The Nun is the fifth film in The Conjuring series, and a prequel to the action in James Wan’s first films. Here, a grizzled old priest and a young novitiate nun travel to Cârța Monastery in Romania in the middle of the twentieth century under Corin Hardy’s direction. After the success of his indie horror film The Hallow, Hardy was tabbed for this gothic horror and the results spookily blast past all of the previous films in the series at the box office.
Old Father Burke (Demian Bichir) and young Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) are sent by the Vatican to investigate the murders of several nuns at the Monastery. Burke is wrestling with his past decisions and sins, while Irene is trying to determine how she’ll proceed in the nun process even as she has doubts about what she knows about science and faith. Of course, in their journey, dealing with their own inner demons, they end up battling the demon Valak which leads to a whole set of real-world problems.
Hardy told me earlier this year that he loved the scene where Irene finds out that the nuns of the monastery had been praying in perpetual adoration, worshipping 24/7. He sees that as the turning point in Irene’s story, the moment when the audience too is reminded to never stop praying. While these mysteries are fictional, the reminder is clear: there’s evil out there but the faithful will always stand together against it.
The Blu-ray features include ten minutes of deleted scenes, plus featurettes on “The Conjuring Chronology,” “Gruesome Planet,” and “A New Horror Icon.”
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