Film Review: The Nun

"The Abbey Has A Long History. Not All Good..."

Presenting itself as the fifth entry in the surprisingly successful The Conjuring franchise which began in 2013 with James Wan's ferociously entertaining opening chapter, The Nun, directed by British filmmaker, Corin Hardy, takes the franchise back even further into the past as we see Taissa Farmiga's (American Horror Story) Sister Irene venture into Romania circa 1952 alongside Demián Bichir's (The Hateful Eight) Father Burke in order to investigate the recent suicide of a nun from the local abbey. With an abundance of torrid genre conventions and cliches, laughable special effects and a tiresome reliance on boring, repetitive jump scares, Hardy's addition to The Conjuring franchise is undoubtedly the weakest entry yet, a movie which fails to ignite the interest which its' predecessors carried in spades thanks to a complete ignorance of movie-making fundamentals including a paper thin plot and borderline insulting levels of characterisation which results in The Nun being a painful and overly ridiculous supernatural horror which jerks at the chance to create something special with what is undoubtedly a horrifying and spooky titular character. 

With Hardy's only previous cinematic endeavour so far being 2015's The Hallow, a trashy, supernatural horror B-movie, its' no real surprise that The Nun covers similar ground, with an over-inflated mist budget and creepy religious landmarks setting the stage up with open arms for a movie which you are praying (no pun intended) makes the most of its' many fundamentally spooky elements. Unfortunately, with an utterly dire script by horror aficionado Gary Dauberman (It) where plot is overshadowed by dour set pieces in which scares are few and even jump-scares are awfully timed, Hardy fails to grab the attention of even the most lenient of horror audiences, and with the added impotence of some overly hokey performances by the likes of Jonas Bloquet (Elle) as "Frenchie" a try-hard, mopey local who deserves to die the moment the audience lays eyes on him, The Nun becomes more of a laugh out loud comedy as it claws its' way towards a finish line which crow-bars its' very faint relation to the wider The Conjuring universe. With Taissa Farmiga following in the footsteps of her sister (The Conjuring's Vera Farmiga) by undoubtedly being the best part of the film, The Nun isn't entirely woeful, it's just a movie in which its' trailer is a much scarier and tighter work of horror than the full feature. 

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: Alien: Covenant

"Is It All Worth It? To Start A New Life...?"

During last week's venture to witness Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction masterpiece Alien on the big screen for the very first time as part of a special celebration and pre-amble of all things Xenomorph, this particular screening offered the chance to reconsider 2012's Prometheus too, a movie which although was impressive in terms of science fiction spectacle and scale, offering a wider insight into the history and lore of Scott's creation and of course a marvellous Michael Fassbender, suffers horrendously from a particularly immature narrative and dialogue which would rival George Lucas for worst science fiction babble. Whilst it is always great to watch historic films on the big screen once again, Prometheus still has a vast amount of problems and forms part of Ridley Scott's recent shabby record of cinematic releases which makes you wonder whether his early successes were part of some illustrious fluke, yet with a glass half full kind of mind, the release of Alien: Covenant is undeniably an exciting chance for Scott to finally get back on some sort of track, returning once again to a franchise which is as indestructible as it is financially bankable as well as offering closure to a prequel series which has threatened to cripple the legacy of a classic sci-fi series. 

So the question remains; is Covenant a success? With a superbly created world and some interesting narrative swings, held together by some great central performances and juicy scenes of exploitation violence, Scott's latest does boast some enjoyable elements to a degree, but with a messy screenplay and an overarching sense of "we've been here before", it is with a melancholic heart that Covenant can only be regarded a major letdown, with the film seemingly battling to offer healthy amounts of fan service, with the inclusion of the Xenomorph ironically not as thrilling and terrifying as previous incarnations, with the continuation of the story which began in Prometheus, with Michael Fassbender once again the star of the show as the driving force of a second-half narrative which only adds more questions than answers in a way which is extremely unrewarding and unsatisfying. This tug of war between Alien and Prometheus is the fundamental issue underlying the messy fashion in which the story plays out and if it wasn't for the impressive visual demeanour and enjoyable performances from Fassbender and Waterston respectively, Covenant could be regarded as the weakest entry the Alien franchise has offered up yet and whilst Scott's love for this world is undeniable, Covenant adds substance to the argument that maybe it is time to leave the series alone for good, but with the film's impressive ending, such a notion is seemingly far from materialising anytime soon.

Overall Score: 6/10