Dark Nuns: Where exorcisms meet financial wisdom—Financial lessons you can’t miss

Fans of horror movies will get all the satisfaction of scary demons and exorcism rituals. Fans of K-dramas will watch the beautiful actors emote in closeups as well as the mystical tradition and practices of shamanism and witchcraft in Korea. Add the mysteries of Tarot and the director’s ability to create a mood in a world we last experienced in The Exorcist and you will have a very nice horror drama to take you away from your banal existence.

Bring on the popcorn and read about the financial lessons Dark Nuns teach us!

Never underestimate women!

We’ve watched enough horror films to know the rules. The Church sends male priests who have been taught dark rituals of exorcism to a remote area where he defeats the demonic entity occupying the body of a (usually) younger person. You will see the young person who is usually tied to the bed exhibit evil traits by contorting their face, body and even levitate. The demon inside disfigures the body and the child then utters profanities, even projectile vomiting green slime. Ever so often the audience is made to feel sorry when the child whispers, ‘Please help me’ and then begins to laugh that witchy laugh, harming the person who ventured too close to the possessed child.

But when the Church tends to ignore the pleas and we are told by Father Paolo (Lee Jin-wook of Squid Game fame) to trust science, who should we call?

‘She’s just a nun!’ They say, underestimating the powers of Sister Yunia (Descendents of the Sun star Song Hye-kyo. She knows that there are 12 manifestations of evil and this possessed young man exhibits one of them. She can smell evil (sitting in the theatre, you smell the evil caramel popcorn beckoning you towards a carb overload!) and is on the verge of death. And yet she manages to quell the whispers of evil inside her head with the help of tarot cards. Who’d have thunk that a nun would resort to tarot!

Plus we have the novice Sister Micheala (a mentee under Father Paolo, played by Jeon Yeo-been) who is undergoing a crisis of faith (horror trope unleashed here!) who feels sorry for the possessed lad Hee Joon (played by Moon Woo-jin).

Put these two nuns together and perform exorcisms not sanctioned by the Church, and we have a wonderful horror film. If you have watched the super unsettling Hereditary and the scary Exhuma, you know the drama unfolding in front of us had the potential of a great horror film. But it remains in the glad-to-have-seen-it-in-the-dark-theatre bucket.

Financial Institutions have only recently learned to not talk down to women investors. For years women were asked if their brother, father or husband would co-sign a bank savings, loan, credit line or an investment account. They were told, ‘It’s for your own good.’

Women investors like Hetty Green remind us that women must maintain independent financial dealings no matter how wonderful their spouses are. In fact she was probably one of the first women to insist on a prenuptial agreement. That turned out to be a saving grace because unlike her, her husband turned out to have a poor understanding of money. She took risks and benefitted from her investments enough to earn a nickname: the Witch of Wall Street. But Hetty Green did not care. She must have been a sight to behold when she used language that was inappropriate for a lady, carried a gun and traveled without a male to accompany her!

These days, domestic help are often smarter than their ‘memsaabs’ who depend on husbands to provide. They have separate bank accounts, and know how to apply for housing loans and even understand why they need to save money in a monthly investment plan.

Learn to understand how financial institutions will often create a ‘women’s special scheme’ for Women’s Day or some such feeble reason. Read through the details of the offering, comparing it to other schemes and only then invest your money.

Women get the job done!

Many films with two strong female characters tend to pit one woman against the other and the result is a great drama. We saw generations of women in the deeply unsettling Hereditary battling the demons that they inherited from their mothers. In K-dramas that are romances we have enjoyed two women battling for the attention of a charming prince too. But in Dark Nuns, two totally different female characters join forces to battle evil. This joint effort yields a better result than if the Church had sent a trained priest for the mission.

Sister Yunia manages to understand which one of the 12 manifestations is haunting the lad. I wish the film had spent some time making us care by giving us the young man’s back story, but there he sits on the wheelchair, possessed. All those Shamanic rituals will give you goosebumps and even though contemporary K-dramas make fun of these rituals, the period K-dramas have rather scary elements of witchcraft and shamanism.

You may have heard of the Hot Waitress Economic Index that is based on an assumption that pretty women/handsome men tend to get better jobs, salaries and are a good ‘face’ for a business. There are grooming classes for people who spend their work days in front of a computer, unkempt and not ‘presentable’ so that they make more money. You have to decide whether you need such crutches to get ahead in your work life.

The two Nuns put their differences aside and work together and achieve something (not giving away spoilers!) that even the Church and science had no solutions for. This is a great money lesson: sometimes better results can be obtained when you join hands with other people who are different from you. Think how startups work. When individuals bring unique skills and amalgamate efforts, the offering becomes amazing.

The film is wonderfully moody, and watching these actors who are used to close ups in K-dramas, emote even the tiniest bit brilliantly make the film watchable. It’s not scary as Exhuma, and not as fun as Warrior Nun, but it’s a good caramel popcorn and black coffee watch!

Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer’s forum, hosts Mumbai’s oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.