Tag Archives: Valak

Creepy Nuns: Beneath the Habit With Eight Horror and Nunsploitation Movies

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With Immaculate and The First Omen just around the corner and The Nun II releasing last fall, scary nuns are back in style. Not all of these movies would quality as nunsploitation in the most technical terms. Exploitation films – movies that ‘exploited’ our tendency to want to see lurid subject matter – proliferated in the 1970s following the dissolution of the Hayes Code. As the title implies, nunsploitation are movies that put nuns into, well, compromising situations involving sex and violence. But creepy nuns have frequently popped up in horror movies if for no other reason than shock value. Below are eight movie selections featuring creepy or vengeful nuns from the silent film era to exploitation movies to pure horror.

Haxan (1922)

A Swedish silent film from 1922, Häxan is sort of a documentary or early mockumentary look at the history of witchcraft. At the time of its release,

A Swedish silent film from 1922, Häxan is sort of a documentary or early mockumentary look at the history of witchcraft. At the time of its release, Häxan and its imagery of medieval torture, Satan-worshipping, and mix of sex and violent prompted controversy. Only one part of the movie features a nun – Sister Cecilia – tempted by Satan to desecrate a consecrated host and steal a statue of baby Jesus. Nevertheless, the underlying themes of sexual repression in these scenes predicted the wave of nunsploitation of the 1970s. Arguably, Häxan would be tame for many horror fans today, but there’s still some unsettling imagery here.

The Devils (1971)

Try finding Ken Russell’s 1971 The Devils – the original version that earned an X-rating. Good luck. Maybe the original nunsploitation, The Devils follows the downfall of the real 17th Century Catholic priest, Urbain Grandier. At the heart of Grandier’s downfall is the obsessed and sexually repressed Sister Jeanne des Agnes who incites a wild sexual frenzy among the other nuns in her convent. An arthouse portrayal of religion and political corruption, The Devils remains a powerful and shocking drama that crosses several different lines. Its final scene involving Sister Jeanne and the remaining femur of the burned Grandier is more unsettling than anything you’d find in most horror movies today.

Killer Nun (1979)

Not surprisingly, Italian cinema produced a lot of exploitation movies, including nunsploitation flicks. If there’s movie that defines ‘nunsploitation’, Killer Nun is that movie – it also made the UK’s video nasties list. The plot is pure exploitation movie – Sister Gertrude, recovering from a tumor, spirals into paranoia, drug use, sex, and violent. Starring Swedish film star Anita Ekberg, Killer Nun has enough film-making craft to avoid being labelled pure sleaze. But it also borders on being softcore pornography with a plot that’s ridiculously lurid and detached from reality. Maybe there’s some commentary on the oppressiveness and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. Or perhaps it’s just a sleazy 70s movie about a nun who goes crazy.

Ms. 45 (1981)

Ms. 45 was among a handful of rape-revenge thrillers from the 1970s and early 1980s. After a mute seamstress Thana is brutally sexually assaulted twice in one day, she begins targeting men in the streets of New York City with a .45 caliber pistol. Consider Ms. 45 a seedy successor to Death Wish from one-time porno director Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer, Body Snatchers). Technically, Ms. 45 isn’t really nunsploitation as Thana only dons a nun costume for the climatic Halloween party scene. Like I Spit On Your Grave, it’s an exploitative, misguided attempt at some statement about feminist power that would not fly today. But Ms. 45 has gained cult status among some filmgoers.

The Crucifixion (2017)

French film director Xavier Gens was responsible for one of the betters examples of New French Extremity, Frontier(s). Unfortunately, The Crucifixion feels like a generic and undercooked demonic possession thriller. The basic synopsis – a New York journalist investigates a failed exorcism that resulted in the death of a young nun – sounds like any number of horror movies. There’s a few serviceable ‘bump in the night’ scares and Gens also keeps the generic story moving along. Bottom-line, The Crucifixion isn’t likely to bore you, but you’re not likely to remember much about it when it’s over. Nothing here that will resonate beyond the closing credits.

St. Agatha (2018)

From director and Saw alumni Darren Lynn Bousman (Spiral: From the Book of Saw), St. Agatha is a bit of a middling horror effort. Set in 1950’s Georgia, a single and pregnant young woman finds refuge in a convent where the Mother Superior has other plans for her unborn baby. Neither ‘serious’ horror nor 100% crazy exploitation, St Agatha does enough right to make it a worthwhile watch for horror fans. Come for some creepy visual imagery, stay for Carolyn Hennesy’s delightfully nasty ‘Mother Superior’. Almost immediately from the outset, Bousman immerses the audience in St Agatha’s strange world. Discordant lighting and disturbing images quickly create a nightmare world. Like the Saw movies, St Agatha also startles with some surprisingly offbeat violence. A couple of scenes involving regurgitation may turn some stomachs. It’s a good horror movie, just not a particularly great one.

The Nun (2018)

To date, The Conjuring Universe’s major antagonist, Valak, has appeared in several movie. To date, The Nun remains the highest grossing movie in The Conjuring franchise. Both The Nun and its recent sequel are perfectly serviceable horror movies. Neither of Valak’s standalone movies are particularly good horror movies. On one hand, The Nun is haunted by an underdeveloped story and over-reliance on jump scares. Yet each and every one of those scares hits its mark. While it certainly falls short of the expectations set by The Conjuring movies, The Nun is still a scary and wildly entertaining popcorn horror film. Still there’s no denying that Valak deserves a better movie than what it’s received so far.

Consecration (2023)

Following the apparent suicide of her brother, Grace travels to a seaside convent in Scotland where she discovers a deadly secret. Director Christopher Smith has made some good movies including Severance, Black Death, and Triangle. Sadly, Consecration is not one of those movies. What a mess of a movie! And no, Consecration doesn’t have cult or ‘so bad, it’s good’ status in its future. If this were a poorly made movie starring unknowns with boom mics dangling in plain view, you’d forgive the result. But Smith is a talented filmmaker and the cast here is strong. Yet the story is a convoluted mess that relies heavily on incomprehensible flashbacks. And if you’re hoping for some nunsploitation, forget about it. A consistently dour tone ensures you won’t have much fun with this one.

The Nun 2 Conjures Up a Few More Scares To Improve Over Its Predecessor

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At the start of the summer, the Insidious franchise made big waves at the box office with another sequel, Insidious: The Red Door. Over two years have passed since The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It brought the Warrens back for another entry to the Conjuring universe. Apparently, Ed and Lorraine Warren will be returning in a yet-to-be-scheduled sequel, The Conjuring: Last Rites. In the meantime, the franchise’s main demonic antagonist, Valak, returns for their own direct sequel, The Nun 2. To date, critics have responded a little more favorably to the sequel as compared to The Nun.

Synopsis

Four years have passed since Sister Irene thought she vanquished the demon, Valak. But bizarre murders targeting church officials are spreading across continental Europe. Now Vatican officials, believing the demon remains loose, request that Sister Irene once again battle the unholy evil. This time her investigation takes her to a boarding school for young girls where an ancient religious relic sought after by the demon may be buried.

The Nun 2 Boasts More Scares, Intensity, and Urgency Than the Original

If the first Annabelle movie lingers at the bottom of the franchise, The Nun often gets cited as one of the weakest Conjuring Universe entries alongside The Curse of La Llorona. Whether that’s a fair assessment or not, there’s good news for fans of the series – The Nun 2 is a better movie. Sitting behind the camera this time around, Michael Chaves takes over directing duties. And he’s improved everything from the scares to the pacing to the overall intensity level. Straight out of the gate, Chaves scores with an opening scene that mixes some genuine tension with a shocking death. In fact, The Nun 2 is often a more violent movie than just about anything else in the franchise. Though it’s certainly still a popcorn horror movie, the sequel occasionally feels a little edgier than what we’ve seen in the past.

Much of the supernatural thriller finds the volume cranked to a maximum level.

Over the next hour and 50 minutes, Chaves delivers several decent jolts. Similar to its predecessor, The Nun 2 favors jump scares accompanied by loud sounds. Much of the supernatural thriller finds the volume cranked to a maximum level. However, Chaves knows how to use the genuinely creepy image of Valak to great effect. When he’s not doling out a frenetic finale, the filmmaker plays with shadows and the corners of the screen to slowly reveal glimpses of the demon. There’s also a fun bit using a stained glass window as well as a terrifying new demonic addition in the form of a barely-seen goat-like monstrosity. Composer Marco Beltrami earns a major assist with a fantastic musical score.

The Nun 2 Recycles the Same Mistakes in Storytelling Even As It Improves on What Came Before

If The Nun 2 is an improvement over the original in just about every way, it still remarkably manages to repeat the same major mistakes. There’s plenty of gaps in logic and storytelling that plague the sequel beneath the surface. For at least a third of the movie, there’s some genuine mystery that drives the scares. Yet as Chaves and the three writers credited for the screenplay reveal more of their hand questions abound. Whether Valak actually knows where this suddenly important religious relic is hidden never gets addressed. As good as Storm Reid (The Invisible Man) is in her role, she along with several other characters feel unnecessarily tacked on to the sequel. Moreover, there’s an awful lot of plot convolutions necessary to get the story from Point A to Point B.

If The Nun 2 is an improvement over the original in just about every way, it still remarkably manages to repeat the same major mistakes.

Arguably, the most glaring problems are what feels like a lot of contrived plot devices and some possible retconning. This time around The Nun 2 throws in a lot of religious mythology around the ‘eyes of Saint Lucy’ and teases new connections between Sister Irene and Lorraine Warren. In addition, the sequel adds more backstory for Sister Irene that drives the finale with maybe just a bit of eyerolling. It’s all just a bit formulaic for anyone familiar with horror movies. Some of the connections drawn to other movies in The Conjuring Universe are subtle and potentially interesting. Nevertheless, the conclusion introduces a huge potential plot hole. If you stick around during the end credits, there is a scene lifted from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Yet it does little other than reminding you the Warrens have an upcoming sequel.

The Nun 2 Mostly Improves on Its Predecessor As It Delivers Decent Scares

Overall, The Nun 2 improves on its predecessor while somehow repeating all of the same mistakes. It’s definitely a scarier movie, and more consistently scary, and more shockingly violent in some scenes. But like the first movie Chaves too often relies on loud sounds and sudden jolts in place of patient atmosphere and tension. Plot holes and gaps in narrative logic also still abound. But for at least a third of its runtime, there’s an interesting mystery driving the scares. Maybe it’s not essential viewing – a post-credits scene adds little interesting – in The Conjuring Universe, but The Nun 2 still makes for decent popcorn horror.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: B

The Nun Trades Atmosphere For Dumb Popcorn Scares

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After months of anticipation and a lean marketing campaign, The Nun finally hit theatres across North America this week. The fifth film in the hugely successful The Conjuring universe, The Nun is currently tracking for the best box office opening in the franchise. Unfortunately, critics don’t have much nice to say on Rotten Tomatoes – The Nun currently sits with a lowly ‘Rotten‘ rating of 29% at the time this review was written. That’s actually slightly worse than what we saw for the January release of Insidious: The Last Key. Does The Nun truly disappoint to that extent?

Synopsis

In 1952, an unseen entity attacks two nuns of the Cârța Monastery in Romania in the bowels of the castle. A demonic presence seemingly stalks Sister Victoria through dark halls. To save her soul, she hangs herself. Her body is found the next morning, hanging outside the building, by a local villager, Frenchie.

Concerned that the Monastery rests on tainted grounds, the Vatican sends Father Burke and a noviciate Sister Irene to investigate. Brought to the aging Monastery by Frenchie, Father Burke and Sister Irene are confronted by bizarre supernatural phenomenon. As their investigation continues, they discover that the Monastery has hidden a gateway from the demonic realm. The nuns of the Cârța Monastery have endured horrors to prevent an evil entity, Valak, from breaking free.

Muddled Narrative and Kitchen-Sink Theatrics

Much of the problem with The Nun can be attributed to its surprisingly muddled narrative. Gary Dauberman’s story is admittedly sparse, walking a fine a line between ‘lean’ and ‘undercooked’. This is officially the third cinematic outing for Valak. Yet despite it being the demonic nun’s movie, Dauberman doesn’t give the cloistered terror much to do. Instead, Dauberman fills the middle of the movie with an unnecessary subplot around Father Burke that just feels like filler. Jonas Bloquet’s ‘Frenchie’ is perhaps a little too much comic relief. As The Nun nears its climax, Dauberman further weighs down the movie withconvoluted ideas about ancient Christian relics that overburden the story.

Director Corin Hardy masks some of these narrative issues with a kitchen-sink approach to scares and jumps.

Director Corin Hardy masks some of these narrative issues with a kitchen-sink approach to scares. Hardy abandons early atmospherics, replacing them with a barrage of sights and sounds intended to get your blood pumping and fingers gripping seat armrests. The Nun’s climax almost feels over-stuffed, as though compensating for a ‘dead end’ in the story. Aside from its ‘loudness’ and gimmicky feel to the scares, it does feel like what you’re seeing is inconsistent with what’s an established mythology that with the character of Valak. That is, some of the scares feel manufactured rather than organically flowing from character and story.

Gothic Atmosphere and Chills That Harken Back to Hammer Films’ Glory Days

In spite of these issues, The Nun is still a fun and scary film even if it falls short of The Conjuring movies. Director of photography, Maxime Alexandre, has made a beautiful and lush horror film. He injects some truly chilling Gothic imagery into its early frames. From the massive outline of the monastery to misty graveyards, The Nun recalls the best elements of old British Hammer horror films.

Director of photography, Maxime Alexandre, has made a beautiful and lush horror film that injects some truly chilling Gothic imagery into its early frames.

And yes, Hardy does succumb to quite a few horror film cliches. He sacrifices some of The Nun’s early atmosphere for over-the-top jump scares. But he does these things quite well. Specifically, Hardy expertly sets up and executes each scare with a deft hand. Horror fans seeing The Nun in theatres won’t be disappointed by a lack of fun ‘jump out of your seat’ moments. What The Nun is missing is the restraint in developing scares that James Wan showed in The Conjuring films.

Tessa Farmiga Continues To Be One of The Best Young Actors Working Today

Tessa Farmiga, who has already endeared herself to horror fans in American Horror Story, delivers a standout performance. As Sister Irene, Farmiga combines youthful naïveté with selfless determination. The end result is a completely believable performance set against an increasingly overcrowded movie. Playing the troubled Father Burke, Demian Bichir has the more thankless task. That is, Father Burke not only feels underwritten, but Dauberman’s screenplay saddles him with an unnecessary backstory. To his credit, Bichir is damn good with what’s an inconsistently written character. In addition, Bloquet is fun as ‘Frenchie’ and, as an actor, he has no shortage of charisma. But like Father Burke’s character, Dauberman’s screenplay gives the character some inconsistent and underwritten treatment.

The Nun Entertains and Scares in Equal Measures

Criticisms of The Nun are largely on point. Nevertheless, the movie’s current Rotten Tomatoes score is one of the more inaccurate assessments of a movie in recent memory. To put this into perspective, The Nun has a worse score than Insidious: The Last Key. I have seen both of these movies and The Nun is far better. On one hand, The Nun is haunted by an underdeveloped story and over-reliance on jump scares. Yet each and every one of those scares hits its mark. While it certainly falls short of the expectations set by The Conjuring movies, The Nun is still a scary and wildly entertaining popcorn horror film. Most audiences are likely to enjoy it in a crowded, dark movie theatre.

THE PROFESSOR’S FINAL GRADE: B