The Nun II lands in theaters five years and a handful of days after the first film. While The Nun became the highest-grossing entry in the $2.1 billion The Conjuring Universe, critics mauled it, and it accrued the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any film in the franchise.
This ninth entry in the series, which kicked off a decade ago, sees filmmaker Michael Chaves take on directing duties. He’s no stranger to the film series, having helmed 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona.
The big question is, can he deliver a sequel to a spin-off of The Conjuring 2‘s antagonist that delivers the goods, makes money, and lands better with critics and audiences?
Set in 1956, four years after the events of The Nun, Sister Irene, played by Taissa Farmiga, is in a new convent, and all seems good. However, overhearing some of her fellow sisters telling the story of what happened brings it flooding back. Not long after, Sister Irene has a visitor who informs her that there has been a trail of supernatural slayings of priests and nuns that appears to have started in Romania, the location of her last showdown with Valak, the titular demonic entity.
Fearing that the evil might not have been extinguished as initially believed, it is her job to find out what connects the killings, where the nightmarish nun is headed, what the entity wants, and if she is somehow connected to everything that has been going on. Before too long, Sister Irene finds herself at a boarding school that harbors darkness and also happens to provide sanctuary and employment for Maurice, her savior, in the battle with the satanic sister a few years earlier. The school is where Sister Irene will lead the ultimate face-off against Valek to send the demon back to hell once and for all. Maybe.
The excellent Farmiga isn’t the only returning cast member. Bonnie Aarons reprises her now iconic role as the unholy Valek, and Jonas Bloquet returns as Maurice, aka Frenchie. Joining the cast is the always-engaging Storm Reid as Sister Debra, an American sent to Sister Irene’s convent by her family, who becomes Sister Irene’s companion as they try to solve the sinister mystery. Another familiar and welcome face in the cast is Anna Popplewell, perhaps best known for playing Susan Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy.
The Nun II delivers more of everything, from fuller characterization to a richer and more complex narrative through gore, effective but never extreme, and scares. The sequel feels like a complete package and a much more solid movie than The Nun, which had the unenviable job of taking another film’s villain, who was a last-minute addition to the film that introduced it. The Nun walked (or floated) so that The Nun II could walk, and, if anything, the building on the foundation will hopefully make the audience lukewarm on the previous installment look on it more favorably. The Nun II would not be able to be the movie it is had that not been laid.
As an evolving filmmaker, Chaves, the only director to helm three entries in the franchise, has also come a long way from his previous Conjuring Universe projects. The Nun II is a clear movement towards the peak of a learning curve for him. Here, he utilizes and refines his experiences from the other movies while mixing them with the lore played out in The Nun to create this gripping and tense, unholy trinity of terror. As a director, it’s his most accomplished work from the franchise and should appease those not enamored by his previous efforts.
A significant win for the Chaves is how, together with cinematographer Tristan Nyby, there is a distinct and confident embrace of the gothic often associated with European horror from Italian Giallo movies and even Hammer. Throughout The Nun II‘s one-hour and 50-minute runtime, some moments genuinely benefit from the willingness to lean into the visual tropes and elevate them instead of softening or sanitizing them to play it safe. The manifestation of the devil in a particular form is a specifically compelling and chilling moment. Chaves treats the audience like adults. They’re almost like flourishes to enhance the experience for the casual film fan but morsels for those looking for something more in their mainstream entertainment. Everyone wins, including the cast who get to inhabit it.
The Nun II is one of the better films in the Conjuring Universe and certainly one of the best spin-off features in the series. Well-constructed, deftly executed scares and a few creative choices that elevate even the more expected frights make this a winner overall. Not only does The Nun II cement Valek as a titan of terror who fills the film’s dark heart, but the character feels more fully realized than ever beyond just looking cool and creepy. If this isn’t the last audiences have seen of the demonic nun (or whatever form the fallen angel decides to take), as a mid-credit sequence suggests, that’s not a bad thing. Amen to that.
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