeated the powerful evil. However, when a Priest is murdered in another town in France the Vatican gets involved. They inform Sister Irene that the demon she claims is defeated appears to be back. And worse yet, it’s been travelling from Romania and making its way West across Europe. They request that Irene hunt down and defeat the evil once and for all.
Fans of 2018’s The Nun can breathe easy. This is an honourable Sequel to a beloved character while also paying homage to The Conjuring Universe. Not only is Sister Irene back, but so is Maurice (Jonas Bloquet), who helped defeat the Nun last time around. Or so he thought. What really happened was that the demon went inside him and is now using him as this vessel to travel around Europe in search of a long-buried artefact. An artifact that it believes is at a boarding school in France. Bloquet excels as the possessed yet caring Maurice.
The only problem with following these two storylines, Sister Irene on the hunt and Maurice at the boarding school, is that in the beginning, it becomes hard to follow. There are moments when these two different locations within France feel like they are from different timelines. But as the story progresses the linear timeline becomes more fleshed-out.
Screenwriter Akela Cooper (who wrote the Horror hits Malignant and M3GAN) crafts a suspense-loaded Script with heart. The heart lies within a mother and daughter who live at the boarding school the demon is now calling home. The Script along with the direction from Michael Chaves creates suspense that crawls under your skin. At each corner of the boarding school dread lies.
The Horror relies heavily on the build-up of tension. When we see the Nun it’s shocking each time because it comes when we least expect it and are accompanied by effective sound production.
Warner Bros. Pictures Canada release THE NUN II in theatres Friday, September 8, 2023.
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