The Nun (2005) User Reviews

Spanish supernatural chiller full of thrills , screams , gore and eerie scenes

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 24 June 2012]

This scary movie was produced by the successful Catalan producers Julio and Carlos Fernandez from ¨Fantastic factory¨ that presents another spooky Spanish horror tale with a Nun as starring ; it displays relentless chiller , intrigue , shocks, hard-edged drama , plot twists , creepy images and some gore when crimes takes place .It deals with six teenage girls are boarders in a boarding school where they are horrified by a terrible nun (Christina Piaget) . Often tormenting her students with her own brand of extreme religious zealotry, this nightmarish nun was deathly strict with her code of ethics. When the nasty nun learns that one of her 15-year-old pupils is pregnant , she attempts to purify her . The students see as their friend is mistreated and decide to intervene . The nun was never seen again . Seventeen years later, the women (Paulina Galvez , Natalia Dicenta , Lola Marceli), all grown up , are terrorized by a spectre . They aware the fearsome nun has gone back , and is seeking avenge . Two of the group's survivors end up dead, which forces the rest of the old friends to face their own demons over what happened that fateful night . The daughter (Anita Briem) of one of them sets out to find out what happened . The only way to defeat the nun is to return to the location where it all began all those years ago , the boarding school. The group confronts the very thing that haunts their dreams and forever links them together in hushed silence.

Pseudo-slasher ghost story that finds an evil water-nymph nun seeking vendetta against her killers from years before . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and lurid images with lots of blood and gore . It is an usual slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors , boarding school and in a elevator , including some chilling frames . Special effects are pretty well but there are several scenes without much sense and the interpretations are middling . Interesting premise about a heinous nun is really wasted , being based on a story by Jaume Balagueró (notorious filmmaker of : Rec, Rec 2, Fragiles , Darkness , The nameless) who uses that uneasy non-knowledge for both horror and introducing a brief touch of black humor . It's a spooky movie produced by the Catalan producer Julio Fernandez who along with Brian Yuzna and Stuart Gordon created ¨Filmax Productions¨ , a successful Company in charge of production horror movies . The motion picture was regularly directed by Luis La Madrid , a slick editor of numerous films from Fantastic Factory such as ¨The machinist¨, ¨Darkness¨ ,¨Stranded¨ , ¨Faust¨ and ¨The nameless¨, among others . ¨The nun¨ is his only film , being professionally though regularly shot because containing some flaws and gaps . Rating : Average .

What is this, "I know what you did 18 summers ago"?

[lastliberal · 5/10 · 15 August 2009]

There aren't enough horror movies featuring nuns. In fact, this is the first one I have seen. I was really hoping for something good, but I got a Spanish film that cut out the middleman and made a Hollywood remake as the original film. Sounds complicated, but it's not hard to comprehend if you think about it. Hollywood cannot remake this film as it has already been done.

Now, Icelandic beauty Anita Briem, in her first film, and Belén Blanco (The Whore and The Whale) make this film worth the time spent, but it could have been so much more.

That is not to say that the elevator scene wasn't great, but we've seen this film over and over without the nun. That's not enough to make it worthwhile, and, as for expected nudity in a horror flick, this one had nun.

ain't got NUN

[jasonpaulcollum · 5/10 · 5 May 2006]

So you know when you're TOTALLY into a movie because the trailer was really good and the movie actually seems to be living up to what the trailer promised...and you're freaked out because it's genuinely creepy and impressed because it's kind of a way cooler movie than you'd expect to see in a direct to DVD movie these days and so you just can't wait for the climax because you need that pay-off... and then the thing goes limp in the last 10 minutes and there's no climax or rendering of where entire the story just went wrong...so you're totally let down and kinda peeved off...? That's what THE NUN did for me last night....

Everything Brian Yuzna (producer) touches lately seems to just end...not conclude...it just stops with some illogical reason for all the cool shite that just took up 90 minutes of your life....

Cool Fx. Decent acting. Moody. Scary at times. Sexy. Then it sucks at the end.

The Bad acting ruined It

[vghb95a · 2/10 · 26 June 2006]

I don't usually like to comment on the acting in a movie, because it is the one thing that people who have agenda against a film will go after. In this movie, I will make an exception. The acting in this film are below average all around. I mean halfway into the film, I wonder how the hell did the producer and/or the director gets around casting such an ensemble of people who can't act. Even-though the production value was good, the ill written story just compounded on top of the bad performance of the actors, and there is even a half-hearted attempts to a twist to the ending of the movie, which ends up quite confusing. Is all the Spanish horror films this disappointing?

A Nutshell Review: The Nun

[DICK STEEL · 3/10 · 9 May 2006]

This week's surprise screening at GV turned out to be the horror movie The Nun (La Monja). Seriously, I think that horror movies should try and come up with more imaginative titles, even though the story's about the character as described in the title. Who knows, soon we'll have spinoffs like The Monk, The Priest, and others belonging to various religious sects.

The basic premise goes very simply, that a ghoul dressed up in a Nun garb (so that it can lay claim to the title) goes around killing ex-convent girls. There seemed to be some sort of conspiracy involved, as the daughter of one of the victims, Eva (played by an eye candy Icelandic Anita Briem), goes on to discover, with the help of a few good friends, like a rip off of I Know What You Did Last Summer (mentioned also, by the way).

So as the body count increases, it's a race against time for our emotionally scarred (aren't they always?) heroine to uncover the truth and save the day. Delving into the sins of the mothers, the movie did the unthinkable, that with a dream sequence as the introduction. I hate dream sequences as it's a pretty cheap technique if not done correctly, and there are a couple of them in the movie.

In part, the movie played at times like Ju-On gone wrong with the plenty of Dark Water references, and they could have retitled this Unholy Water, for the circumstances and plot points in the movie. However, there are plot holes abound, so don't be looking into the storyline too deeply. You'd come to expect the standard textbook twists towards the end about the sadistic nun, and sets which look like they can rival recent Thai horror movie Dorm.

The acting's pretty forgettable, with the cast speaking in perfect heavily accented English. And since most of them are pleasing to the eye, the story must weave in a love scene in the middle of a witch-hunt. What gives? Hello, got hantu, still got mood ah? Then again, the ghoul is a pretty cheap animated/SFX which has a built in AI of popping up every now and then, in various fashion, just to elicit screams from timid audiences. The characters also break every unwritten rule in the Do-Nots in horror lore, so you know and expect their just desserts.

Can you possibly enjoy this movie? Sure you can. Just ensure that you're watching it in a full house (should be easy, since local folks are suckers for anything remotely horrific), and laugh at those who are so jumpy they scream at every "frightening" scene. It's pretty fun, and adds to the atmosphere, besides what's going on the screen. Surround sound doesn't even come close.

Think of it as watching an episode of Scooby Doo without the wisecracks, and it's a pity that the gory moments in the movie had to be censored for a PG rating. Those could possibly have been the best bits, now left rotting on the censor's floor board.

One of the Worst Movies I've Seen

[nnovak-08849 · 1/10 · 25 February 2019]

I made an IMDb account just so I could review this movie. My dumb self watched this on Amazon thinking it was the 2018 film so I was more disappointed than I should have been. None the less, this film was one of the worst "horror" movies I've seen and I watch a lot of horror. My mother, who gets scared from watching Sweeney Todd, wasn't even impressed. The acting was mediocre and the characters didn't seem too fazed by all of the dead bodies and ghosts. The nun herself was almost funny to watch. As for the story line, it seemed like they tried too hard. Things went by way too fast. Like how the priest and Eve fell in love within a few hours and decided to make out while they were supposed to be looking for the nun. Lastly, the movie ended with a plot twist that made no sense and added nothing to the plot.

Cheap and slow

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 6 August 2018]

THE NUN is a cheap Spanish horror film about a group of teenagers being menaced and bumped off by the ghost of a killer nun. The version I watched (on Amazon Prime) had been badly dubbed into English. It's a slow and rather painful movie to watch, with 1990s-style stylings and a distinct lack of action. That's not so bad, but when there's little atmosphere to go with it then the whole thing feels rather pointless.

the worst 4 € i've ever spent

[ee03128 · 1/10 · 6 April 2006]

i can't even describe it. it's the worst movie i've ever seen (i'm being a nice guy when i call it movie).Just another big-budget-made-to-someone-who-doesn't-like-to-think-much.It's not even scary. It's revolting when there are great movies that never reach the big screen and then comes this..."thing" to trick movie fans. I guess big producers make whatever they want.

Just get a big producer, hot chicks (allthough horrible actresses) and a ton of horror movie clichés and cook it for a week or so, and you'll get "The Nun".

And I thought Bad Boys 2 was horrible!!!!

The Revengeful Nun

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 6 June 2007]

In 1988, the abusive and deranged Nun Ursula is the principal of a Catholic boarding school in Barcelona. When she finds that the teenage student Mary is pregnant, she decides "to purify" the girl with water, almost killing her. Her class and dorm mates Joanna, Christine, Eulalia, Zoe and Susan fight with the nun and drown her in a bathtub. The six teenagers dump her body in a lake with holy water and make a pact of silence. Eighteen years later, the spirit of the nun is released from the lake and possesses the daughter of Mary, Eve, seeking revenge against the former students and killing each one of them like their saint patrons did to achieve the forgiveness of God through punishment and penitence, pain and sacrifice.

"The Nun" is a promising horror movie, with a good beginning but with a flawed and confused conclusion. In accordance with the brilliant deduction of the most stupid character of the story, Joel, Eve was the responsible for the deaths of her mother and her friends, through the effects of a psychological trauma in her childhood or possessed by the evil spirit of the nun, released when the lake with holy water was drained. However, the first friend to die in the story was Joanna, who lived in London. Once Eve lived in New Jersey, she could not have killed Joanna. Therefore, there is no reasonable explanation for the deaths and the end of this flick does not make any sense. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Maldição" ("Curse")

A bad Spanish "Hollywood" movie

[ernesti · 1/10 · 19 January 2007]

I thought this movie'd be totally different than just another teen-slasher. Well I was totally wrong. There's a liquid nun coming out of the toilet seat and something really odd. I know that Spanish culture is a bit different and their movies too, but I didn't expect to see a fake Hollywood film. They certainly faked it pretty well though. Why'd they make a movie without any new aspects? This is just plain boring and it'd been done totally without any imagination.

I thought that having a nun as the bad guy in the movie'd be something really original. It turned out to be a teen slasher. If this'd been done ten years ago then it'd have been something new.

I can't recommend this movie for anyone but it certainly has some comedy value! It's like a horror parody in some points.

"Not all water is holy", & not all Lionsgate horror movies suck

[Parklove · 8/10 · 29 April 2006]

A nice solid "A-/B+ list" horror.

Some really great low budget special FX. The water FX are like Dark Water Jr. The nun character is creepy as heck. Especially the way they filmed her in water then super-imposed her. Good acting, especially considering the cast was primarily Spanish with a few Brits. The cinematography, editing & directing were good, nothing spectacular.

At the very end there's a twist that we didn't really think was necessary, but it didn't kill the movie. It did have a few horror movie clichés, but most horror movies do. That's why they're "horror movie clichés".

It's nowhere near the worst movie ever, for that see "Reality Kills", "The Off-Season" or "Ankle Biters". We look for the crappy, "what the heck were they thinking" movies. We thought this was going to be one. We were shocked to find that it's just plain not one.

Be very afraid... of the liquid nun!

[Vomitron_G · 7/10 · 14 August 2006]

One of the finest initiatives in the world of horror movies (since the beginning of this new millennium) must be the collaboration between Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernandez, when they founded the Spannish production company Fantastic Factory. With great enthusiasm I've been following the movies they've produced since 2001. They might not be masterpieces, but for the moment I've enjoyed every single one of them. Even the so-called "bad" ones.

To my surprise I enjoyed THE NUN much more than I thought I would. It really does rise above the level of ordinary (supernatural) teen-slasher movies. Actually, calling this a teen-slasher movie would rather be an insult. Because in THE NUN the teen-agers are doing the investigating and it are in fact adult women who find their gory death. 17 years ago a group of young girls in a sinister Catholic school were being tyrannized by a nun, called Ursula. After a serious incident (which was kept secret from the public for many years), the nun disappeared and the school was closed down. Now, 17 years later, the girls are all adult women and start dying one by one. That's right, Ursula is back... in an unholy way.

The movie moves at a decent pace and there are quite a lot of things to be discovered. Whether they are plausible/predictable or not didn't matter to me, because it kept me going. And this is still a horror movie, by the way, so a little suspension of disbelief always makes them work a little better. The cast consists mostly out of unknown Spannish actors & actresses, but the acting was pretty good and their English even better. Needless to say that the girls in this flick are nice to look at. The production values were rather excellent for this type of movie. It looked good, was pretty stylish and a lot of care went into the set-design (especially the old, run-down Catholic school). And what about our Unholy Nun? Well, she truly was a scary and terrifying creation. She's able to manifest herself through water, and the effects were pretty darn effective, using a perfect mixture of CGI and a real actress with creepy make-up. The way she moved in certain scenes was well-choreographed and sometimes even send a shiver down my spine. And the way she kills is pretty damn gory, and the pattern in her killings (which is discovered later in the movie) is even refreshingly original. And then there are a few other things to be discovered... The ending itself comes rather abrupt and isn't exactly a big climax. But still, even though my first feelings were sort of mixed, I did like the ending.

The only thing I didn't really like were those two little verbal inside-jokes about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. They should have just left those remarks out of the movie. And mind you, besides those two "witty" references THE NUN (thankfully) has absolutely nothing else to do with those two movies. For one thing, the plot has more to offer.

I was a bit surprised when I saw the - at the time of writing this - 4.2/10 rating for THE NUN. And on the other hand I sort of expected it. It's easy to bash this movie (especially for non-horror lovers), because the plot maybe is a little too ambitious (making it seem ridiculous to so-called intellectuals), or it has a bunch of unknown Spannish actors so they can't relate to the characters. But I gave it a solid 7/10 because the film-makers really made an effort to produce a good-looking and effective scary/bloody movie and at least attempted to tell a decent story with it. Personally, I think this Spannish production is better (and certainly more enjoyable) than a lot of other more recent American theatrical horror-releases, like for example DARKNESS FALLS, BOOGEYMAN, and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (to name only a few and include a re-make).

On a final note: THE NUN has absolutely nothing to do with the nunsploitation-genre, like one other commentator here mentioned, even though some remotely familiar aspects of that notorious genre can be found in it. And no, it has nothing to do with nudity.

Beautiful to look at, awful to listen to ;D

[jangu · 4/10 · 24 November 2005]

The major flaw in this Spanish slasher/shocker is within it's script. For the first half hour it's an okay effort, building some suspense and an atmosphere of fear and dread. We even get some nice killings too! Then it goes completely downhill and turns into a whole catalog of "your basic slasher clichés". I must admit that I was quite disappointed because the trailer promised so much more. The final thirty minutes consists of some killings and a lot of running around in an abandoned convent. It should have been so much better (although the final scenes in the flooded room is quite okay)!

First of all, we have the dialog. It's awful most of the time (there was quite a few giggles in the audience here and there when I saw it) and merely adequate elsewhere. It is also barely audible during a lot of scenes, drowning under the pressure of sound effects and the soundtrack (however that might not be such a bad thing after all considering the stupid lines we have to listen to!). There is one line in the whole movie that makes a reference to the "I know what you did last summer"-movies, indicating that the film makers wrote it all as one big joke, but I doubt it.

And the ending...well, some will hate it, others will dig it. For me, it was mostly a question of the former because the final twist comes from out of nowhere! If the audience had been given some clues to the girls mental status, I might have thought otherwise. It also throws all logic out of the window, because the murderer could never had been in place for some of the kills! But as an avid horror fan I have learned to live with these inconsistencies in Spanish and Italian movies.

But all is not bad. The movie has a big budget appearance, mainly due to the excellent cinematography (the scenes from past times really shines here), tight editing and an atmospheric soundtrack. Even though most of the actors are pretty bad, Anita Briem is an exception, making the most of what she has to work with. Real screen presence!

And, like I mentioned before, the killings are gory enough for the fans of such stuff and they are usually accompanied by very good special effects involving images of water (but the "water theme" tends to get tiresome in the end though).

So, to end this review, it's a movie that is quite fun in a "so-bad-it's-good" kind of way and it's also pleasing to the eye. But don't expect too much because it doesn't deliver as you probably think it will, judging from trailer and plot descriptions.

Crappy Nunsploitation flick

[spacemonkey_fg · 1/10 · 18 May 2006]

Review: Nunsploitation films. They've been around since forever. A few that pop to mind are the Mexican devil worshiping movie Alucarda, Night of the Demons 2, The Convent and of course Dante Tomasellis Desecration. Cant blame somebody for trying to exploit a religious/holy image and twisting it around to make it scary. If done right, it works. Here comes the most recent addition to the nunsploitation sub-genre simply titled The Nun.

The story is about this group of girls that live in a Catholic school. In this school there's a Nun who is particularly cruel to one of the girls. The girls acting in self defense against the abusive nun accidentally kill her and then decide to bury her and tell no one. Fast forward 18 years later and the nun is back searching for revenge from those who killed her.

This movie was produced by Brian Yuznas Fantastic Factory. You know, the company that makes horror movies in Spain. Need a reminder of the kind of movies that this company churns out? Well heres a small reminder: Arachnid, Darkness, Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt, Rottweiler. You get the picture. About the only really good movie that this company has produced (in my opinion) was Stuart Gordons Dagon. Thats it. Oh no, wait, I believe they also produced the excellent Christian Bale vehicle The Machinist. But thats it. So when I consciously rented this movie, I knew I wasn't going to watch anything that was mind blowingly good. Still, with all that mental preparation I was disappointed.

One of the only good things this movie has going for it is its slick look. The movie has some nice cinematography. It doesn't look like a cheap horror film. The movies special effects were alright, with The Nun being able to travel through water. Well, that was an image that lended it self for some cool fx moments that sometimes scratched into cheesy territory but sometimes were cool enough to watch. I dug that scene with the Nun hurling herself at people like a bucket of water. Its not a particularly deadly move, but it made for a cool visual. There's some gore here but not a lot of it. One particular scene involving an elevator death was cool, but sadly the movie hit its peak with that scene. And it was only half way through. After that, nothing really cool happens and the movie deludes into an incredible borefest.

The movie just turns into The Nun popping up every now and then to give us a boo scare, she would kill someone and then CUT! We get back to the characters talking crap, going through rooms, opening doors, you get the drill. And I just personally hate it when a horror movie turns into that. People opening doors and going into rooms. Boring! And when the characters do talk its terrible dialog. In one particularly stupid scene a character decides right out of the blue that the nun turns into flesh and blood whenever she is in the water so thats they way to go to try and kill her. And everyone just says OK! And they all elaborate this plan to kill the nun in a water tank. Now, who gave that guy this info and why did the others just take it for granted? Who the hell knows, but its scenes like that that make the movie look stupid.

And yet another thing that got in the way of my enjoyment of this film was the fact that they used Spanish actors who have a very thick accent. When they try to speak English its very hard to make out what the hell they are trying to say. Id prefer to have them be dubbed then try and figure out what they are saying and become frustrated. The fact that this DVD has no English subtitles didn't help matters either.

So in conclusion, this is a movie that has some slick visuals, nice sound effects but a terrible terrible script. I guess this just goes to show that you might have the biggest budget or the best special effects, but if your movie has a bad script with terrible characters and situations that your audience cant connect with, then you've still got a bad movie. Such was the case with The NUN.

If you want to have some real fun with evil nuns, rent any of the films I mentioned at the beginning of this review. Now, as for the makers of this film, they should go say ten hail maries and light fifty candles to their saint of choice to see if they'll be forgiven for making this sinfully terrible film.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Horrible movie

[komator · 1/10 · 11 April 2006]

I can only say this: ee03128 from Portugal, I couldn't say it better. The worst movie I've ever seen... and I've seen lots of crap! When I read you comment I thought only about the thoughts I had while watching the movie. When I saw who was one of the script writers I understood it. Balagueró uses the same tricks in all his movies. And his scripts are not much better either. And, of course, in Barcelona we have tons of temples and churches around the city so we can keep cursed nuns to scare young Americans coming on vacations. Please, be serious! And I do not want to talk about the quality of the actors... There is something remarkable too. It is fair to recognize it. Compared to the usual level, all the Spanish actors use a fairly good English

Not Perfect

[Foutainoflife · 5/10 · 27 February 2019]

This is about a girl whose mother and her mother's schoolmates are tied to the vengeful spirit of a nun. The girl needs to find out what is going on.

A nun is a good vessel for a horror villain. The idea of any type of evil coming through something that is associated with the love of God presents a deception that victimises those who see only the nun and not the evil within. Perfect for horror.

In my opinion some folks are being a bit harsh. Harshness runs rampant among horror fans but I get it. If you are a horror buff like me, you crave something fresh in a genre that give you a lot of the same thing over and over again. It all starts to seem played out and you start to judge films simply by comparing it to the standard of the films you liked best. The problem with that is some folks are of the mindset that if it ain't the best then it is the worst. I try not to do that. I want to rate this by what I got out of it.

Let's talk about what I liked. The best thing about this is the nun. While we don't see her with a lot of screen time, she was a neat villain. I don't want to give spoilers but I liked how she formed, moved and attacked.

Let's talk about why others are hating on it. The story is weak. This is also seen a lot in horror. If you want the viewers to be impressed you have to give them something worth investing into. Don't be so vague. Give us a story with depth. The acting could've been better.

I have seen worse films and this was ok. Not perfect but I could look past problems and still enjoy the film. If you aren't a horror snob, this really isn't all that bad and you can find some enjoyment in it.

I know what you did last summer, but with a nun...and in Spain

[amishgoat · 3/10 · 28 April 2006]

The headline describes it exactly. This dribble of a film was nothing more than the typical 'group of teens killed someone accidentally now that someone is haunting/killing them off 20 years later' crap that has been shoved down our throats for decades. The only twist is instead of an angry ex-classmate or lovable psycho/loser, it was a nun. Nun wants to eliminate the sin from the girls, blah blah, girls accidentally/purposely drown the nun, blah blah, nun haunts the girls, people die, movie ends. The only thing that made this watchable were the death scenes, which were pretty cool (especially the one with the elevator door ripping off this fat lady's arms) but even they couldn't make this a great movie. Brian Yuzna should hang his head for attaching himself to this refuse. I'm sure glad I rented it and didn't buy it, or I'd be furious beyond belief. If you want a nunsploitation flick to please the senses, go watch Demonia or something. Stay away from this garbage.

A Complete wast of time

[blazeqtn · 1/10 · 18 May 2006]

I can't believe they even released such a movie. The only good acting came from the water in the movie. This has to be one of worst (if not the worst) movie I have ever seen.

The only scary part of the movie is the bad acting, me giving this movie a 1 is me being to kind, this movie deserve a 0.

The storyline, and if you can call it the plot of the movie, seems to have been written by an high school kid. Ofcaurse you have to ask yourself if it may have been better with better actors in it.

Do yourself a favor, wait for it to show on TV.

AND EVEN THEN WATCHING IT WILL BE A WAST OF TIME.

Watered down horror

[bob1dp · 7/10 · 12 June 2006]

Wow are you guys tough on this film. Granted it was "I know What You Did Last Summer" with a Nun. But the Nun was pretty scary and the film maintained a disturbingly eerie feel. There is something about the European sensibility that gives this kind of film a moody realism. It was a little odd that everyone had Spanish accents I thought the acting was pretty natural. The special water effects were pure trailer material. However, I felt let down by the end of the movie. It seemed rushed. And I'm sure it wasn't. This was also the work of a first time director. I thought he did a great job.

That said, I have seen far worse films.

I'm also dieing to see Yuzna's "What Lies Beneath". I enjoyed to book and was sorry to see his film isn't available on DVD.

A good idea which was totally wasted

[mario_c · 2/10 · 18 April 2008]

The only good thing of this movie is its final twist. In 97 minutes of film we can only save one single idea, which was totally wasted in this movie I must say! For more than 90 minutes this film is just a collection of clichés, bad acting, stupid ideas and disclosures, complete lack of suspense, stupid deaths, terrible special effects; all this in a pathetic and unoriginal plot… until the last three minutes, where, FINALLY, a good idea appeared! It's nothing outstanding or an extremely original idea, but, at least was a "decent" good idea, the only one the entire movie has! I won't spoil it, but I must say I think that idea with a better plot, better FX and, definitely, a better acting, would turn into a good film. If you watch this movie and can stand it until the end you will know what it is

What a shame!

[Blechtrommel · 22 October 2008]

I am a huge horror fan, particularly Spanish horror. This film had so many possibilities to be good. It's a marvelous idea, a vigilante ghost nun, as most of what has come out of Jaume Balangueró's mind. Both visual and sound effects were also pretty good. But everything was shamefully spoiled by bad direction, awful casting and a painfully bad (exposition, exposition!) script. Too bad. Maybe Balangueró should write and direct himself a remake...

Moreover, I don't really understand why this had to be spoken in English by actors who can't really speak English (and when they do, they do it so bad it just makes their performances even more fake). If you look at contemporary Spanish horror films like El Orfanato or Rec, the performances are totally in tune with this type of stylish ghost story - and that is being realistic, being believable as someone like ourselves, like real people, because that is the only way horror achieves it's goal. Unfortunately, everything failed in La Monja.

An Awesome Movie, with a Bad Ending

[jopez031 · 10/10 · 20 August 2008]

Personally, I think too many people are critical of the Movie, it was actually done pretty well.I was surprised that a Spanish Movie was done entirely in English though.Not that it bothers me because I was born in America.The Movie was about how the Evil Spirit of a Nun had risen from her watery grave after the Spanish Government had drained a pond filled with Holy Water near a closed down Convent.The Nun, Sister Ursula had been killed 18 Years before by her Students after she was caught torturing one of them in the Bathroom after discovering that she was pregnant (And by a Priest no doubt).They ended up killing her because they knew she was too violent to let them all go after they first attacked her.They then through Ursula's corpse into the Pond.Because the Pond had been made up of Holy Water the Vengeful Nun's Spirit was trapped inside the Pond and was rendered immobile for years until it was drained.She then began rising from Water in the Homes of all her Victims and killing them in the same way that the Saints they were named after were killed.The Daughter of the Pregnant girl who is now named Eve, ended up walking in on the Murder of her Mother when she saw the Nun slit her Throat with the knife she had picked up to defend herself originally.She ends up meeting the Woman Christy who was then killed that same Night by the Nun and Christy walked in the Bulding to find Christie dead and had seen the Nun's Spirit float out of the Building.The woman told her she was going to meet with her Mother the next day and all of the other Classmates in Barcelona,Spain.So she then decides to go to Barcelona and warn them and try and find out what had actually happened.Later on she meets and falls in love with a young Spanish man whom is studying to be a Priest and then he gets killed along with the only 2 Survivors of all the Boarding school girls, leaving only her with her 2 friends alive.She ends up killing the Nun, because the Young Priest figured that because the Nun uses Water to cause all of the Murders the only way she can be killed is in Water.And because the Nun was named after Saint Ursula who died by an arrow through the heart,she had to be killed in a similar fashion.But the Movie ends pretty badly because while the girl does kill the Nun, she has died also, but with the same arrow through her own heart.The Character Joel, figures that Eva must have been mentally deranged and knew all along that she had been fathered by a Priest and that her Mother and friends had Murdered the Nun.So she somehow developed a Split personality taking on the Role of the Nun and thus carried out these Murders in her name.But the Movie never at any point or even at the very end showed anything that suggests that the girl was deranged at any point.Also, she demonstrated no knowledge of the events that took place years ago and had now come to pass.And what motive could she have possibly had for killing her Mother and her Mother's friends when they had only killed a Vicious Nun in self-defense? Eve had never even met the Nun or much less cared for her.So she had no reason to exact revenge on any of them for anything.After all, they had saved her life in the act of killing the Nun because Sister Ursula was trying to kill her before she could even be born.So if anything she had more reason to praise them for doing it.

The end makes this movie

[GymSocksInMyLunchbox · 7/10 · 25 August 2006]

I admit the the majority of this movie is hokey and weird, but pay no attention to the other persons summery, they admit that they never finished it.

My friends and I ranted and raved about this movie, making jabs and jokes at it until we got to the last five minutes. There is a real twist at the end that makes this movie not only bearable, but made me want to correct the misconception that the other review highlighted.

This movie is PROOF that you shouldn't judge a movie if you haven't seen all of it.

I give it a C+

Put your hand down on the desk

[wrlang · 2/10 · 6 August 2006]

The Nun is a revenge picture whereby a very strict nun is killed by her rebellious trailer trash charges and comes back years later to get even when the now adults visit their old school. Story line is predictable in spades and will hold no surprises as it slowly winds its way to the end. It is a screamer of a movie with passable acting and a below average script and screenplay. Much of the special effects are low grade and there is almost zero believability in the final battle. Still, if you look past these there is some suspense and acting jewels. If you like senseless cookie cutter screamers, you'll like this, otherwise you should pass.

Cliche ridden claptrap

[Alsmoviereview · 3/10 · 4 February 2019]

A heavily narrative script where the characters attempt to give the viewer some idea to what is going on. Well done special effects and some gore but that is it. I watched the whole thing you possibly will not due to the bad acting.