The Nun Review

The Nun is a supernatural horror film that is not too unlike many Japanese and Korean horror films of recent times. The movie has an interesting premise, and follows through with enough gusto to get you through a horror movie fix, but overall it falls flat, and really doesn’t make any major moves to change the genre of supernatural horror, revenge horror, and doesn’t even compare to nunsploitation, which is what I thought this film really was about. This 2005 film is a good example of Spanish horror films that you may have missed, and in many cases rightfully so, as this one isn’t the greatest of them all.

The movie starts off with a group of girls at a Catholic boarding school. They are victims of abuse by a nun, and later we find out more of the back story. In modern times those same girls are now being taken out one by one by a ghost, the ghost of the nun that they all helped kill! That’s right, they helped drown a nun and now she’s come back several years later to kill them off one by one.

Here is a trailer for the supernatural horror film The Nun:



The Nun is a bit more than a sci-fi channel production. It’s on par with many other imports that we have seen in previous Lionsgate media purchases. The movie features a wide array of characters, but they aren’t given enough time to develop properly, therefore, you don’t end up caring about these characters as they are punished for murdering a nun. The ghost sequences and overall scary moments are few and far between. However, they are done well. The jump scenes are there, you get silence to loud noises and sudden appearances by the ghost, and you get some great animation for such a low budget. Overall, the ghost is nice, and is superior to some of the modern remakes like “Mirrors” and others that seem to be skimping on the CG or doing it wrong somehow.

Is The Nun Scary? No.

The Nun isn’t really all that scary, and really is only going to satisfy diehard horror movie fans. As a film critic (I use that term loosely) I found the cinematography beautiful at times. When they drown Sister Ursula and she descends into a cold bath, in full nun gear, there is such a beauty to the sequences that you’d swear you’re watching a superior film.

The use of supernatural and physical religious tones, is spot on. The superstition of the Catholic faith is interesting to see here. I don’t think many people got that when this film came out, and I don’t think that the director was intentionally slapping the Catholic church in the face with the film. This is not something like “The Exorcist” or anything that should be touted as a real religious scare. However, as a former Catholic, I understand the superstition that the characters go through upon trying to figure out what is going on.

The pacing is a little odd. It’s a little slow. The characters are somewhat self aware, and at one point one of the characters says, “what? Is this, I know What you Did 18 summers ago?” and the plotting keeps moving forward into a cliché that you are going to find in a lot of horror films. In regards to the pacing, you will find the film moves slow at times then speeds up to a point where you lose some of the transitional scenes and dialogue, moving you through another callous motion picture.

After the third act develops I had a fear that this film would somehow throw a wrench into the story and start a split personality thing…and once again I was right. The Identity Crisis in horror films starts up again and I really wanted to punch my screen. Sure it’s not as overt as some other instances, but man, it’s there and I hated that aspect.

The Nun is not a scary movie. It doesn’t change the shape of horror movies, it is not a great film. It has enough of a plot, enough scares, and a few moments of great effects (computer and other) to make this somewhat worth at least one or two views. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, The Nun is not going to win any awards soon, and it’s easily forgotten, but it has enough of a punch to keep you from falling asleep.



Looking for grindhouse, horror, or sci-fi films? Please check out our amazon astore featuring all things horror. Don't trust astore? Check out amazon.com, surprisingly they have more grindhouse,horror,and rare sci-fi than you may not have thought possible.