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Have an appreciation for horror, remember really liking 'The Conjuring' films (though they need a re-watch) and liked the idea. The advertising also suggested a quite creepy film if done right. Seeing that 'The Nun' was not positively received, critically and by word of mouth, however lowered my expectations somewhat, being one of not many to have respect for critics opinions.
Seeing 'The Nun' with an open mind, with the intent of actually liking the film and going against the grain (as has actually been the case quite a number of times, though often do agree with general consensus), for me it was not as bad as many have said and it is not one of the worst of the year. It's not even among the worst of the horror genre. It was though a disappointment and managed to be worse than my lowered expectations, far from being one of the best of the year as well.
'The Nun' at least didn't insult my intelligence (on the most part), it is not that amateurish and didn't get the sense it was completely not trying, while thinking that it could have tried harder. From personal opinion, 'The Nun' does have similar problems as 'Slender Man', except it's a better film.
Found 'The Nun' to be a good-looking film, very spooky in setting and atmospheric in lighting. It's slickly photographed too and the effects not cheap. The music does have an unsettling ambience and doesn't sound cheap in how it's recorded or orchestrated.
It started off very well, the beginning was unnerving and did have dread and tension.
However, 'The Nun' did go downhill quickly too early and struggles to recover. One is told too much and far too soon, which completely diminishes the suspense and makes things very predictable. The direction is both leaden and disorganised and while the actors try gamely they have nothing to work with, with clunky dialogue galore and poorly developed clichés passing for characters that are both bland and annoying.
Dialogue throughout has no natural flow and reeks of cheese. The story is very poorly paced, mainly dull, and the back-story is far too ridiculous, clichéd and with bland atmosphere and nothing new to engage with it or take it at face value. It is not fun, with comic relief that is not funny, sometimes not tasteful and features too much. 'The Nun', like 'Slender Man', feels like a short film over-stretched to breaking point for a feature film, the content is just too little and the titular character is far too underused and is more so what than scary when revealed. 'The Nun' also fails at being scary or interesting, the too thin story and deadly dull pacing kills the tension, suspense and dread, making the atmosphere bland throughout, while there is too much of an over-reliance on jump-scares that are too random, senseless and obvious to be creepy.
On the whole, not terrible but disappoints. 4/10 Bethany Cox
4/10
