The Curse of the Nun 2 is a boring sequel that confirms the crisis of the franchise
Miscellaneous / / September 10, 2023
All the same characters and plots, but in a new location.
On September 7, the horror film “The Curse of the Nun 2” was released in Russia. Viewers familiar with the first part will not see anything new.
The first part was released in 2018. The Conjuring spin-off turned out to be the most successful (commercially) film in the franchise, earning more than $360 million at the box office. The plot centered on the Nun, aka Valak, the villainess from The Conjuring 2 and Annabelle: Creation. The new film is already the ninth film in the universe, although only 10 years have passed since the release of the first.
The director of the film is Michael Chavez, for whom “The Curse of the Nun” became the third film in the franchise (he directed “The Curse of the Crying Woman” and “Curse of the Crying Woman”Spell 3: By the will of the devil»). The stars of the first part, Taissa Farmiga and Bonnie Aarons, starred. They were joined by Storm Reid (Euphoria), Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Jonas Blocke (Her).
The film takes place four years after the ending of The Nun. Sister Irene leads an ordinary monastic life and does not tell anyone what happened to her in the past. When a string of clergy murders occurs across Europe, Irene is tasked with finding out who is behind it. During the investigation, she realizes that this is all the work of Valak.
Few original ideas
Irene's return to duty is hilariously reminiscent of some old movie where the hero says, "I'm too old for this crap." But if the writers took inspiration from action films, perhaps the picture would have turned out to be interesting, but the creators are only repeating elements from the first “Curse of the Nun.”
The trailer and the actors who starred in the film hint that the main villain of the previous part is alive. Already at this moment, a suspicion arises that nothing new will be shown on the screen. While watching, it becomes obvious that the authors did not plan to come up with something fresh. Not only are the main character and antagonist old, but the structure is the same: a nun must find an ancient relic in order to defeat evil.
At the same time, it seems that the first part was stupider, but more interesting. In the second, nothing seems to happen. The film is also poorer visually: the first picture flirted with gothic architecture and the corresponding atmosphere (refracted light, gloomy abandoned buildings). The Curse of the Nun 2 does the same thing, but much less often, treating the world around it as a backdrop for its story.
There are very few interesting finds in the film. Perhaps the most striking and inventive scene was shown in the trailer - in which the pages of magazines in a kiosk are flipped through until they form a solid image. It looks impressive and creepy, but it is not clear why the publications remain on the street at night: either the owner wants to be robbed, or is waiting for his goods to be flooded with rain. Perhaps this is a nitpick, but there are too few interesting scenes, so you can think a lot about each of them.
The action is as predictable as the plot. In every fight, the main character falls to the stone floor - for some reason the scriptwriters reduce everything fights to this moment. I even want to find some kind of hidden explanation, but it doesn’t work: it’s just a lack of ideas.
It is clear that “The Curse of the Nun 2” really wants to scare the viewer, but cannot. The same screamers appear so predictably that they resemble a metronome. Loud sound, scary makeup - that's all. And the writers simply couldn’t come up with any other way to create horror.
Standard franchise problems
The Curse of the Nun has the same problems as other films in the MCU. For example, once again the authors do not bother themselves and write completely ridiculous dialogues, which aim to give the viewer context for each scene. That is, the heroes almost always explain their actions, and sometimes retell them. The attempt to develop characters through lines in this franchise fails - the drama is so superficial that it makes you laugh.
At the same time, the word “universe” in relation to “The Conjuring” seems to be a great exaggeration. Rather, it is a collection of films in which characters intersect and the same events repeat. Pictures like The Nun Explain Why People Love post-horror: It’s simply impossible to take seriously this set of jump scares strung together with a predictable plot.
Being the ninth film in the franchise, The Curse of the Nun 2 does not require the viewer to be familiar with previous films. It seems that a person who has not seen the first part will enjoy it more than those who have seen it - this way there will be at least a small element of unpredictability.
“Curse of the Nun 2” is a horror film that does not shine with originality. Although it would be strange to expect something new from a franchise that has produced nine films in 10 years. The writers took the characters from the first part and simply placed them in a new location - it is unlikely that such an approach could have been successful.
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