The Nun (2018) Worth Watching?

It’s about a priest and a sister sent by the Vatican to investigate a suicide by a nun within an old abbey in Romania. Their aim is to determine whether or not the abbey is unholy. They get their answer pretty quick.

The Nun was directed by Corin Hardy (who also directed The Hallow) and stars Taissa Farmiga (from The Final Girls, American Horror Story and sister of Vera Farmiga from The Conjuring), Demián Bichir (from Alien: Covenant and Hipnos) and Jonas Bloquet.

Pray For Forgiveness

The Nun is the fifth movie in The Conjuring series and a prequel to The Conjuring itself. Annabelle is also a prequel to The Conjuring, which itself has a prequel. Here's a quick breakdown of the full chronological order:

The Nun - set in 1952 and a bit in 1971

Annabelle: Creation - set in 1943, 1952, 1955 and a bit in 1967

Annabelle - set in 1967

The Conjuring - set in 1971

The Conjuring 2 - set a bit in 1976 but mostly 1977

The Conjuring 2 introduced us to a demon named Valak, who takes the form of a nun ( which you can now get action figures of !). The Nun is the backstory of Valak. Alright, enough of the history lesson. I'm starting to sound like Ben Stein, the " anyone, anyone " teacher in Ferris Bueller.

So the movie itself has been getting mixed reviews, some people love it (myself included) while many others seem to hate it. The most common complaints center around the use of jump scares, some familiar horror tropes and a few implausible moments in the story.

These personally didn't bother me since the trailer showed there would be jump scares, yes the horror tropes were familiar (as they were in other installments) and this is the 5th part of a movie series. I don't think anyone could claim that part 5 of any movie was mind blowing. So anyone going into The Nun expecting Hereditary is begging for disappointment.

Now, the one thing I DID have a problem with is the fact it's a complete rip of Tales from the Crypt's Demon Knight from 1995. I won't spoil anything in particular, but everything from the concept to the final big scene are near mirror images. You could swap Jada Pinkett with Taissa Farmiga (who both played the same role) and probably wouldn't even notice.

Worth Watching?

I think so. Even if you don't find it as good as other installments of the franchise it's still part of The Conjuring Universe which is destined to continue. And why rob yourself of the complete story based on other people's personal definitions of entertainment value? If you go into this expecting what the trailer clearly shows, you might end up liking it as much as I did.

Now let's rank 'em:

1. The Conjuring 2

2. Annabelle: Creation

3. The Conjuring

4. The Nun

5. Annabelle