Director: Brian Schiavo (as Max Dementor)
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Demon Nun
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After a new priest overtakes their church, a group of parishioners are offended at his lack of respect towards them compared to their old priest and rebel against him, but shortly afterward are being killed off one-by-one by a demonic nun controlled by a sinister force and must stop it before they’re all killed.
Review:
This one wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been. What works rather nicely here is the series of setups we get to bring about the resulting series of attacks against them. While the initial change in who’s going to preside over their congregation is fine enough, the fact that they soon discover his ways and turn against him which sets everything in motion is a pretty solid and worthwhile starting point as the progressive attitude they display manages to give this a lot of merit and reasonable reaction. Going so far as to summon the nun in order to punish them for this injunction seems to be quite an overstep but given the early build-up work and the various setups that bring the congregation together shows this off rather well.
This brings about the highly enjoyable and rather fun attacks that the nun is able to inflict on others due to the supernatural origins that her attacks are based on. With the attacks coming mainly from their past sins being turned into gruesome, demonic tortures there’s a lot to like with how they play out, from the junkie being repeatedly stabbed with needles to the mother who aborted her child ripping her stomach open. This all carries some highly creative scenes here alongside the main attack at the party where it goes wild and manages to attack numerous others in the rapid-fire sequence which features a couple of great shock scenes and indie gore effects. With the action and chasing in the finale providing this one with enough to like alongside the great demonic nun makeup, these hold the film up overall.
There are some big issues with the film. The biggest drawback here is the wholly nonsensical and underdeveloped storyline about the need to physically strike against the various members he sends the nun after. This is accomplished way too quickly and seems to come out of nowhere with unwarranted behavior that tends to make it questionable how the relationship was made or went undiscovered all this time. Given the backward mentality and ultra-conservative approach that signals how easy he turns to the supernatural to inflict damage against everyone weren’t even bigger clues, the fact that he manages to last this long without being discovered is a rather curious one and isn’t really explained here.
The other real problem with this one is the overlong running time that has no real reason for its bloated length. The scenes and encounters here are fine enough but yet the film still feels the need to run nearly two hours on a premise that doesn’t require that which comes about mainly through keeping on shots too long or including elements that don’t need to be there. The interrogations by the police are much too long to drive home the point of something that could’ve been told much easier like the rambling and incoherent finale, while the ridiculous scenes of the priest standing outside the home instructing the nun what to do are unnecessary and serve to cause notice of his activities. This could’ve easily driven itself down with a few extra snips, as these here hold this one down overall.
Overview: ***/5
A generally far better than expected effort which manages to come across with more to like than expected, this one has plenty to like about it that holds it up over its few drawback factors that hold it back slightly. Give it a look if you’re a fan of these indie efforts, are intrigued by these kinds of films or a fan of the creative crew while most others with no tolerance or appreciation for the positives should heed caution with this one.
Comments
Post a Comment