This has been on my shelf for a long time, as a collection of Conjuring Universe movies I bought for my son to watch. I watched the first Conjuring film and while it was fine, it was also a bit too mainstream and "jump scare-laden" for me to be terribly invested in it. I also probably know too much about the real Ed and Lorraine Warrens, conceding only that their fictional selves are probably how they imagined they really were.
That said, my son advised that to truly dive into the Conjuring Universe you should start with the film that depicts the earliest events, and that is apparently The Nun. Set in Romania in 1954, it focuses on a remote castle turned into a nunnery where a local man witnesses a nun hanging from a noose, a nun who jumped to her death to deprive an evil entity (demon?) from possessing her. Trapped in the old castle, this force prowls in wait, and the Vatican obliges by sending Demian Bichir as Father Burke, the Catholic equivalent of a Special Investigator along with the young not-yet-a-nun Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene. They meet their guide, the man who found the dead nun, named Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) and then proceed to spend the night in the haunted locale, which was all that the movie needed to kick off what is basically an hour and a half long jump-scare thrill ride through a FX laden haunted house.
So first, in defense of this movie, I actually rather enjoyed it even if I was sort of hoping it might take more time to actually slow down and put a bit more effort into its storytelling. This sort of horror film has its market, though, and in terms of loading the screen with scary moments, jump scare, quick reveals and sudden plot twists it does its job admirably. It is not art, but it is damned proficient at what it does.
Second, while watching I realized that this movie, from a horror RPG perspective, is a solid "one night stand" sort of adventure. You could easily take the core conceit of this film (haunted castle full of dead nuns and a demon) and make a fun evening session out of it with a game like Call of Cthulhu or Liminal Horror. It is, in this regard, an excellent template for such things.
That said, I had a moment midway in to the film where I realized that this movie reminded me in a few ways of the much older movie about an ancient evil locked away in a haunted castle called The Keep, The Keep was focused on a much more methodical pacing, and of course suffers for the special effects of its day, plus it was an imperfect adaptation of a much better novel. I happen to have the Vinegar Syndrome release of The Keep, so may review that next for a proper contrast.
One final thought: this movie leans heavily into Catholic horror. Everything I know about Catholicism comes from movies, I realized, and I have no idea if this is a genuinely good depiction of those bits which make it in the movie or not, but that does mean that The Nun is definitely firmly planted in the Catholic Supernatural Horror subgenre.
All told: it was a fun movie, and a good "scary jump scare woo what's gonna get them next???" Sort of romp. Solid C+ and worth watching for GMs interested in some set locale and "packaged plot" inspiration.
I watched this one as well. Doing "The Nun II" tonight.
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