{"id":130193,"date":"2023-09-08T08:28:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T07:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=130193"},"modified":"2023-09-11T08:18:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T07:18:42","slug":"the-nun-ii-review-deserves-to-be-thrown-on-a-funeral-pyre-for-its-sins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/cinema\/the-nun-ii-review-deserves-to-be-thrown-on-a-funeral-pyre-for-its-sins\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nun II Review: Deserves to be thrown on a funeral pyre for its sins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A decade on from the release of James Wan\u2019s terrifying <em><strong>The Conjuring<\/strong><\/em> comes a sequel to <em><strong>The Nun<\/strong><\/em> spinoff which marks the ninth film in this particular horror universe that also includes the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/45FNlrz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Annabelle<\/strong><\/em><\/a> films.<\/p>\n<p>Directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/the-conjuring-the-devil-made-me-do-it-potential-spin-offs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Chaves<\/a> (<em><strong>The Curse of La Llorona<\/strong><\/em>) the film is light on jump scares, big on gothic atmosphere and unfortunately lacking in a satisfying narrative. For the most part, it\u2019s a plodding horror-by-numbers that leads to a fantastic finale with some decent frights but it takes far too long to get there and everything is heavily signposted along the way.<\/p>\n<p>The film begins in 1956 in France when a priest inexplicably sets on fire in front of an altar boy. Meanwhile, across the country, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga reprising her role) is hiding away in a convent following the events of the first film. When she takes Novice, Debra (Storm Reid) under her wing they spark up a friendship with the young nun following Irene when her expertise is called upon to investigate the reappearance of the demon nun Valak.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the film takes place in an all-girls boarding school where an Irish teacher (Anna Popplewell) and her daughter (who is being bullied by the local girls) are finding their place. There\u2019s also a romantic thread to the long-winded and frankly tedious storyline that starts off an interesting note about mother-daughter relationships, racism, grief and faith but fails to tackle its themes in any compelling ways.<\/p>\n<p>Reid\u2019s character is underdeveloped, with her initial backstory completely forgotten by the end of the film. Farmiga is as ever on form with a sensitive turn and her deeply emotive facial expressions delivering the goods. There\u2019s at least some attempt to conclude her mother-daughter afflictions even if it\u2019s handled poorly. This entry into The Conjuring Universe isn\u2019t even bad enough to be amusing and deserves to be thrown on a funeral pyre for its sins.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Nun II will be in cinemas on 8 September 2023.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taissa Farmiga is on form reprising her role as Sister Irene but that isn&#8217;t enough to save the ninth film in The Conjuring universe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":130194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Entertainment","MSN_Publish_Option":true,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[5186],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/The-Nun-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130193"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130197,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130193\/revisions\/130197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}