Is Religion No Longer Frightening?
The first thing I remember from The Conjuring was the awkward conversation between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga about how the Lord brought them together. I remember thinking that they were both way too good-looking for the conversation they were having. If you look like these two, there’s no back story needed for why you got married.
The second thing I remembered was that an evil spirit was terrorizing a family because they wanted to be human. This struck me as odd because I didn’t see how becoming human could trump having the ability to control the elements.
I’m a fan of James Wan films, but I had my reservations about The Conjuring series. The trailer for The Nun sold me. That long dark hallway that obviously led to the devil’s pit and then having this ominous nun appear behind you — I’m there.
The film opens with a gruesome death at a Romanian abbey. The scenery was beautiful and reminiscent of Coppola’s Dracula. I had no issue with the first five minutes, it set us up with a lot of questions and you’re invested in what can happen.
We then meet Father Burke at the Vatican. It’s explained that he’s a professor/priest with an obvious past and the Vatican would like him to investigate the abbey. They assign a nun-to-be, Sister Irene, as his assistant. He heads to London to pick her up and then they fly to Romania where they track down the French Canadian farmer that found the scene at the abbey. I’m not kidding, that trek and those backgrounds happened. Let’s just roll with it.
The abbey works on people the same way that half a bottle of whiskey and a mirror would on a dark, cold night. Everyone has their issues to work through. I’ve always argued that horror films use the extraordinary to highlight the ordinary struggles that each of us goes through.
Father Burke is the character with the most miles on him, so lets start with him. His greatest regret is losing a kid that was possessed by a demon. This scene was confusing because I didn’t see him do anything wrong. He arrived there days after the possession took place and he performed the exorcism. The kid died from injuries sustained before Father Burke arrived. Was he mad that he wasn’t more powerful and unable to save the kid’s life and if that were the case, is his anger directed more towards fate and not some evil entity?
I didn’t study apologetics and they gave me nothing else to work with so it’s anyone’s guess.
Sister Irene has had visions throughout her childhood and it seems her family gave up on her and stuck her in a convent. She’s a monotone character and she doesn’t have any ambitions aside from doing good, so I couldn’t tell if we were supposed to root for her to break free and live her life or be the best nun she could be. An issue I had with her storyline is that the main reason for her childhood visions wasn’t utilized by her directly in an empowering moment, but was mansplained to her by another character.
The ending was ambiguous in the way that endings tend to be when they are gearing up for a fruitful sequel. My problem with these types of endings. You just put characters through a traumatizing experience and we know some of them will not come out of it alive. If there is no resolution to their sacrifice and their efforts are for not, then why should we root for them?
Aside from my issues with that, if you wash that all from your mind and just watch it for the scares, there are a few good jump moments. I was more moved by Hereditary earlier this year, but I can’t say that The Nun was all bad. Scenery and lighting were great.
