The Nun II
Cert: 15 | ★★✩ ✩ ✩

The ninth instalment in the hugely popular Conjuring Universe horror franchise is a sequel to the largely panned 2018 film, The Nun.

Directed by Michael Chaves and with a screenplay from Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and Akela Cooper, The Nun II is set four years after the events of its predecessor. 

In 1956 France, a priest was murdered by being set on fire in his own church. All around Europe an evil is spreading as several clergy figures are killed in horrific circumstances by the Valak, an evil being who has taken the form of a Catholic nun.

Now living in a quiet monastery, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is once again called upon by the Vatican to help rid the world of the murderous demon.

At first reluctant to go head to head with the Valet, Irene is haunted by visions of her old friend Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) begging for help.

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Sister Irene is once again called upon by the Vatican (Photo: Warner Bros)

Accompanied by rebellious no-nonsense acolyte, Sister Debra (Storm Reid), Irene tracks down Maurice to a rural boarding school where she hopes to defeat the evil haunting the building and its pupils.

In all honesty, the storyline of the Nun II would have made more sense had it been written by ChatGPT. With the usual crash bang wallop of predictable jumpscares and with a hefty dose of Dan Brown-esque Vatican-centric.claptrap thrown in for good measure, The Nun II is another preposterously outlandish addition to this never-ending franchise.

Still, there are some pretty decent performances here. The brilliant and always impressive Farmiga is once again let down by a lazy script that has left her with very little to do. Her and Reid are sadly wasted on this kind of nonsense.

There is very little here that we haven’t already seen and quite frankly, it’s all getting a little tiresome. Others might find something of value in this but sadly no self-respecting horror purist is ever likely to agree. Not big, not clever, and certainly not very scary.