The Nun & The Devil

Following the huge success of Ken Russell churching baiting classic The Devils, the Italian B-movie industry kicked into gear with a slew of "Nunsploitation" cash-ins designed to rack up the sacrilege, sex and bloodshed to get punters into theatres. The Nun and The Devil is one of the better examples of the style and is a good movie despite being in extremely dubious taste. Taking place in a 16th century holy order, it shows the corrupt nuns arguing over who will become mother superior when the current one dies. The new appointment comes tied to a charter giving gold mining rights in the new world of the Americas. So evil and twisted by lust for power do the nuns become that a Holy Inquisition is called and then the explicit torture begins...the well-researched medieval torture!

Packed full of barrel scraping exploitation scenes of self-mutilation, sapphic sex and cruelty, it's a grindhouse classic with a streak of art running through it. Extremely well made and shot, with decent actors despite the dubbing, this sits in an uncomfortable but interesting space between arthouse and tawdry horror picture. Excellent but worrying stuff.