The Nun II

R give us more backstory for Sister Irene — mostly flashbacks to her mom — but it doesn’t add much.

New this time is Storm Reid as a skeptical novice who smokes and doesn’t really buy the water-into-wine story. She is well introduced and seems a good foil to Sister Irene’s devoted nun but is soon abandoned and never has her come-to-Jesus moment.

The screenplay by Ian Goldberg,

Richard Naing and Akela Cooper sets most of the action in a boarding school in the South of France. Maurice tries to create a new life with a love interest but a terrible secret threatens his happiness. The characters are thin and there’s lots of padding but the ancient towns the location department found are terrifically eerie and foreboding. The fatal mistake is that Sister Irene gets lost in her own film.

Director Michael Chaves, who also helmed “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” oversees a few great moments — a possessed newsstand with all the magazine pages frantically flipping is awesome — but it’s mostly the same flashlights-and-heavy-footsteps stuff. Wait for the quick cut, jump, wait, repeat.

“The Nun II” apes the structure of its predecessor as our heroine needs to find a powerful relic to defeat the demon — and maybe Satan also, who appears as a goat but weirdly can be hindered by a strong wooden door. There’s a Dan Brown-esque feel as Sister Irene searches for clues in ancient Vatican archives.

Is it mere coincidence that this year also marks a truly poor “Insidious” outing? Both these low-budget, Patrick Wilson-connected horror franchises need a good startling. Or CPR paddles.