Bloody Nun: Last Rites

I consider myself to be a member of the nunsploitation target audience, but after watching this (and the first two for that matter), I have to wonder, who the hell are these Bloody Nun movies aimed at? On that note, I had two warnings, and sadly, I find myself griping about the third one.

I can only blame myself at this point.

Saying this is better than the entry before it feels like faint praise, but it's the least I can say, I guess. This feels closer to a competent movie, but the complete misfiring of the focus ring and tinny audio betrays it getting that close. I couldn't tell you if this was a reboot or sequel or whatever because I couldn't remember a damn thing from the earlier film, which I can't tell if that's a symptom of getting older or my brain purging the more forgettable films as the storage capacities get fuller. If nothing else, it has a better role for Tina Krause and 100% less Coolduder, so it's on the upward trajectory.

After surviving the events from last time, the last remnants of the Nun haunting the church bring them to consider hiring him to lead a reality show looking into the actual history of the location, forcing them to deal with the actions of the deadly nun when she starts targeting others.

This one could've been decent enough, but ended up being a bit of a misfire. The central concept to this one could've been a lot of fun, with the central setup bringing together a slew of potentially fun suspects in the different crews coming together to look into the supposedly haunted history of the church grounds. Getting a look at the different personalities involved, how much it means to them that they're bringing the past surviving member along on one of hunts, and the few fleeting glimpses featured here with the shots of the nun walking around the building only to disappear in front of them or the more involved scenes of the group getting picked off around the grounds of the church helps this considerably. With this all coming together in a strong section involving some decent paranormal action, a slew of graphic yet cheesy deaths, and the use of the main nun finally getting to do something, these all manage to provide some strong means to finish this one. That said, this one tends to run aground rather quickly, with the generally lacking tempo that has so little going on, it's hard to remain invested in what's going on. The whole thing is replete with numerous scenes of the different video groups coming together under their own reasoning for entering the competition to document the activity at the church, but they never do anything with the figure haunting the location. Even when they finally arrive and get started filming, there's so much going on with the teams setting up their equipment, arguing over pedantic measures, or fighting with the church staff on site, so everything runs on so long that it plods along at a lethargic pace. Considering how obvious it is with its low-budget origins, from the awful audio work echoing throughout everything, the flimsy production value, and lack of gore, there are some big issues here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.