Anticipation was high.
The Conjuring and Annabel films already established the terrifying world of the Warrens, and their ghost and demon-busting adventures, scaring audiences silly in the process. This movie is meant to explain how it all began, years before at a creepy monstaery in Romania.
The Nun hit headlines when protests about a ‘jump scare’ teaser trailer terrifying Youtube users forced the company to take the video down. A recent London press screening showed journalists jumping and screaming throughout the traumatic experience.
Is it really that scary? Apparently not…
The movie hits UK cinemas this weekend, but the overwhelming consensus from critics is that this is a major disappointment:
Flickering Myth : Inspite the promise of a skilled cast, cracking locale and spooky villain, The Nun settles for drab soullessness in this disappointing addition to the Conjuring franchise.
Times : The scares are non-existent (being pulled backwards along the floor into a darkened room hasn’t been scary since Insidious in 2010).
San Francisco Chronicle : The dazzling effects can’t mask a slow narrative. Also, creaky floors, jump scares – and just about every horror cliche we can think of – can only take the movie so far.
USA Today : A mix of slow-burn religious mystery and old-school adventure that egregiously fails to utilize its greatest hit: Bonnie Aarons’ terrifyingly freaky villainess of the cloth.
Total Film : The Nun lacks the confidence to let the location and mood speak, let alone whisper for themselves.
Daily Telegraph : The Nun isn’t scary enough, doesn’t move fast enough, and has not-quite-characters who weirdly feel as though they’re occupying different films.
The Daily Beast : What never appears is an original idea, or even an effective jolt to rattle one’s nerves and break up the monotony. In the end, it’s just The Exorcist embellished with a monstrous religious grandma.
Empire Magazine : It may be a familiar old dark castle runaround, but Corin Hardy delivers eerie images and nerve-scraping sound effects.
ScreenAnarchy : A boring, uneventful, downright ludicrous attempt to capitalize on less than four minutes of screen time in an infinitely better film.
Seattle Times : It’s all Aaaah! and Eeek! and on and on. It’s so choppy and predictable that it becomes laughable.
Los Angeles Times : “The Nun,” shot in murky pools of darkness that often leave you squinting at the screen, is a dispiriting reminder that franchising evil inevitably dissipates its impact.
Guardian : There isn’t a genuinely frightening or interesting moment here.
SciFiNow : The Nun, which has proudly been calling itself ‘the darkest chapter’ in the series in the run-up to its release, winds up being the dullest instead.
Newsweek : Rather than grandiose and ponderous, The Nun is workaday, lunch pail gothic, getting the job done with the energy of a factory floor.
Variety : There is rarely any sense that anyone involved with “The Nun” takes anything here too seriously, and audiences are advised to respond in kind.
Entertainment Weekly : The Nun comes closest to its ideal form of go-to midnight-movie, the fun younger cousin of the Conjuring movies with less build-up but more of the money shots you’ll come to a theater to see.
Hollywood Reporter : It’s good clean fun nevertheless, and the set pieces expertly supply the tension-and-release satisfactions of the genre