
A film that comes with the title A Nun’s Curse you almost know what to expect. And sure enough there’s the ghost of an evil nun, an abandoned asylum and the expected back story that links them. When sisters (and their respective partners – both potential and established) end up lost and in an abandoned building, their night goes from bad to worse as the villainous Sister Monday makes a reappearance decades after she disappeared.
Our Scooby gang of four fit their stereotypes well but the film struggles to give them much to do beyond these. Attempts at humour are juvenile and dated, jarring when they should be enhancing the chemistry the group has. It’s a shame for the performers because they are perfectly watchable and would be something close to good if the material was even a smidge better. When the film takes it slow during its second act it actually comes close to endearing, in no small part thanks to Erika Edwards, Kristi Ray, Damien Maffei, and Gunner Willis.
A Nun’s Curse creaks under the weight of the tropes it is playing out, spending much of its running time establishing the threat its protagonists’ face. Lacking the gloss and confidence of other examples of the genre, Tommy Faircloth’s film must rely more than others on its ability to scare. For a ghost story it lacks the required melancholy to break out heart. For a slasher there’s just not enough gloop. For a folk horror or an entry in the occult the story is just too expected. And for anything in between there’s too much a reliance on loud jarring sound effects and ominous ethereal music to get the film through its running time. You ache for this to be a better, more interesting watch, and the flashes that do show promise quickly fade away.
The film’s big strength is its location. Director Faircloth frames it well, lingering on the shadows and make it feel genuinely sinister. Some of the night time shots are effective, and it certainly is a locale that lingers in the memory. And genre mainstay Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) is terrific fun as the film’s antagonist Sister Monday. But a well-chosen shooting location and an effectively cast villain besides there really isn’t much to recommend A Nun’s Curse. Religion has played an integral part in horror and there are numerous examples of films that use it to chilling effect. But this is not one of them and is more for a horror completest.
Our Scooby gang of four fit their stereotypes well but the film struggles to give them much to do beyond these. Attempts at humour are juvenile and dated, jarring when they should be enhancing the chemistry the group has. It’s a shame for the performers because they are perfectly watchable and would be something close to good if the material was even a smidge better. When the film takes it slow during its second act it actually comes close to endearing, in no small part thanks to Erika Edwards, Kristi Ray, Damien Maffei, and Gunner Willis.
A Nun’s Curse creaks under the weight of the tropes it is playing out, spending much of its running time establishing the threat its protagonists’ face. Lacking the gloss and confidence of other examples of the genre, Tommy Faircloth’s film must rely more than others on its ability to scare. For a ghost story it lacks the required melancholy to break out heart. For a slasher there’s just not enough gloop. For a folk horror or an entry in the occult the story is just too expected. And for anything in between there’s too much a reliance on loud jarring sound effects and ominous ethereal music to get the film through its running time. You ache for this to be a better, more interesting watch, and the flashes that do show promise quickly fade away.
The film’s big strength is its location. Director Faircloth frames it well, lingering on the shadows and make it feel genuinely sinister. Some of the night time shots are effective, and it certainly is a locale that lingers in the memory. And genre mainstay Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) is terrific fun as the film’s antagonist Sister Monday. But a well-chosen shooting location and an effectively cast villain besides there really isn’t much to recommend A Nun’s Curse. Religion has played an integral part in horror and there are numerous examples of films that use it to chilling effect. But this is not one of them and is more for a horror completest.