La monja

(2005) The Nun/ La monja HORROR

Low budget type of story line based on the original story by Jaume Balagueró that involves a sadistic nun who used to do a bunch of terrible things to her students, suddenly the story jumps to the current time with unexplained deaths happening with those same students except that each of them had grown older. At this point, viewers are oblivious how the nun ended up not doing those things anymore. With more twists and revelations exposed, and an ending that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Interesting idea which eventually loses steam and credibility as film progresses.

This scary movie was produced by the successful Catalan producers Julio and Carlos Fernandez from ¨Fantastic factory¨ that presents another spooky Spanish horror tale with a Nun as starring ; it displays relentless chiller , intrigue , shocks, hard-edged drama , plot twists , creepy images and some gore when crimes takes place .It deals with six teenage girls are boarders in a boarding school where they are horrified by a terrible nun (Christina Piaget) . Often tormenting her students with her own brand of extreme religious zealotry, this nightmarish nun was deathly strict with her code of ethics. When the nasty nun learns that one of her 15-year-old pupils is pregnant , she attempts to purify her . The students see as their friend is mistreated and decide to intervene . The nun was never seen again . Seventeen years later, the women (Paulina Galvez , Natalia Dicenta , Lola Marceli), all grown up , are terrorized by a spectre . They aware the fearsome nun has gone back , and is seeking avenge . Two of the group's survivors end up dead, which forces the rest of the old friends to face their own demons over what happened that fateful night . The daughter (Anita Briem) of one of them sets out to find out what happened . The only way to defeat the nun is to return to the location where it all began all those years ago , the boarding school. The group confronts the very thing that haunts their dreams and forever links them together in hushed silence.

Pseudo-slasher ghost story that finds an evil water-nymph nun seeking vendetta against her killers from years before . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and lurid images with lots of blood and gore . It is an usual slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors , boarding school and in a elevator , including some chilling frames . Special effects are pretty well but there are several scenes without much sense and the interpretations are middling . Interesting premise about a heinous nun is really wasted , being based on a story by Jaume Balagueró (notorious filmmaker of : Rec, Rec 2, Fragiles , Darkness , The nameless) who uses that uneasy non-knowledge for both horror and introducing a brief touch of black humor . It's a spooky movie produced by the Catalan producer Julio Fernandez who along with Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon created ¨Filmax Productions¨ , a successful Company in charge of production horror movies . The motion picture was regularly directed by Luis La Madrid , a slick editor of numerous films from Fantastic Factory such as ¨The machinist¨, ¨Darkness¨ ,¨Stranded¨ , ¨Faust¨ and ¨The nameless¨, among others . ¨The nun¨ is his only film , being professionally though regularly shot because containing some flaws and gaps . Rating : Average .

One of the finest initiatives in the world of horror movies (since the beginning of this new millennium) must be the collaboration between Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernandez, when they founded the Spannish production company Fantastic Factory. With great enthusiasm I've been following the movies they've produced since 2001. They might not be masterpieces, but for the moment I've enjoyed every single one of them. Even the so-called "bad" ones.

To my surprise I enjoyed THE NUN much more than I thought I would. It really does rise above the level of ordinary (supernatural) teen-slasher movies. Actually, calling this a teen-slasher movie would rather be an insult. Because in THE NUN the teen-agers are doing the investigating and it are in fact adult women who find their gory death. 17 years ago a group of young girls in a sinister Catholic school were being tyrannized by a nun, called Ursula. After a serious incident (which was kept secret from the public for many years), the nun disappeared and the school was closed down. Now, 17 years later, the girls are all adult women and start dying one by one. That's right, Ursula is back... in an unholy way.

The movie moves at a decent pace and there are quite a lot of things to be discovered. Whether they are plausible/predictable or not didn't matter to me, because it kept me going. And this is still a horror movie, by the way, so a little suspension of disbelief always makes them work a little better. The cast consists mostly out of unknown Spannish actors & actresses, but the acting was pretty good and their English even better. Needless to say that the girls in this flick are nice to look at. The production values were rather excellent for this type of movie. It looked good, was pretty stylish and a lot of care went into the set-design (especially the old, run-down Catholic school). And what about our Unholy Nun? Well, she truly was a scary and terrifying creation. She's able to manifest herself through water, and the effects were pretty darn effective, using a perfect mixture of CGI and a real actress with creepy make-up. The way she moved in certain scenes was well-choreographed and sometimes even send a shiver down my spine. And the way she kills is pretty damn gory, and the pattern in her killings (which is discovered later in the movie) is even refreshingly original. And then there are a few other things to be discovered... The ending itself comes rather abrupt and isn't exactly a big climax. But still, even though my first feelings were sort of mixed, I did like the ending.

The only thing I didn't really like were those two little verbal inside-jokes about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. They should have just left those remarks out of the movie. And mind you, besides those two "witty" references THE NUN (thankfully) has absolutely nothing else to do with those two movies. For one thing, the plot has more to offer.

I was a bit surprised when I saw the - at the time of writing this - 4.2/10 rating for THE NUN. And on the other hand I sort of expected it. It's easy to bash this movie (especially for non-horror lovers), because the plot maybe is a little too ambitious (making it seem ridiculous to so-called intellectuals), or it has a bunch of unknown Spannish actors so they can't relate to the characters. But I gave it a solid 7/10 because the film-makers really made an effort to produce a good-looking and effective scary/bloody movie and at least attempted to tell a decent story with it. Personally, I think this Spannish production is better (and certainly more enjoyable) than a lot of other more recent American theatrical horror-releases, like for example DARKNESS FALLS, BOOGEYMAN, and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (to name only a few and include a re-make).

On a final note: THE NUN has absolutely nothing to do with the nunsploitation-genre, like one other commentator here mentioned, even though some remotely familiar aspects of that notorious genre can be found in it. And no, it has nothing to do with nudity.

Wow are you guys tough on this film. Granted it was "I know What You Did Last Summer" with a Nun. But the Nun was pretty scary and the film maintained a disturbingly eerie feel. There is something about the European sensibility that gives this kind of film a moody realism. It was a little odd that everyone had Spanish accents I thought the acting was pretty natural. The special water effects were pure trailer material. However, I felt let down by the end of the movie. It seemed rushed. And I'm sure it wasn't. This was also the work of a first time director. I thought he did a great job.

That said, I have seen far worse films.

I'm also dieing to see Yuzna's "What Lies Beneath". I enjoyed to book and was sorry to see his film isn't available on DVD.

There aren't enough horror movies featuring nuns. In fact, this is the first one I have seen. I was really hoping for something good, but I got a Spanish film that cut out the middleman and made a Hollywood remake as the original film. Sounds complicated, but it's not hard to comprehend if you think about it. Hollywood cannot remake this film as it has already been done.

Now, Icelandic beauty Anita Briem, in her first film, and Belén Blanco (The Whore and The Whale) make this film worth the time spent, but it could have been so much more.

That is not to say that the elevator scene wasn't great, but we've seen this film over and over without the nun. That's not enough to make it worthwhile, and, as for expected nudity in a horror flick, this one had nun.