CORRUPTION IN THE CONVENT: GATA Presents the 15 Best Nun Films
Falls from grace, lustful sins and shameful torture, GATA breaks down the blasphemous genre of nunsploitation
Drenched in depravity and sin, the genre of nunsploitation is a diverse and varied area of cinema that beautifully blends the profane with the divine. Encased in austere buildings of stone and equally inflexible rules, the hidden desires of nuns are explored, exposing a mindset shimmering with carnal desires and lust-laden thoughts. Self-flagellation, satanism and, orgies, there is no limit to the iconoclastic titles that have inhabited the genre of nunsploitation.
Here at GATA, we have amassed a collection of some of our favourite titles. Ranging from the golden age of Mexican cinema in the 70s, to Quentin Tarantino-inspired martial arts flicks, there is a little bit of something for everyone. Who knew committing sin could be so fun?
Black Narcissus (1947)
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Our first foray into the world of nun cinema is a technicolour dream of simmering sexual tension, amidst the backdrop of exoticism and forbidden female desire. Released in 1947 by legendary writers and directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film tells the story of a convent of nuns deep in the mountains of the Himalayas and its subsequent descent into isolation and ruin.
Regarded by critics as one the most influential films in the history of British cinema, Black Narcissus is atypical in the sense that it deals with a theme that has traditionally been against the grain of the British stereotype of prudishness. The character of its main character Sister Clodagh is the perfect example of this, representing an unconventional and borderline deviant representation of what was expected of women in 1940s Britain.
With hand-crafted matte paintings accentuating the otherworldly and fanatical aspect of the film landscape, while simultaneously mirroring the deep and complex nature of its character’s emotions, Black Narcissus, remains a stunning and elegant exploration of the psyche of a woman struggling between her perceived best self and her true desires.
Satanico Pandemonium (1975)
Gilberto Martínez Solares
Featuring a cast of “high class” sex workers, Satanico Pandemonium is a nunsploitation classic from Martinez Solares — a prolific filmmaker who worked during the golden age of Mexican cinema during the 1970s.
The film was initially offered to his son, who only accepted the offer under the condition that his father could direct it. The film was highly controversial at the time, due to the blasphemous nature of its content, however in a bid to appease the conservative standards of the Mexican censors, the director decided to write a sombre and downbeat ending, casting shame on the erotic content of the film.
The heart of the story follows Sister Maria – a young and naive nun who after an encounter with a strange man brandishing the unholiest of objects — a red apple — begins to develop perverse and sinful behaviour, such as masochistic flagellation and sexual degradation. Her sinful behaviour influences the rest of the convent, leading her sisters into a downward spiral into sin and depravity. A great example of a film that never takes itself too seriously.
Mother Joan of the Angels (1961)
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
A film that delights with its masterful use of composition and lighting. Mother Joan of Angels, is a Polish film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz that revels in the process of symbolically unifying inner emotion with constructed artifice. Each shot is a stunning juxtaposition of meticulously composed framing amidst the chaotic and demonic behaviour of its cast.
Inspired by real-life events that occurred in Lourdes, France, the film depicts a group of nuns, led by the titular character Mother Joan as they slowly descend into the madness of demonic possession. When priest, Józef Suryn is sent to investigate the root cause of these possessions he is confronted with a genuine madhouse of perverse religious rituals amidst an atmosphere of oppressive paranoia and chaos. Father Suryn is left with the difficult choice of attempting to save these women or preserve his sanity. A masterpiece of atmosphere and tension.
School of the Holy Beast (1974)
Norifumi Suzuki
While Christianity hasn’t traditionally been a major religion in Japan, this minor detail hasn’t prevented directors from making it a major theme in their work. By using a religion that lacks the cultural significance and resonance as say Buddhism or Shinto, it opened the door for a more aggressive and satirical criticism of religion as a whole. School of the Holy Beast perfectly exemplifies this wry and cynical attitude towards religion, expertly poking fun at its hypocrisies and inconsistencies with an artful cocktail of masochistic violence and sexually subversive content.
The story centres on the free-spirited Maya as she goes undercover in a convent of nuns in search of evidence that may lead to unravelling the mysteries of what happened to her long-lost mother. What she finds is a den of torturous practices and the corrupt sexual perversions of the catholic church; a church obsessed with a pursuit of power and manipulation.
Perfectly in line with other films that existed within the pinky-violence genre of Japanese cinema, School of the Holy Beast remains a luscious and visually stimulating ordeal. They don’t make them like this anymore.
Behind Convent Walls (1978)
Walerian Borowczyk
A fascination with the body and the systems that chain our earthly desires is a common theme that crops up in the genre of nunsploitation. Continuously we are confronted with characters who are locked in a battle with their carnal urges, fighting each day to suppress sexual desire and yearning.
In Walerian Borowczyk’s film Behind Convent Walls, the shackles are let loose from the nuns living in their convent. Gone are the days of modest behaviour and piety, replaced with a glorious revelry of sexual liberation, wanton masturbation and iconoclastic dildos.
Ms .45 (1981)
Abel Ferrara
With a rape-revenge arc taking precedent in this title, Ms.45 finds itself deeply entrenched in the exploitation side of cinema. Featuring a nuanced and charismatic performance by Zoë Lund, the film is imbued with an extra layer of mystique due to the real-life tragedy of the actress who passed away at the age of 37.
Directed by Abel Ferrara, the film tells the story of Thana, a timid and mute woman, who is violently raped twice over the course of a day. After acquiring a handgun, she embarks upon a violent adventure of unrestrained destruction, exacting a dose of violence and retribution to pay for the injustice she received.
There is also an element of feminism that runs through the course of the feature, a moralism expressed by the director and delivered through the barrel of a 45mm pistol. Men throughout are portrayed as predatory creatures, unable to control their lustful urges and exercising any semblance of power that they may hold to influence and manipulate the women around them. The motif of meat regularly pops up, creating a symbolic tethering to the women who inhabit the world and highlighting the perspectives of the men who gaze at them. A true exploitation classic that it made all the more memorable by the kinetic performance of its then-only 17-year-old star.
The Devils (1971)
Ken Russell
“Hell will hold no surprises for them” is the tagline for this iconoclastic story set in 17th century France. Directed by Ken Russell The Devils was a defining moment in the history of British cinema, proving that they were capable of producing stories more than just what film critic Mark Kermode described as “kitchen-sink realism”, and every bit as flamboyant as the pictures of Fellini.
The film centres on Oliver Reed’s larger-than-life character of Urbain Grandier as he is the object of a state-backed witch hunt delivered by the Catholic Church. The story is a classic deconstruction of the overarching power and corruption of a state, and the maleficent manipulations of religion and its tendency to decry those who fit outside of their narrow worldview. The film is stunning in its visuals with epic set designs and locations, which even resulted in Stanley Kubrick contacting Ken Russell for help when creating his own historical epic, during the filming of Barry Lyndon. Transgressive and thought-provoking, The Devils is a remnant of a bygone era in the history of filmmaking — a time when directors weren’t afraid to take risks.
Dark Habits (1983)
Pedro Almodóvar
The third feature from legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, Dark Habits is a tale of drugs, vices and hallucinatory experiences told within the confines of a convent of nuns. Almodóvar is renowned for his complex portrayals of women within his films, contrasting them with male characters who often are base, two dimensional and largely impotent figures. He plays this stereotypical image of pseudo-male bravado that was typical of Spanish stories and holds them up against women who are layered, a patchwork of various emotional states—compelling figures for storytelling.
Dark Habits is no different, telling the story of the character Yolanda, who after the fatal overdose of her lover, decides to check herself into a convent in search of refuge. A recovering drug addict herself, she finds herself embroiled in the world of sisters who are even more troubled than her. Laden with elements derived from other areas of cinema, Dark Habits touches on the surrealism of Brunel as well as the camp absurdity of John Waters.
The Killer Nun (1979)
Giulio Berutti
Killer Nun is a film that is sacrilegious in more ways than one. Never mind the story of a drug-addicted nun who engages in casual sexual acts, the location of the film was in fact a real convent and the nuns who lived there were completely oblivious to the content of the film that was being made there. Every time they came to visit the set, the crew and director acted as if they were creating another film. Safe to say if they knew that the movie would feature such blasphemous acts, they never would have agreed to give permission in the first place.
The film itself is pure exploitation, however, it refuses to fall into the cliche of excess sleaze — portraying thematic qualities that are serious in tone too. The film has a dreamlike quality to its sequences too, puncturing scenes of lust and passion with gory violence that carries a heft of style and substance.
Alucarda (1977)
Juan López Moctezuma
Alucarda is a film that is unflinching in its dissection of the dark side of religion. In Juan Lopez Montezuma’s film, the lives of the nuns that live in their convent are shaped and defined by the very pain and suffering that religion represents. Religion is a symbol of both spiritual and sensual repression. A form of control and the antithesis of chaotic freedom and liberation.
The story revolves around the relationship of two orphaned girls living in a convent of nuns. One day they come across a mysterious crypt, that awakens within them the spirit of satan. What follows is a chaotic maelstrom of blood rituals and mass orgies, pulling the sisterhood of nuns into a depraved state of blasphemy and darkness.
Visions of Ecstasy (1989)
Nigel Wingrove
Visions of Ecstasy has the honour of being one of the few films to have been banned by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) on the grounds of blasphemy, due to its graphic depictions of a sexualised Saint Teresa of Avila with Jesus on the cross. The film was eventually released in 2012, 23 years after its initial production when the laws related to blasphemy were repealed in the UK.
The film delves into the realm of art-house, differing in that sense from the nunsploitation genre that it is so synonymous with any transgressive film involving nuns. Through experimental imagery that eroticises Christian iconography, alongside an atmospheric soundtrack, Visions of Ecstacy is unique in the scene of films depicting nuns.
They Call Her…Cleopatra Wong (1978)
Bobby A. Suarez
A joint Philippine-Singaporean production directed by Bobby A. Suarez, They Call Her…Cleopatra Wong was a martial arts-inspired slice of exploitation cinema that rode the wave of the spy trend that emerged from the success of James. Described by Quentin Tarantino as one of the films that directly inspired the style of his revenge classic Kill Bill, They Call Her…Cleopatra Wong is laden with bombastic scenes of slapstick violence and over-the-top explosions. It feels like you can’t go three minutes through the film without being confronted with a bone-crunching action sequence.
The highlight of the film comes when Wong, infiltrates a criminal organisation posing as a convent of jam-manufacturing nuns. We couldn’t make this up even if we tried.
The Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine (1974)
Sergio Grieco
Naughty nun fun is on the agenda in a film that is heavily indebted to Romeo and Juliet. Written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Grieco, the film is set during the 16th-century Spanish Inquisition and centres around the doomed story of two young lovers. Fanaticism, madness and jealousy are rife in this story which perfectly incorporates nunsploitation motifs in a more serious and toned down manner.
Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)
Jesús Franco
A film that falls into the camp of dedicated disciples of the church of exploitation, Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun is a delightful slice of Euro-sleaze from the mind of filmmaker Jesus Franco. With Franco’s trademark extreme closeups magnifying the pleasure and pain of its characters, the film pulls no punches when exploring the limits of human experience and the depravity of our actions.
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Peter Mullan
Inspired by the real-life phenomena of the “Magdalene laundries” — institutions designed for the incarceration of morally compromised young women, such as unmarried mothers. With the consent of their family, they were forcibly taken from their homes and made to work for no pay in laundries run by nuns.
The film itself is a difficult watch, highlighting the abuse and misfortunes that the young women experienced at the hands of the church, exploitation that would often include acts of physical violence and sexual abuse. A classic in British cinema that plays out like a composite of Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and nunsploitation cinema.
Words by James Elliott
Curated by Marta Espinosa & James Elliott