Horror has always been a fairly oxymoronic genre – with even critically-panned movies finding massive success at the box office – so it’s fitting that The Nun holds a unique status within its chosen franchise.
James Wan’s Conjuring universe is the highest-grossing spooky saga in the history of cinema with total box office takings of over $2.1 billion in the coffers, but Corin Hardy’s prequel showcased the best of both worlds in terms of its critical and commercial performance.
A $365 million haul from theaters makes The Nun the top earner out of all eight installments in the Conjuring series, whereas a 25 percent Rotten Tomatoes score also enshrines it as the worst-reviewed by far. A sequel was first announced in April of 2019, and over four years later, we finally have the first look at The Nun II via Entertainment Weekly.
There’s not much going on, but feel free to crack your own jokes about Taissa Farmiga getting back in the habit, because they’ll be flowing like communion wine between now and release date. It’s felt as though The Conjuring has been running out of steam recently after a couple of disappointing chapters in a row, so we can only hope that The Nun II arrests that decline.
Then again, James Wan protege Michael Chavez is behind the camera and he hardly did The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It any favors, so maybe the least we can hope for is that it’ll end up being better than its widely-derided predecessor, which surely shouldn’t be too difficult… right?