Nunsploitation! (gasp!? shock!?)
My girlfriend and I just recently finished watching a Nunsploitation boxset that I had recently ordered from DVDplanet (as an aside, I'm always curious as to where other people usually buy dvd's or do most people just steal them these days...). Anyway, this box set has 3 films, plus a documentary on Joe D' Amato. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of his work, but If it meant watching him or Spielberg, I know who I'm going with.
This is the boxset: Nunsploitation box set.
The first film (The True Story of the Nun of Monza) and the second film (The Nuns of St. Archangel) are both fairly similar in terms of the storyline. A struggle for power between nuns, lesbian desire, greed and the ever present presence of lascivious men that further exasperate the situation. I'll say that right now, none of the films in this set are exactly horrific in terms of supernatural horror, although the third comes pretty close. The horror is derived from scenes of torture and punishment that arise as the Nuns fall prey to the religious mandates imposed by men.
The third film, "Images in a Convent" is D 'Amato's film, and is easily the most pornographic of the three. To the point where it was more disturbing than anything else. There are clear shots of genitals, penetration and a rape scene. The general idea of the story is that there is a statue in the monastery that begins to the possess the Nuns into fits of extreme lust. A man enters the monastery and is a catalyst, he is often juxtaposed with the statue of a satyr, and represents sexual greed. From there, things take a turn for the worse for the nuns. Like the other two films, this one features a story revolving around one or more nuns that have wealth behind their family names and are struggling to assume control as mother superior.
While I like Nunsploitation films, I tend to enjoy them a little more if there is a deeper element of supernatural horror. These three focus more on physical desire than anything else, so I will admit that I won't rank these as among my favorite nunsploitation films, that title still goes to Alucarda, which is in my opinion, amazing (if not slightly silly in the final 20 minutes or so). Still, I'm glad I own these, D' Amato's is the best in terms of disturbing subject matter, but it's also the most exploitative, using explicit sex over implied sex.
This is the boxset: Nunsploitation box set.
The first film (The True Story of the Nun of Monza) and the second film (The Nuns of St. Archangel) are both fairly similar in terms of the storyline. A struggle for power between nuns, lesbian desire, greed and the ever present presence of lascivious men that further exasperate the situation. I'll say that right now, none of the films in this set are exactly horrific in terms of supernatural horror, although the third comes pretty close. The horror is derived from scenes of torture and punishment that arise as the Nuns fall prey to the religious mandates imposed by men.
The third film, "Images in a Convent" is D 'Amato's film, and is easily the most pornographic of the three. To the point where it was more disturbing than anything else. There are clear shots of genitals, penetration and a rape scene. The general idea of the story is that there is a statue in the monastery that begins to the possess the Nuns into fits of extreme lust. A man enters the monastery and is a catalyst, he is often juxtaposed with the statue of a satyr, and represents sexual greed. From there, things take a turn for the worse for the nuns. Like the other two films, this one features a story revolving around one or more nuns that have wealth behind their family names and are struggling to assume control as mother superior.
While I like Nunsploitation films, I tend to enjoy them a little more if there is a deeper element of supernatural horror. These three focus more on physical desire than anything else, so I will admit that I won't rank these as among my favorite nunsploitation films, that title still goes to Alucarda, which is in my opinion, amazing (if not slightly silly in the final 20 minutes or so). Still, I'm glad I own these, D' Amato's is the best in terms of disturbing subject matter, but it's also the most exploitative, using explicit sex over implied sex.