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In ‘The Nun,’ what evil lurks beneath habit?

By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press
Published: September 14, 2018, 6:05am
3 Photos
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Demian Bichir in a scene from “The Nun.” (Cos Aelenei/Warner Bros.
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Demian Bichir in a scene from “The Nun.” (Cos Aelenei/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) Photo Gallery

As frightening as the “The Nun” is, it doesn’t hold a candle to today’s real-life horrors in the Catholic Church.

But while a new generation of filmmakers has breathed new life into horror by embedding it with frightful and salient social commentary, the “The Conjuring” franchise — of which “The Nun” is a spinoff and the fifth installment — isn’t about anything so real. It’s about exhuming classic horror archetypes — creaky old houses and creepy old dolls — with (mostly) old-school effects. And what’s more old school than a mean ol’ nun?

Set in 1952, “The Nun” is the origin story of Valak (Bonnie Aarons), a demonic nun who first turned up in “Conjuring 2,” as the pursuit of Vera Farmiga’s paranormal expert. This time, our protagonist is Sister Irene (played by Vera’s younger sister Taissa Farmiga), a novitiate who, just before her vows, is dispatched by the Vatican, along with Father Burke (Demian Bichir), an expert in unexplained phenomena (or as he says, “miracle hunting”), to a remote Romanian abbey where a young nun has just hanged herself.

Entering the gothic world of “The Nun,” built so sturdily on horror movie cliches, is to slide into a darkly fantastical realm that’s practically cozy it’s so familiar.

But what distinguishes “The Nun” is its silky, sumptuous shadows.

The spell, of course, gets broken as the demands of plot and franchise return. And “The Nun” has little to offer beyond: Beware of spooky Romanian abbeys. But for a moment or two, it hangs suspended in a luxurious gloom, the kind that these days passes for a welcome escape.

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