Dark Nuns: from the World of “The Priests”

Catholic clergy are tough in general, but sometimes nuns are even fiercer than priests, as some Catholic school alumni’s knuckles might attest. In this case, Sister Giunia is far and away the most capable expeller of demons the Church currently has in Korea, but since she is not even ordained yet, she cannot perform exorcisms. Unfortunately, the priest currently treating a possessed little boy believes demonic control is a metaphor and possibly a sign of mental illness. Of course, he learns better through horrific experience in Kwon Hyeok-jae’s Dark Nuns, which releases this Friday in theaters.

Sister Giunia, originally known as Kang Sung-ae, learned all about exorcisms from Fathers Kim Bum-shin and Choi Joon-ho, the heroes of Jang Jae-hyun’s The Priests (and his short 12^th Assistant Deacon which it was expanded from). Consequently, she is considered kind of spooky, so some in the Church call her the “Dark Nun.” Regardless, two different priests completely botched the sanctioned exorcism of young Hee-joon. She stepped saving their necks (and most likely souls), but the demon retreated deep within the boy, biding its time, while imprisoning its host in a feverish, semi-conscious state.

Father Paolo, who is also a medical doctor, insists Hee-joon only needed aggressive drug therapy, but maybe it is too late, since the Church wasted so much time on hocus pocus. He points to Sister Michaela as an example of what he means, since he supposedly “cured” her of her visions when she was a teen. However, all the bad things that happen around the boy quickly convince Sister Michaela that Sister Guinia knows her demonic stuff.

Unfortunately, the Church refuses to sanction further exorcisms, so the nuns must turn to the Shamanistic community for back-up. Awkwardly, none of the fully trained shaman are available, because they have all been engaged to cleanse the karma of political candidates before the upcoming election. (It would be an understatement to describe Sister Giunia as unimpressed.)

Aside from the mixing of Catholic and shamanist forces, the plot points in Dark Nuns do not radically depart from many other demonic possession films. Nevertheless, the execution is tight, tense, and sometimes even terrifying. Arguably, the final twenty minutes or so constitute a masterclass in horror movie suspense.

Sister Giunia also emerges as quite a remarkable character, sort of like a cloistered Van Helsing, who happens to be doctrinally conservative yet spiritually flexible enough to wield tarot cards as a weapon and accept considerable elements of shamanism. She has seen horrors, that’s for sure, but Song Hye-kyo’s steely performance inspires considence.

Lee Jin-wook and Huh Joon-ho are both quite unsettling when portraying the torments of Father Paolo and Father Andrea, who remains literally and emotionally scarred by the first ill-fated exorcism. Likewise, Moon Woo-jin does Linda Blair-level work as the possessed Hee-joon.

Just as The Nun opened up the “Conjuring Verse,” Dark Nuns clearly expands the universe of The Priests. (Fans of the original mothership film will also be happy to see one of the good Fathers make a cameo appearance.) Clearly, Kim Woo-jin and Oh Hyojin’s screenplay suggests there is much more evil left to fight. Frankly, the forces of darkness presented in this spin-off were already pretty darn scary. Highly recommended for horror fans, Dark Nuns opens this Friday (2/7), courtesy of Well Go USA.