The Conjuring franchise hardly seems like material to sustain a 'Universe', but this spin-off is another example of giving an unnecessary backstory to an incidental jump-scare idea from bigger movies. It starts promisingly in an unexpectedly grounded manner, but once generic supernatural nonsense creeps in the film becomes a lot less interesting and engaging. The setting of a near-abandoned Romanian nunnery in 1952 is both atmospheric and well-realised, the film is clearly directed with care and the three leads are solid enough (and the stunt casting of Taissa Farmiga - younger sister of the main franchise's Vera - as the novice nun pays off interestingly.) It all gets very silly in the second half, one expects an appearance by the kitchen sink in the finale, and it manages an effective tie-in to the main series, but overall this origin-story movie is unnecessary, quite thinly-written and adds little to the franchise as a whole. The set-pieces are showy rather than tension-building, thus making The Nun oddly less scary than her previous short appearances in the franchise!
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