The Nun II

Religious sacrality and gothic horror have been linked for decades, leaving The Nun II to mine some fertile ground while becoming possessed with plenty of corresponding Catholic tropes.

This sequel to the lackluster 2018 film, which itself was a spinoff from the Conjuring franchise, is a technically proficient yet otherwise uninspired follow-up that generates some intense and unsettling violent outbursts. However, without meaningful twists to drive the suspense, the plot spins its wheels well before the inevitable climactic showdown between good and evil.

As is a habit in this genre, the monster from the previous installment — in this case, a demonic nun known as Valak, with seriously blasphemous intentions — wasn’t eradicated after all. Apparently, she managed to escape inside an unwitting human host, and now has returned for vengeance.

At least that’s the theory presented by Vatican leaders after a priest’s brutal murder to Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), whose prayers helped subdue Valak’s supernatural fury four years earlier. “You performed a miracle,” she’s told. “The church needs another.”

From there, the loosely connected story is set in 1952, when Irene is summoned from an Italian convent to investigate the mysterious happenings at a boarding school in a small French village along with a novitiate colleague (Storm Reid).

Valak has evidently returned to capture a relic with hidden powers, and to terrorize some paranoid women and children along the way. Tracking her down involves finding who she’s possessed.

Among the suspects are the school’s handyman (Jonas Bloquet), returning from the first film, as well as teachers and students with troubled pasts. At any rate, the more Irene’s faith is tested, the more resilient she becomes.

The French countryside provides a scenic visual backdrop for the ensuing barrage of candles, crosses, and curses, which are assembled into a visually striking package by director Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona).

He crafts some creepy atmosphere and solid jump scares from a clever use of shadows and silence. But many of the frights seem rather arbitrary, often yielding a jolt in the moment but rarely connecting together or adding meaningful elements to the series mythology.

Maybe fans of the original won’t mind. As with its predecessor, though, The Nun II takes itself too seriously, bogging down in narrative twists that appear thrown together just for the hell of it.

Rated R, 110 minutes.