Director: Scott Jeffrey
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
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.
Review:
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.
Overview: ***/5
A much-improved sequel that has far more enjoyable and impressive slasher attributes while still stumbling slightly in several minor areas, there’s quite a lot to get into here. Fans of this kind of indie effort or fans of the creative crew will enjoy this one, while those who aren’t into the style or approach taken should heed caution.
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