"The Nun II" a superior spin-off sequel to everyone's favorite habit-wearing defiler

The Nun II (2023)

As they always say, some horror-movie monsters are better left as hair-raising paintings and don’t need origin stories. Okay, nobody says that. But that was more or less the lesson learned in “The Nun,” director Corin Hardy’s 2018 prequel spin-off in “The Conjuring Universe” that spared no atmosphere in spite of being sinfully uninspired and plodding. Valak, the demonic defiler, is back in the habit, and her follow-up, “The Nun II,” is superior in most departments. It’s still on the middling side of its cinematic universe timeline, but there’s just enough haunted-monastery flair and amusement for a fleeting ride of jack-in-the-box frights with characters you don’t mind following. 

Four years after Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) spit the Blood of Jesus Christ in Valak’s face in a Romanian abbey and seemingly banished the demon, her story is now passed down as legend. It’s 1956 and Sister Irene resides in an Italian convent, where none of the other sisters know she’s the one who survived the marquis of snakes. As a trail of bodies of the clergy variety begins piling up across Europe, Sister Irene is brought back in by the Cardinal to put her visions to use and investigate. Meanwhile, Maurice/Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), who’s possessed by the demon (he has a cute little inverted crucifix marking on the back of his neck), has taken up a handyman job at a girls’ boarding school, a former monastery, in France. He has grown well-acquainted with teacher Kate (Anna Popplewell) and her student daughter Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey), who gets picked on by the other girls. Once Sister Irene figures out the possessed Maurice’s whereabouts, there’s a chance she can perform a miracle and actually send this fanged bitch back to Hell once and for all.

Having helmed previous CU installments “The Curse of La Llorona” and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” director Michael Chaves knows how to build a mood, favoring silence and shadow, and pace the anticipation before a scare. From the film’s dread-inducing opening in a church, Valak seems to mean business this time. The nun-disguised demon makes her (or its?) quietly chilling entrance, standing behind the holy water that boils and steams from the church stoup. Not long after, Valak does not go easy on a delivery girl. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B -

Warner Bros. released "The Nun II" (110 min.) in theaters on September 8, 2023.