The Nun – The transvestite demon strikes!
The demonic Valak has already appeared in Demons and Annabelle, but now he really shows off his white teeth.
We are in an alternative time plane, the date is 1952, the location is Romania, within it the Transylvanian Fogarasföld, where there is no communist dictatorship, instead there is a terrible, terrifying demon in a nun’s dress known from the movies Among the Demons, Valak! And since there is no Cold War and no persecution of the Church, an ancient monastery works happily here, cut off from the world, that is to say cheerfully, because already in the opening sequence, the evil one attacks them, causing one of them to throw himself out of the equally ancient window, so that his body will be eaten by crows. And although the neighboring village doesn’t even know about the case, the news reaches the Vatican, from where they send a specialist who deals with “special cases” with his special skills.
No, it’s not Liam Neeson, but another Irishman, Demián Bichir ( Alien: Covenant), who as Father Burke already exorcises demons in German-occupied France, but as I said, this is an alternative universe, the realm of James Wan , who contributes here as a producer. between Demons and the world of Annabelle spin off films. And the background character of this hugely profitable world, which can be expanded at will, has so far been the demon dressed as a woman – more precisely, dressed as a nun – who takes the main role here, and the good priest fights with him, along with the student nun (Taissa Farmiga ), Vera Farmiga’s little sister among the Demons), and a completely random, fun-loving French-Canadian guy (the Belgian Jonas Bloquet) also living in the nearby Romanian village.
And the thing could have gone well, since the creators mentioned the Hammer horrors of the fifties and sixties and Umberto Eco’s bestseller The Name of the Rose as inspiration, and Valak is quite a scary figure. However, there were problems with both the concept and the implementation. At best, the reference points are echoed in the setting, and a demonic nun works as a surprise everywhere except in a nunnery. Not there. Although horror movies are famous for their characters making the most stupid decisions, here they really, really overdo it. After a nightmare, you don’t go into the dark forest at night after a figure whose death you talked about a few minutes ago, you don’t follow a dead nun among the trees, and I could go on and on, because it happens all the time here. For an average horror, let’s say, two similar moments still fit.
It also doesn’t help that, with the exception of a few scenes, all of this takes place in a single location, the old monastery, which is already so overdrawn as if you were a Scooby-doo! episode, and you can always see Bozon and Scooby around the next corner! However, Valak lurks in the dark, appearing too many times, losing his mystery, his threatening existence, his right to exist in general, and when he finally springs into action after so many bogus scares, you simply cannot be afraid of him. However, in a horror film, it is not a negligible aspect to be afraid of the evil! However, anyone with an eye can spot Lili Bordán as a Romanian peasant girl – and this is also an aspect.
By Balazs Vizer