The Nun is a surprisingly passable movie, now don't get me wrong it's not good by any means but I'm amazed as how average it is considering how bad I've heard it to be or maybe I'm just feeling generous today, or even more likely its down to Taissa Farmiga being in it as I've never seen a poor performance from her in anything, so her presence definitely elevates the film at least a little.
I enjoyed the setting of the abandoned nunnery that is inhabited by an evil spirit, the film does have a hammer horror quality to its aesthetic, mist filled corridors and graveyards dimly lit by the waning flame of candlelight and there are a few good shots in the film using this setting to its advantage. Like all The Conjuring series the production value is really high as is the cinematography.
Of course there's also everything wrong with it but I had literally the lowest of expectations for this movie so I was prepared for the predictable jump scares and CGI silliness but I didn't hate watching it, did some of it make me laugh, yes, is it frightening in the slightest, no, but it didn't bore me.
As far as run of the mill, generic, cheesy mainstream American horror goes it's not quite as bad as the steaming pile of crap that is The Pope's Exorcist but it's not good either.
It's completely forgettable but entertaining and really that's all I'm asking of The Conjuring spin offs, I know they're not going to be good but as long as I can sit back, turn off my brain and enjoy them I'm fine with that.
The Nun 2, is more of the same that you’ve come to expect from The Conjuring series, frankly its quite a boring and predictable film.
The Conjuring universe at this point has become as generic and formulaic as the MCU.
It appears to only have a select few tricks up its sleeve, and reuses the same old tired jump scares you’ve seen a thousand times before.
It's scares are laughably bad, tiresome, predictable and inoffensive.
I don’t understand why people enjoy this series all that much,
its a rinse and repeat of the same thing, over and over again.
A mish-mash of horror cliche’s with nothing new to offer. From spooky ghost children that just come off as laughable to
fake out scares that you can see coming a mile off. The film is cartoonish and silly.
Now perhaps you might think I'm just not the audience for this film,
but I can enjoy mainstream cheesy horror if its done well. If it at least tries to be atmospheric and creepy and this film doesn't, its a pedestrian effort with no thought or finesse to it whatsoever.
Sure the series is always well directed and the acting is never bad,
in fact the acting is never bad in any of these films but everything else is bland and lifeless.
How much originality does the Nun 2 have, the answer, is Nun.
How many good scares are in it, Nun.
How many characters did i care about? , Nun of them.
The list could go on but I'm Nun too bothered to continue.
With every scene I was left thinking, really, the writers and director thought that was scary, I don’t believe it.
Its safe, easily digestible McDonald's horror for the masses,
cheap and flavorless yet everyone buys it. Well not me.
Annabelle Creation is proof that if spin-offs have a writer and director who care about the material you can end up with a really good movie. The filmmakers here right a lot of the wrongs present in many modern horror films, the first two acts build very gradually and spend time introducing our characters and making us invested in them.
Horror only works when you care about what's happening to the characters in the film, too often is this core tenet of horror cinema discarded for cheap jump scares. There's a few in here and although they do follow the annoying trend of looking too CGI (Demons rarely ever look good when they're shown fully) they're definitely earned. There are all the expected tropes that you're accustom to from a modern American ghost story movie but they're all very well done.
Alongside them though is some genuinely creepy imagery, one scene in particular stood out to me, where a parent is witnessing his little girl whom believed to be dead begin to contort and twist, her bones cracking and breaking as she grows taller into a monstrous demonic form hidden in shadow. That shit is the stuff of nightmares.
It's well acted and written and it's without a doubt one of the strongest films in the franchise
Annabelle is a pretty run of the mill spooky doll story, it's entertaining, well put together but pretty average. One thing I do appreciate though with The Conjuring series is its continuity, all the films do feel like they're in the same universe and they tell a long sprawling story when you watch them in sequence. This film picks up directly from the end of the last, which is a much stronger entry.
Annabelle is really full of the same expected cliche story beats, the doll gets passed over to a new family, spooky things happen, they consult a priest, priest gets injured, more spooky things happen, doll is got rid of, the end. That said the acting is pretty good and it doesn't try to jump out at you every five seconds but when it does it's as silly looking and as tiresome as you'd expect and ruins the actual build up to the jumpscare, which is a shame, it happens a lot with this franchise, the build ups are usually quite good and then the payoffs are lacklustre and drenched in CGI.
The movie isn't bad though, it's entertaining enough albeit very cliche.
The Conjuring may be a pastiche of 70's and early 80's horror classics, predominately (The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist and The Exorcist) but it is a very entertaining and well made movie.
A lot of that is down to Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as renowned (or rather in real life disgraced and debunked) paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
They have a chemistry and an earnest quality to them that carries the movie. The supporting cast are also very good, Lili Taylor in particular as the mother haunted by the ghost of Bathsheba Sherman is a standout but then again when is Lili Taylor bad in anything. Another positive is that as unsubtle as James Wan is as a director, (his trademark overuse of jump scares and quiet quiet, bang approach to horror), his camera work is excellent.
The film itself is also fairly light on the jump scares considering it's a James Wan movie, they're here but they're mostly forgivable as it instead properly places the focus on building an eerie atmosphere and interesting characters in the Warrens.
It has a lot of rewatch value, I've seen it quite a few times and enjoyed it every time.
It's a good solid straight up ghost story that very much wears its influences on its sleeve.
Annabelle comes home plays with a few ideas that I really like, the premise is that while the Warrens are away their daughter is looked after by two babysitters and one of them breaks into the haunted museum and takes Annabelle out of her cage. Allowing the demonic forces sealed inside the house to have full reign on the property. Really cool idea, as with all the Conjuring movies the film isn't scary but it has a lot of charm and the characters are all very likeable. Here we get to see how the Warren's line of work affects their young daughter, who also shares Lorraine's gift to see into the other world. McKenna Grace is really good in this, as she was in Ghostbusters afterlife.
The most positive thing I can say about this franchise is that the films are always entertaining and each installment has a natural progression to the next. I think if you watch them with the mindset that you're not looking to be scared only entertained there's a lot to enjoy. The acting is always good and the stories for the most part are always engaging.
The negatives for this film are the same for all mainstream horror movies, when CGI is used its cartoonish and doesn't really sell me on the whole premise that this is the most dangerous room in the world that has just been unlocked. But overall, that said I know what I'm going into with these movies and I enjoyed my time with it.
The Conjuring 2 is a polished turd of a film. I've seen it twice before and hated it but I wanted to give it a fair trial so I tried to watch it again for this review.
I actually turned it off this time around, it is that bad.
What's so awful about it? jump scares every five seconds, they don't frighten me, they piss me the hell off, they're lazy, stupid and look ridiculous. I don't have time for a film that has no tricks up its sleeve but that. Jump scares are present in all the movies but here it's literally non-stop to the point of being enraging. I know why they're included so often as well, the producers clearly instructed James Wan to make the film "more scary" and "more scary" in idiot terms means more jump scares.
James Wan is the most overrated director out there. Yes his camera work looks nice and visually he is somewhat of a good director but he is a hack. He has no idea of subtlety and he treats his audience like idiots.
A nun that looks like Marilyn Manson may be scary to school children but not to me, having it run at the camera like a looney toons character is not frightening, it's annoying and stupid. Weirdly I had more fun with the prequel The Nun than I did this movie, probably because it was mercilessly shorter. While we are at it, no a dog turning into Jack Skellington isn't scary either, it's bloody stupid.
You tell an effective ghost story by working on the audience's imagination and when you do show something if at all, you simply show it to them, you don't have it jump out, you have it linger.
The other main antagonist in the film is the ghost of an old cockney man, because ooooh that's so scary, hearing someone jump out and shout "this is my house" over and over again, I'm shaking. really. I am.
What they do with this pointless character is even more ridiculous, the demon nun is using him to get the warren's to go to a house in Enfield.....why?, the nun literally attacks Lorraine Warren at her own house. So what's the point of getting them to travel all the way to London just so it can do the same thing.
Also, why is there a six minute interlude where Ed Warren plays "Can't help falling in love" in its entirety. I came to watch a horror movie not listen to Patrick Wilson's admittedly nice crooning.
Here's the problem with this movie,
it is everything I hate about James Wan packed into a film.
It's lazy, childish, meandering, needlessly loud and unbelievably boring. A lot of people online say that this is the more character driven of the two Conjuring films and I really don't understand that claim, there isn't any character development, it's just a longer film who's runtime is unwarranted.
The only positive I can say about it is that there is one sequence where one of the girls is being interviewed that is almost good but other than it it's a tedious movie made for people who don't watch a lot of horror films. It annoyed me so much that I won't be reviewing The Conjuring 3, all I have to say on that film is that I've seen it and it's fine, it's not good but its better than this piece of crap.
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