Bad Nun: Deadly Vows

2018's 'The Bad Nun' gets a sequel, again produced, directed and written by the extraordinarily prolific Scott Jeffrey and featuring a return for Becca Hirani's character Aesha Wadia. We don't have to hang around long before shadowy, habit-shrouded shapes start appearing in doorways and windows. Politely, our antagonist always knocks first, which is a creepy courtesy - we know the faceless creature is likely to come in anyway.

This is a considerable step up from the first film - the pacing is sharper, the dialogue more natural and the Nun is genuinely creepy. It's not a stellar production, but it features some good shots, a nicely isolated location and some fairly likeable leads. Also, the story is a good one, with convincing reasons given for the murders. The twist at the end is signposted, but in a way that doesn't necessarily reveal anything too early.

Jeffrey's schedule is mind-boggling. According to IMDB, he's produced 144 films in eight years, and I happen to have seen quite a few of the more horror-infused ones. Technically, they have become more impressive and the stories more engaging over time. His 2023 offering has received more notoriety than most because its subject matter, 'Winnie the Pooh' has been given a slasher makeover. His upcoming 'Bambi: the Reckoning' suggest the theme might become a recurring one. My score is 8 out of 10.

Moving out to a remote house in the countryside, a woman, her mother, and her daughter befriend a neighbor after a series of events about a mysterious nun who warns them of the dangers surrounding the town, and when they prove true, are forced to defend themselves from the vicious killer.

This was a pretty decent and at times enjoyable follow-up. One of the more engaging aspects here is the wholly enjoyable and intriguing manner in which this employs the titular figure as a constant presence in their lives. Arriving at the house as soon as they get settled in with a creepy and ominous message that signals something sinister is about to occur, the calls and notes left behind that follow this initial encounter serve this one quite well in making the figure someone to fear. Alongside the backstory about their involvement in the small town and what happened in the past, it all serves the film rather nicely in featuring a solid enough storyline. That manages to carry itself over rather well with the eventual stalking and chasing. The opening stalking throughout the victims' apartment brings about some great stalking tactics and a wholly enjoyable resolution that gets this going on a nice note for the later scenes at the house featuring the family under attack by the nun. That this delves into some fun, chilling series of cat and mouse stalking that's shown gives this one quite an exciting finale, where the appearance comes as a shock at various stages to the chasing and leads to some fun gore for the kills as well. These here are where the film scarves itself rather nicely. That said, this one does have some flaws. The main issue here is the rather overlong and dry run-through in the middle of the film that keeps this one pretty light on the actual genre qualities. The meetings involving them, meeting the neighbors, trying to involve the police in investigating the pranks against them, and then looking at the past incidents involving the town and their history, tend to build an effective backstory at the expense of a lot of action. Rather than bring about something that builds the story through action, it does so by talking, which can lead to scenes where this can feel a little dry and bland at these points. As well, the other issue here is the absolute inability to care about the plight of the nuns or their vendetta against the family. The idea of going off on a vengeance-fueled rampage dressed up in a nun costume in the name of religious atonement is a cliche and utterly unremarkable idea that does nothing new or much to impress in generating fear towards the main villain. On top of that, there's a rather confusing arc with the revelations from the finale not making any real sense at all, attempting to be featured as what happiness is all highly unrealistic and doesn't make sense at all, but beyond these issues, it doesn't have much else wrong with it.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

I like this film. It was creepy and had good suspense, it had a really good plot twist to it and builds tension which I like. One this is that the beginning was kinda slow and some scene was confusing but ether way you don't have to watch the first one to understand this one, but so far great film!

Ugh , the main idea was interesting! But the acting was very bad from the beginning to the end. The script was lame. What the deal with the scissors? So many things without a single explanation. Bad bad bad.

Granted, I haven't seen the 2018 movie "The Bad Nun", so how much this 2019 movie "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows" (aka "The Bad Nun II" or "The Watcher 2") is a continuation of the events in the first movie or how closely tied the movies are, I have literally no idea.

Nor can I really say that having seen "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows" have spurred an interest in backtracking and watching the 2018 movie. Yeah, this 2019 movie just wasn't all that and a bag of potato chips.

The storyline told in "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows", as written by Scott Jeffrey was just so very, very bland and mundane. If you have seen any single slasher movie since the 1980s, then you have essentially seen "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows", as it followed the very same formula. And you might think that is a good thing, as there are lots of good slasher movies out there, but no. That is not the case with "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows". Everything that transpired throughout the course of this movie was something that has been seen and done in other movies before this, and often done with more success as well. Actually the storyline told here was rather unappealing and uneventful, so it made for what felt like a rather prolonged suffering sitting through an hour and a half of this movie.

In fact, the movie's cover is actually the best thing about the movie. And truth be told, the movie's cover is over-selling the movie by several miles, as the nun on the movie's cover looks sort of decayed and have yellow eyes, and generally just has an aura of evil to her. Yeah, that was not at all how the nun was portrayed in the movie. So don't get your hopes up for anything grand.

The acting in "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows" was pretty what you would expect for a movie of this caliber. I am sure that the actresses and actors in the movie were doing the best with what they had in terms of a very limiting script and character gallery, but there just weren't any particular outstanding or memorable acting performances to witness here.

While I managed to endure throughout the entire movie, I can't claim that I was entertained, nor particularly enjoying much of anything that directors Scott Jeffrey and Rebecca Matthews threw at me.

So if you enjoy a proper horror movie with a compelling and interesting storyline, well-detailed characters, good dialogue, and believable special effects, then "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows" is not the best of choices.

My rating of "Bad Nun: Deadly Vows" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.