In one of the most memorable scenes, Reagan, possessed by the demon, levitates from her bed. As she floats three feet above the mattress, Fathers Merin and Karras dab her with holy water while shouting “The power Christ compels you!” Reagan descends to the bed and Father Merin reminds the demon that it is not his word that compels the demon but the all mighty power of God that compels it.

The horror genre is now a distant relative from that cinematic masterpiece.

Last night I watched The Nun II. In that film, a demon, Valak, has possessed the body of a farmer in Europe, Maurice. A nun is dispatched to send the demon back to Hell. Why the Bishop did not have an exorcist accompany the nun is never explained. Indeed, there was no thought to how the demon would be contained. Yet the nun leaves to fight the demon.

In the climax of the film we learn how she fights the demon; preferably any way that does not require the power of God. Except for two instances, the first where Chekov’s gun is introduced and the second where it is found just in time, God is not mentioned in the movie. During the film’s climax, the nun first overpowers the demon with an object but that does not last. (How does the relic have any power over evil?). Then the nun compels the possessed Maurice to fight the demon from within his body. (How should the man already possessed fight his demonic possessor?). Then, the nun is saved from doom by the memory of her mother, but this is not enough to defeat Valak.

Finally, the nun, surrounded by exploding wine casks, remembers that faith is the difference between wine and the blood of Jesus Christ. She blesses the wine and the casks explode over the demon, defeating her.

It only took 90 minutes of film for the nun to remember God and His power.

The Nun II is not the only failure in this regard. In fact, it’s in nearly all possession films. Amazon prime has an original movie called My Best Friend’s Exorcism. At the climax of this film, one teenage girl expels a demon from her friend. Surely she calls upon the power of God to do so, right? No, unfortunately. Instead, she calls upon the power of 80s pop culture references and friendship experiences, a demon’s worst fears.

This is a far cry even from just a few years ago. In The Nun, the nun defeats Valak with the literal blood of Christ. The protagonists didn’t dance around the power of God but invoked it directly. In The Nun II, as in nearly all possession films now, God is a naughty word.