La monja (2005)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Luis de la Madrid

Writers:

Manu Díez (screenplay)
Jaume Balagueró (story)

Release Date:

4 November 2005 (Spain)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Not all water is holy...

Plot:

A group of catholic school girls are victimized by a sadistic and jealous nun, "Sister Ursula". The girls drown the nun in a pool of "holy" water...

Plot Keywords:

Nun | Water | Revenge | Beheading | Barcelona Spain

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Anita Briem	...	Eve
Belén Blanco	...	Julia
Manu Fullola	...	Gabriel
Alistair Freeland	...	Joel
Cristina Piaget	...	Sister Úrsula
Paulina Gálvez	...	Zoe
Natalia Dicenta	...	Susan
Lola Marceli	...	Mary
Teté Delgado	...	Cristy (as Tete Delgado)
Oriana Bonet	...	Eulalia
Katrine Romming	...	Mary 17
Maia Jenkinson	...	Eulalia 17
Joana Rañé	...	Zoe 17
Gemma Martínez	...	Cristy 17
Meritxell Santamaria	...	Susan 17

MPAA:

Rated R for horror violence and language.

Runtime:

101 min | Argentina:105 min

Country:

Spain | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (edited version) | Malaysia:18PL (uncut version) | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Philippines:R-13 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:16 | Australia:MA (2006) | France:-12 | Italy:VM14 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Fantastic Factory (Filmax)

Goofs:

Continuity: When the water is filling in the shower room at the end, the water is closer to the light fixture in one scene than it is in the next scene.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

References The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Soundtrack:

Hoy Me Dejaré

Be very afraid... of the liquid nun!

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.