The Nun (The Conjuring Universe) - Sept 7, 2018

[Malcolm R]

Title: The Nun (2018)

Tagline: Pray For Forgiveness

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Director: Corin Hardy

Cast: Bonnie Aarons, Taissa Farmiga, Demián Bichir, Jonas Bloquet, Charlotte Hope, Ingrid Bisu, Jonny Coyne, Sandra Teles, August Maturo, Michael Smiley, Dee Bradley Baker, Debra Wilson, Mark Steger, Gabrielle Downey, David Horovitch, Lili Bordán, Daniel Mandehr, Christof Veillon, Jared Morgan, Boiangiu Alma, Lidiya Korotko, Tudor Munteanu, Manuela Ciucur, Jack Falk, Lynnette Gaza, Ani Sava, Scarlett Hicks, Izzie Coffey, Laur Dragan, Eugeniu Cozma, Beatrice Péter, Ana Udroiu, Andreea Sovan, Dana Voicu, Andreea Moldovianu, Beatrice Rubica, Claudia Susanu, Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga

Release: 2018-09-06

Plot: 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. Together they uncover the order’s unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in “The Conjuring 2,” as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned.

The next chapter in The Conjuring Universe (The Conjuring, Annabelle) is The Nun, out on Sept 7, 2018, and centers on the story of the demonic nun from The Conjuring 2. The Nun stars Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Charlotte Hope, Ingrid Bisu, and Bonnie Aarons.

http://ew.com/movies/2018/04/18/the-nun-teaser-image/

Another spinoff, The Crooked Man (also from The Conjuring 2) has also been mentioned, but is not yet in production. Across four films to date, WB's The Conjuring Universe franchise has grossed more than $1.2 BILLION worldwide.

 

[Malcolm R]

First teaser trailer for The Nun. Looks very creepy.



Article at EW. The film was shot on location in Romania and Transylvania.

http://ew.com/movies/2018/06/13/the-nun-trailer-conjuring/

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My guess is that;

Spoiler: Speculation

Taissa Farmiga is playing a younger version of her older sister's character in the main films, Lorraine Warren.

In 1952, Warren would have been 25 -- right around the around the age of the novitiate in The Nun. The novitiate is clairvoyant, like Warren.

If they have gone this route, it would be a substantial departure from the real Warren's life. But given that the real Warrens had their daughter Judy right around the end of World War II, which would have put her in her mid-twenties when the original Conjuring was set, there's room for divergence.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I remembered when I lived back home in Connecticut, the Warrens who lived near by would appear on this local radio show on WICC AM and would talk about their experiences. This was back in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[dpippel]

New poster revealed at Comic-Con:

 

[Malcolm R]

Now rated by MPAA. Sounds like a good time.

The Nun
Horror WB (NL) 9/7/18 Rated: R for terror, violence, and disturbing/bloody images

 

[Malcolm R]

New pic from EW:

 

[Malcolm R]

New teaser:

 

[Malcolm R]

Another teaser:

 

[Malcolm R]

Another teaser:

 

[Malcolm R]

The Nun tracking for potential opening over $40 million:

https://variety.com/2018/film/box-office/box-office-the-nun-peppermint-1202927572/

Variety review:

https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/the-nun-review-1202928008/

EW review, Grade: B

https://ew.com/movies/2018/09/05/the-nun-isnt-your-convent-ional-conjuring-movie-ew-review/

 

[Tino]

It’s getting better reviews than I thought.

 

[JQuintana]

It's arriving at a pretty decent time. I think audiences are tired of the superhero summer movie fare and want a good old fashioned scarefest to zone out on. I'd say $40-50 million opening is doable.

 

[Malcolm R]

The Nun rapping knuckles and taking names internationally:

“The Nun” has earned $12.1 million in its launches in 41 international markets, scoring the biggest opening day for a horror film in 18 territories, including United Arab Emirates, Colombia, and Peru.

Warner Bros.’ “The Nun” also achieved the best opening day among the five “Conjuring” movies in 30 markets, including Germany, Holland, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. It’s also achieved the biggest opening day for a Warner Bros. title in 2018 in 18 locations, including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Portugal, and Philippines.

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/nun-box-office-international-openings-1202931989/

 

[Robert Crawford]

Has anybody seen this yet?

 

[Tino]

Has anybody seen this yet?

Apparently everybody but us!

I plan on seeing it this week.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I have a tradition of seeing the movies set in the Conjuring universe at the drive-in, and this was no exception:

I would rank this as the second worse in the franchise, ahead of Annabelle but behind Annabelle: Creation and both main Conjuring movies.

The movie opens at night in a remote abbey in rural Romania in 1952, where something horrific is going down. A young nun escapes the carnage, prays for forgiveness for the sin she is about to commit, and jumps from a high elevation with a noose around her neck.

Sometime later, her corpse is found hanging in front of the main gates by the young man who delivers supplies. The Vatican enlists Father Burke, basically the Church's ordained version of Fox Mulder, to investigate. And it orders him to bring a young novitiate along with him, who the bishop assures him has specialized knowledge that will be useful in the investigation.

Burke assumes that she is familiar with the area of Romania where the abbey is located, but Sister Irene is an American, and her knowledge is of an entirely different sort; she was investigated by his obscure branch of the Church, but on the other side of the coin. Instead of demonic possession, she in the recipient of visions.

Father Burke and Sister Irene arrive in Romania, and are taken to the abbey by the young man who found and reported the body of the nun. It is clear right off the bat that something is very wrong.

What follows is probably the least plot yet for a movie set in this universe: Father Burke and Sister Irene set about investigating what's going on in this abbey, and once they figure it out, set about addressing the problem.

The bulk of the film is a classic haunted house horror movie. Once they've reached the grounds of the abbey, it's lots of dark scenes and jump scares. Unlike the other movies, where the evil amps up slowly, Father Burke and Sister Irene arrive well into the endgame, where the evil is everywhere and already up to full strength. This saps the film of a lot of its suspense.

The biggest thing it has going for it is Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene. She is funny, smart, brave, and kind. Right from her scene, where she entertains and enraptures a room of schoolchildren (like another big screen novitiate, in Salzburg) she'd won me over. Like Lorraine Warren, Sister Irene is plagued by visions. They have a big effect on how she (and we) perceive what's going on in the abbey. But she utilizes them in a constructive way, learns from them and understands the value of them. Caught in the middle of probably the most dire situation any characters in the Conjuring movie have yet found themselves in, she is steely and unwavering. She had dedicated herself to God and to the Church, and she accepts the responsibility that has resulted from that.

Demián Bichir is also strong as Father Burke, a man who has fallen short in the past, and is burdened but also humbled by it. The dynamic between him and Sister Irene is a worthwhile one, as a mutual respect quickly develops between them.

The tie back to the main Conjuring movie is:

Spoiler: Ending

While Sister Irene is successful in sealing the portal from hell, the demon Valak jumps into the young man who had found the nun's body and escorted them up to the abbey. The movie jumps ahead twenty years, and the young man is revealed to be the demonic possession case study that Ed Warren presented at his lecture in the first Conjuring.

The movie neither confirms nor denies my theory from post #3. Apparently franchise mastermind James Wan, who directed both of the main Conjuring movies and served as second unit director on this, told The Hollywood Reporter the following: "I do know where potentially, if The Nun works out, where The Nun 2 could lead to," he says, "and how that ties back to Lorraine's story that we've set up with the first two Conjurings and make it all come all full circle."

Given the opening weekend, I'd saw the sequel is pretty much guaranteed.

 

[Malcolm R]

Good to know it's better than Annabelle, which I agree is the weakest of the franchise. SyFy has been showing that film this weekend and I re-watched bits of it. It's a rather slow, plodding film.

The Drive-In is cool, though you are trading away the atmosphere of the sound design/surround sound you would get in the theater. That's usually a significant part of horror films.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Drive-In is cool, though you are trading away the atmosphere of the sound design/surround sound you would get in the theater. That's usually a significant part of horror films.

That's part of why I see them there; there's something about the atmospherics of these movies that I find really unnerving, more so than other modern horror movies. The limitations of the drive-in create a buffer between me and the movie that makes it more tolerable.

That being said, with digital projection instead of beat up old drive-in prints, FM stereo sound instead of those tinny speakers on the pole that you used to have to mount to the door, and it being late enough in the season that it gets dark fairly early, the gap between the drive-in experience and the theatrical experience isn't as sizable as it once was.

 

[Tino]

$53 million opening.