THE NUN II

I can sit here and say this is an upgrade from 'The Nun', but it's so minimal that this entry's existence isn't even worth it. While there are some more creative moments with the scares, The Nun herself is still lacking from huge chunks of the film, especially the finale. In 'The Conjuring 2', she was just a haunting presence and here, yet again, she just kind of screams at the camera. It's always a quiet moment, something spooky flies by a character, Valak's hand peaks out from behind a door, and then she appears - end scene. She just does so little; she is meant to be this horror icon, but in both of her solo ventures, there is nothing to make her worthy of this title.

Something all the spinoff films struggle with is the lack of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Their chemistry is so captivating that you are hooked on the characters before the horror even starts. None of 'The Conjuring' spinoff films have succeeded at introducing interesting characters. 'The Nun II' attempts to add a lot of screen time to the characters' backstories, but these end up being incredibly boring. This film is an additional 20 minutes compared to the first 'Nun', and you feel every boring minute.

Quick positives - the magazine sequence. While it ends with a cheap jump scare, the build-up of all the magazines turning and building to the image of Valak is truly a great horror moment. It's a shame the film never did anything on this level again.

The film also has weird callbacks, or I guess in this case call-forwards, to Valak's moments in 'The Conjuring 2', by simply just splicing scenes from that film in. I think I get what they were trying to hint at: trying to form a link been Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren, but it never fully comes together and is just a cheap reference.

There is no reason that now two films about Valak are so bland and simply not scary. 'The Conjuring 2' was the horror movie that got me into horror - I can still remember being in the cinema and being filled with fear and panic, looking away to the exit light under the screen whenever the film got too haunting. That a character with that presence should be reduced to such a bland, empty, film twice! There is currently only one more 'Conjuring' entry planned, 'The Last Rite' - hopefully that will be the final séance, because it's truly time to put the nail in the coffin and stop beating these demons.