Movie Review: "The Nun 2" (2023)

Warning: Spoilers!

I have to be perfectly honest with you, I am a massive fan of the Conjuring Universe films and I will watch every single one as long as they keep making them. My personal favourite so far has been The Nun with The Conjuring 2 coming in at a close second, though I do acknowledge that The Conjuring 2 is probably a better film to many people. I feel like these films really reignited my love of horror movies and they also echoed back to the golden age of horror cinema. The films retain a certain quality that more than often, other horror films miss - the element and importance of silence. The storytelling and tension is there because of these moments of complete silence and then, whether something takes place within it is entirely up to the director of the movie.

The Nun 2 is set four years after the events at St. Carta in The Nun and our main priest from the previous movie has died of cholera in between. I have to say, that part felt like a bit of a knock - I was almost looking forward to him making some sort of cameo appearance. It deals with Valak the Nun who has possessed the soul of Maurice or 'Frenchie' which leaves off from the last film where we first saw the upside-down crosses appear on him after the demon tried to enter his body. Using him as a conduit, the demon nun terrorises Europe and seeks out a special relic in order to become more powerful.

Sister Irene is summoned to face this demon as she is the only person still alive who has seen it before and knows how to deal with it. Filled with visions of St. Lucy as a faceless nun figure and an immolated priest who died before she even got there, Sister Irene must use her strong faith to stop the demonic force plaguing her friend. In this film though, there is a secret about herself that she does not yet know, a powerful secret which lends reason as to why she keeps having strange and vivid visions to guide her along her journey of faith.

Alongside her is Sister Debra who could not be less interested in faith if she tried. Sitting in the abbey is turning her into a recluse and feeling like Sister Irene is the only one who truly understands and cares about her, she doesn't let her face the demonic Valak the Nun alone and enters the journey at a strange, wild angle showing little faith and little fear. As her faith grows, Sister Irene shows that it is this faith that they both require when the time comes.

The cinematic experience of this film is a lot like the first one: interesting shots, brilliant moments and some thrilling fun all done through the appearances of Valak the Nun. I think my possible favourite has to be the magazine scene. Like a scene from The Colour of Pomegranites, the artistic flipping of the pages mixed with the pace which slowly makes everything a little bit more tense becomes one of the iconic parts of this film. It is not only that though, if you pay close attention, the images on the magazines become more worrying as well, flipping around from women in makeup and fancy hair to religious icons and byzantine art all the way to stuff that looks more gothic and weird.

Another scene I quite liked was the one at the beginning where the immolation happens. The part where the holy water in the bowl boils away and there is very clearly someone else in the church shows us the sheer darkness that is about to overtake the movie. We know that we can see it standing just beyond the shadows, but it doesn't reveal itself to us. This is just like the scene where Valak appears out of the walls to Sophie and even though we cannot fully see her, we know she is there. Sophie is being terrorised by something that she cannot explain and through these lackings of description and appearance, we are able to feel the fear of the unknown properly.

All in all, this was a movie that proved to be a lot of fun. I am not sure how they are going to deal with that gap between The Nun 2 and The Conjuring 1 and I do wonder what happened to Maurice in the mean time. I think if this film is anything to go off, we should be afraid for that little family he has made himself because as we know from future movies, Valak is not gone. Not in the slightest.

But that being said, I will quite happily take more movies starring one of my all-time favourite film characters: Valak the Nun.