The Nunjuring!
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...
So here we have the latest spin-off from the one time high quality "Conjuring" franchise. Sticking strictly to a formula that will either infuriate or satiate horror genre fans, "The Nun" delivers enough creepy boo-jump tropes to keep it above average. There's plenty of roaming about dark corridors and churchyards, with lanterns our only prominent saviours from the terrors of the dark. If, and it's a big if, you don't mind that Corin Hardy's film isn't trying to raise the bar for horror, and is in fact staying safe, then there's a decent enough good time to be had here. If you be one of those who constantly moans about bringing nothing new to the table, don't bother with this one, in fact, think of something new to bring to the table yourselves then...
The set-pieces hold up well enough (buried alive shiver shiver), the atmospheric dread only occasionally punctured by Abel Korzeniowski's bombastic score. The story is interesting enough, such as why the entity is bringing terror to the abbey, what is the link to the "Warren" family, and the backstory axis for Father Burke (Demián Bichir) brings another demonic layer to the plotting. While talking about "bringing something new to the table", for the first time in this series we actually get a bit of humour, mostly from Jonas Bloquet's likable Frenchie character. Taissa Farmiga holds the lead well, where she has a very appealing visual reaction style that will serve her well if she stays in genre mode. While Maxime Alexandre's cinematography (low lights and fogs) is a big improvement from "Annabelle: Creation" and is tonally compliant.
This formula has been done much better previously, such as Hammer's take on "The Woman In Black", but even then they were going on about new stuff being brought to the table etc etc etc. It is what it is, a boo-jump haunted house (buildings) picture that is there for those who like such things, who buy into it on that level. Is this a great film? Absolutely not, but it works on its intended terms and any expectation of a new branch of horror is going to have you crying over spilt blood. 6/10