The Nun II

I'm not sure what possessed me (ha ha) to see The Nun II last night because the first movie was a bit of a disappointment.  I do think this one improves upon the original but I still found it to be underwhelming.  Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is now in a convent in Italy when she is summoned once again to investigate a series of unusual murders across Europe that could be attributed to the demon who appears in the guise of a nun (Bonnie Aarons).  She travels with a novitiate named Debra (Storm Reid), who is having a crisis of faith, to the site of the most recent murder and, during her investigation, she discovers that the demon is searching for an ancient relic that is located at a former monastery that is now a boarding school for girls where Jacques (Jonas Bloquet), the farmer who saved her life in Romania, works as a handyman and has a proprietary relationship with a teacher named Kate (Anna Popplewell) and her daughter Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey).  Irene and Debra race to the school for an epic confrontation in which they must save Jacques, Kate, Sophie, and the rest of the students and send the demon back to hell.  The settings are ominous with cobblestone streets at night and dimly lit corridors, staircases, and cloisters in a crumbling Gothic church and I was genuinely scared during a few suspenseful sequences but seeing the image of the demonic nun over and over again becomes tedious (my biggest criticism of the first movie).  Even an intriguing scene featuring a magazine stand becomes boring because it goes on so long (it is a foregone conclusion that the pages will eventually form the image of the nun).  Including the students at the boarding school does create higher stakes but sometimes it seems like there are too many characters and some of them are very superfluous.  The story is both insubstantial and convoluted and not even a great performance from Farmiga could keep my mind from wandering.  I'm sure fans of the Conjuring franchise will like this more than I did but I wouldn't recommend it.