The Nun 2, picks up four years after the original movie with a violent murder of a priest in Italy. Later it is confirmed that Maurice, the travel guide from the first nun movie, was possessed by the demon Valak (the nun), who follows him wherever he goes, killing priest after priest. The Roman Catholic church finds out that this act of evil is caused by the demon and sends Sister Irene to defeat the demon since she is the only one alive who has done it before. In the first movie, Valak was after the blood of Christ, now Valak is after the eyes of Saint Lucy, which would grant the demon unimaginable power. It’s important to note that the eyes of Saint Lucy are hidden in a boarding school where Maurice currently works.
The premise of the second movie was to continue where the last one left off, with Frenchie under possession by the nun. The Nun 2 had an intriguing plot but many viewers were met with dissatisfaction. The movie was filled with forced connections, embarrassingly directed jump scares, and cliche dialogue.
This film drags on and on, missing the mark in more ways than one. The plot and purpose of the movie becomes muddled making you question what the point is.
The writer’s efforts to build connections between the viewers and the new characters are unsuccessful. Many fans found themselves missing the original characters from the previous movie and were instead greeted with some disappointing new faces. Maurice, the main comedic relief from the first Nun movie was adored by viewers and the writers had potential to further connect with the audience by adding background about his possession. Instead, we have scenes with a new character Sofia, and the typical cliche of bullying happening to her, desperately trying to force the viewers to like her.
The movie also attempts to add a potential love interest, Kate, this created an opportunity for building the love and destroying it because the Nun’s possession of Maurice would have watchers further connect with the character. The possession of Maurice would have taken a greater emotional toll on the viewers .
Another character with wasted potential is Sister Irene. The movie gives little to no detail about Sister Irene’s Mother, but tries to add that because of her mom she was able to defeat the nun. Debra- another character added to the franchise also had potential. Instead of showing a growing bond between Debra and Sister Irene and having the Nun use that as a soft spot towards Irene, like in the first nun movie between Father Burke and Sister Irene, they never made that connection.
In the first movie there’s a much clearer display of character development- the writers created Sister Irene with her committing and becoming a nun, Father Burke growing closer to sister Irene, and Frenchie being the wonderful comedic relief. The first movie goes into depth about Valak and how powerful this demon is, it shows what the possession of this demon looks like. The setting of the first movie was incredibly eerie and the unexpected scares had viewers jumping out of their seats. Whereas The embarrassing jump scares were scarier than the movie. It made you think, “Was that supposed to scare me?”.
The problem was the overuse of Nun. Yes, the movie is called The Nun 2, but the incessant use of, in this movie and the one before it, emphasizes how the Nun’s actual name is “Valac” and this demon can form into your greatest fears, but instead of using that to create uncertainty, the movie just keeps using the nun. We as viewers fear the unknown but we already know what the nun looks like, so eventually it just becomes repetitive, losing its shock value.
You can use as many cliche jump scares as you want for viewers to flinch- but it’s our fear of the unknown that truly terrifies us.
