Hello everyone, I hope everyone's having a fantastic week so far. We have reached the month where we are going to be focusing on two franchises. In celebration of Spooky Season, I wanted to revisit The Conjuring films. I realized that I had covered La Llorona and Devil Made Me Do It, but I hadn't talked about any of the other entries. So why not talk about them now? It seemed very appropriate as we had just received word not too long ago about another entry - The Nun 2. I'm still waiting for that Crooked Man movie that we were teased when Conjuring 2 was being released. It also felt appropriate when I started thinking about the old Universal Monster movies. If anything, The Conjuring Films felt very in the vein of what a present day Universal Monster movie would be. I mean I'd also throw Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Halloween into that as well.
The other side of films that we are going to talk about is the Hellraiser films. I know that there's quite a few of them. I questioned whether or not to cover just the first four and the upcoming remake from Hulu. But I said to hell with it, might as well bust that bitch of a puzzle box wide open. And the best way of covering all these films, well by alternating of course.
Moving back to the Conjuring side of things, I wanted to take a different approach. I mean I have watched the films as they were being released. Each film felt very much like an event film. But I know they were trying to craft a bit of a larger story. So, I thought why not watch them in Chronological Order this time around. And the first stop is in Romania in 1952.
The Nun is an interesting first place to start. It honestly sets the world up relatively well. It's a bit of a smaller story. But the way the film opens with glimpses of the Warrens, it's like leaving small little bread crumbs and has the audience wondering who they are. So for a newcomer to the franchise, this may not be a bad way to do so.
The synopsis is as follows When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together, they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun.
One of the big highlights of The Nun for me is its atmosphere. Its a bit dark and dreary. The way that the camera will linger on the shadows is haunting with its darkness. You always feel the presence of the haunting evil. At first, we are not given a name to this evil. But as the story unfolds we discover the name of Valak. It's all oozing the Universal Monsters feel. Honestly, this is one of my favorite entries because of it.
While we do see a bit of Valak, its story isn't fully expressed in this entry. There are some hints as to what happened. The Duke of St. Corta had summoned the Demon and the Church stopped. Then it had made the convent as a way of holding the evil at bay. It's a pretty bold big task that the Sisters of the Abbey have to do. Not having to question why, just following with their faith. Definitely something that I could never do. Mainly, Valak is there for brief appearances. I applaud them for handling it that way. It could have been extremely easy to just showcase Valak and have it in your face a whole lot more than they do.
The characters is another thing I really enjoy about the film. Sister Irene is a bit doe-eyed, but is not afraid of questioning things. This is something that is illustrated as she's teaching a lesson to a class at the beginning of the film with her talk about the dinosaurs and penguins. Her questioning things is a huge strength for her. She's also not afraid of seeking out the answers she needs. Father Burke is what I'd compare to the Father from The Exorcist. He's seen some things and has been round the block. This isn't his first rodeo. But when someone needs a job done, he doesn't hesitate. However, he seems to be on a path of rediscovering his faith and questioning whether he made the right call on a previous case. Through the course of his story, he's able to put those to rest. And then there's Frenchie, who has a bit of a heart of gold. That's honestly one of his best characteristics as he could have let Burke and Irene meet a bad fate. He wants to be able to help people and ultimately gives everything to do so when the time is right. He's also a good viewpoint for the audience as he says when situations are terrible. He understands exactly that it's a mistake to be there and wants to get out of there as fast as possible.
While I mentioned before that this just oozes Universal Monsters feeling to it, one of the fun easter eggs I noticed was Valak's shadow. It feels like a wonderful homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula as it starts as a shadow and creeps around with Irene following it before it emerges behind her. It's a bit of a scare that worked so wonderfully this time around. Another easter egg is the buggy's plate reading
6-VA-01LAK. It just showcases how much Valak's presence is felt in the film as well as calling back to moments in The Conjuring 2 (I know we haven't gotten there yet, but bear with me).
The scares in the film weren't all jump scares. Don't get me wrong, there's a fair share of those. But moments where I was expecting there to be a jumpscare, surprisingly jumpscare free. And a big highlight of that is when Burke, Irene, and Frenchie investigate the ice house - Sister Victoria. I think it's Sister Victoria. Frenchie had left her lying down, yet she was sitting upright. When Burke reaches for her, I found myself squirming in my seat a little bit. I was prepared for the jump scare. With the right sound system, it does accentuate the scares in the film. This watch through I had the opportunity to watch it with a small 16" ONN Soundbar. It's small yet managed to pack a hell of a punch. The one instance of the scare not working for me was Burke's run in with Daniel. It was creepy and very atmospheric, but punctuated with the gurge of the snake from Daniel. If it wasn't for that small moment, the rest of it would have worked so well for me.
There were times where I found myself questioning what was going on. The sisters that Irene and Burke had seen - were they all ghosts? Was The Abbess a ghost? Or was it Valak messing with them? How much can Valak influence things? What is Valak's abilities? One way I could read it was that Irene saw all the sisters because of her ability to see. She mentions early on that she had visions growing up. This could be a form of clarevoyance that we see later on in the films. Honestly, the more that I think about it. The more that makes sense as I don't recall Burke interacting with any of the other sisters besides Abbess.
With this being the first film in our watch, it's nice seeing the small connecting moments of the Warrens discussion. It establishes them in a pretty unique way, almost in a Marvel-like way. But it also wraps up Frenchie's story and illustrates that sometimes not everything gets a happy ending. But that's a story for another day.
With our next installment, we travel to 1955 where a husband and wife open their house to a nun and her six orphans. Yeah, that's right. We get to talk about Annabelle: Creation. Till next time.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
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