At the beginning of the South Korean spiritual horror Dark Nuns, Sister Yunia (Song Hye-kyo) attempts to drive evil out of a boy named Hee-jun (Moon Woo-jin) who is possessed by a demonic entity. Unfortunately, this ritual is not entirely successful, resulting in the demonic presence going into hiding and leaving the boy in a deep sleep. Once transferred to the hospital, Hee-jun becomes the patient of a priest/doctor at the facility named Father Paolo (Lee Jin-wook) who is skeptical of possession. He maintains that the boy’s episodes are because of a dissociative disorder and borderline personality that can be resolved with psychiatric counseling and medication.
With Hee-jun now in the hospital, Sister Yunia must remove him from the facility and perform another exorcism to save the boy’s life once and for all. To achieve this, she devises a plan to kidnap him with the help of a reluctant nun named Sister Michaela (Jeon Yeo-been). This other nun shares a contrasting opinion with Yunia, as she trained under Priest Paolo and has been following his procedures when it comes to supposed possessions. However, as time goes on, even Michaela questions whether the boy’s state can be solely put down to mental illness.
Dark Nuns kicks off with strong potential due to its effective, intense, attention-grabbing first scene, which throws viewers right into the chaos of an exorcism being performed by an unordained nun. Though, it’s not long before the film falls victim to the same subgenre beats we have seen time and time again.
This is incredibly frustrating since Dark Nuns subverts religious horror expectations by having two nuns being the ones responsible for saving the day. This is something that we rarely see in stories centering around possession, as in most religions, priests are almost always men, and they’re the ones performing such rituals. However, the narrative remains largely generic apart from this unique role-reversal element. It's a shame given that Song and Jeon show great talent in their respective roles, but the clichéd archetypes in this film make it hard to feel completely enamored in each of their characters' journeys.
Sadly, Hee-jun is also underdeveloped. As viewers are given little information upfront on how his possession occurred, one might hope that the narrative would expand on past events and what led to the boy’s current state. Only, that moment never arrives. The audience is never given insight into the circumstances that lead to his possession, which makes it more of a challenge to connect with the character.
There is also an excessive amount of the movie’s runtime spent presenting the final exorcism. During this pivotal moment of the story, acts performed by the two nuns to expel the demon feel repetitive. One can’t help but think this time could have been utilized to flesh out Hee-jun’s backstory more adequately and raise the stakes with added tension.
Although Dark Nuns’ narrative is formulaic and predictable, which is a major drawback, having two strong women carrying out the exorcism in a religious horror film transforms the narrative from something unremarkable to a story that’s slightly more impressive than its more generic counterparts.
So, while Dark Nuns is far from being one of this year's best movies, if you’re a big fan of religious horror, at the very least, tune in to see two bold and brave women kicking butt and taking names!