The Nun (2018)

Director: Corin Hardy
Stars: Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet
Runtime: 96 minutes

Synopsis: A priest is sent to Romania by the Vatican to investigate the mysterious suicide of a nun.

• Performances: 4/10

Why? Apart from Taissa Farmiga who was fine as Sister Irene, the cast never seemed even interested in delivering solid performances. Bichir and Bloquet sleepwalked through most of the movie, while Bonnie Aarons, who played the Nun, appeared to be under the impression that the film was a parody centered around the character made famous in the second installment of the Conjuring franchise (and she wouldn't be very wrong, if I'm being honest). 

• Screenplay: 2/10

Why? In a year described as being golden for horror movies with notable releases such as "Hereditary", "A Quiet Place", or "Suspiria", "The Nun" came to remind us that Hollywood still produces bad horror flicks only made to generate a lot of revenues with a small budget (the film made over $350 million against a budget of only $22 million). I honestly don't know how to review the script of the worst film in the Conjuring universe simply because I don't think that there even was one. The story is incredibly predictable and lazy, the characters are thrown into the action with barely any development, the dialogue is sloppy and at times laughably bad... "The Nun", and I'm not even overexaggerating when I'm saying this, works better as a comedy than a horror film, which leads me to believe that some enjoyment could be had with it if watched with the right group of friends.

• Costumes/Makeup: 3/10

Why? The main antagonist's design, which was the result of both CGI and makeup, was horrendous. Its only objective is to look threatening, but the character honestly looked like it belonged in a low budget haunted house attraction.

• Editing: 3/10

Why? You know the editing in a horror film is bad when even the jump scares don't work. Add to that cuts that feel out of place and absolutely no sense of continuity, and you really get an idea of how bad the editing was. The only silver lining is the fact that the editors managed to keep the runtime of the film relatively short.

• Cinematography: 6/10

Why? Surprisingly pretty decent. Too bad it was ruined by bad editing work.

• Score/Soundtrack: 5/10

Why? All I heard was creepy religious music which I bet you anything can be found online for free. Nonetheless, it fitted well the general theme of the movie and did make some scenes a little more unsettling.

FINAL GRADE: 3/10