The Nun II - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Nun II



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I’m going to blame Marvel for this one (because why not), as The Nun II is the EIGHTH film in James Wan’s The Conjuring cinematic universe (yeah, because EVERYTHING is an interconnected universe since Marvel) and wowza, is this one a doozy of dread. And by dread, I mean that most people are going to simply dread watching this pile of drek. Directed by Michael Chaves (who also directed The Conjuring 3), this sequel to the already weak The Nun traipses out onto 4K with a technically well done disc, but an abysmal film that made me feel like I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

I”ll try and not pontificate too much, but you’ll have to bear with me here. The Nun II picks up a few short years after the events of The Nun, in a near incomprehensible mishmash of time lines that jump from one to the other in the first 30 minutes of the film. Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is living in a new convent where no one knows that she was the infamous nun who defeated the evil demon in the first film (even though the sisters sit around telling ghost stories about her and father Burke), simultaneously we’re re introduced to Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) who is working at some boarding school where he has befriended a bullied girl by the name of Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey) and her single mother Kata (Anna Popplewell, most famous for being Susan in the Chronicles of Narnia live action films a decade ago). Turns out that the Catholic church has been aware of the demonic entity known as “The Nun” (demon took the form of a nun, thus the title of the film) and has been killing it’s way across Europe over the last few years. Now Sister Irene is sent out to take care of business once more, but first she needs to find some mysterious icon known as “the eyes of Lucy” which will send the demon back to hell again.

Yeah, you already probably guessed it, but sister Irene and her dreadfully boring friend Debra (Storm Reid) head out to hunt down the eyes, which just so happens to be at the same boarding school that her friend Maurice is at. Coincidence? Of course not. You see, the film makes no bones about info dumping on us the ENTIRE purpose of the demon Valek, who has probably taken over Maurice’s body when he saved her in the first film, and is secretly using him to hunt down the Eyes of Lucy (which somehow will give him super duper powers, cuz he’s probably a fallen angel looking to regain his power….all of this just vomited exposition that we have to take at face value and realize that this is how we find out about everything instead of learning bit by bit throughout the film). So now Sister Irene has to battle not only the demon, but the friend who saved her in the previous movie in order to once more banish the demon Valek back to hell.

The Nun II is excruciatingly long for a film that has next to no plot. The story is basically vomited to us near the first act, with Irene heading off to the boarding school to fight Valek after a historian priest tells her (and us) everything we could possibly need to know about what’s going on, then spends the rest of the movie inundating us with pointless jump scares. LITERALLY the entire film’s scary moments are someone walking into a dark room, staring at a creepy picture, only for a visage of the Nun to appear over their shoulder. Rinse and repeat OVER a dozen times for the rest of the movie. Oh, and the way Sister Irene defeats the demon is literally her dead mother’s spirit, cuz she’s descended from a long line of angelic like characters. Sigh, I hate my life sometimes.




Rating:

Rated R for violent content and some terror




4K Video: Video:

The 100% digitally shot film looks really good in 4K UHD, with some caveats. The image is extremely dim and dark, living in the night time shadows of the murky convent turned boarding school, with yellowed lamp lighting to brighten things up. Outdoor daylight shots (such as Maurice in the garden) look fantastic, with bright greens mixed with somber grays, but the darker indoor shots (especially in the broken down part of the convent) is bathed in so much darkness that the yellow light hue sort of makes things murky at times. It’s not consistent, but some scenes look a bit diffused and murky in the blacks, while others are much sharper and cleaner, with great shadow detail (usually when accompanied by a blue light tone rather than the yellow amber). It’s not perfect, as those blacks are definitely a bit murky at times, but this is still a really great looking 2160p encode for the rest of the film.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track is utterly fabulous, though. It’s a pile driver of a track that thrives off of the creepy ambiance of the stone walled school, as well as some amazing use of discrete overheads and surrounds with the chains clanking, moans whispering in the background, and the general chaotic nature of the 3rd act that pretty much doesn’t stop for over 30 minutes. The dialog is always crisp and cleanly located up front, and the bass is to die for (pun intended). This is just non STOP bass assault, and while the jump scares make up most of the bass in the first 2 acts, the last act is just a bass beast that slams you into your chair with the goat slamming into doors, the nun’s powers ripping things apart,and entire bell towers collapsing with bone jarring LFE for near 30 minutes plus. Simply put, this is easily the best part of the entire 4K UHD disc, and the Atmos track is one of the best of the franchise.












Extras:

• Demons in Paradise
• Handcrafted Nightmares

Final Score: ​

The Nun II easily takes the cake as the worst movie of The Conjuring franchise, easily eclipsing its predecessor and The Curese of La Llorona by a healthy margin. Bad dialog, bad script, and a story line that gets more convoluted and silly the longer it goes on are the nails in this proverbial coffin. Personally I’m not sure how long the Conjuring series can go on with flops like this, and the weak The Conjuring 3 from a couple of years back. It looks like they’re teasing a 4th one of the “main” part of the series, but who knows if that will get made. Either way, the Nun II is a hilarious train wreck that really should be stayed away from unless you’re into dumb horror. The 4K UHD looks OK, but sounds FANTASTIC in Atmos. Still, skip it. Just skip it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Storm Reid, Anna Popplewell, Bonnie Aarons
Directed by: Michael Chaves
Written by: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, Akela Cooper
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English, French, Spanish DD 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 110 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 14th, 2023

Recommendation: Skip It.

 

[Todd Anderson]

The cover art for this release is spectacularly spooky... was really hoping the review would match. Alas, I'm skipping this one

 

[WesleyBurks]

I am thinking about watching it but before that, I want to make myself strong. I love horror movies because it makes me goose bumps. haha