Nunsploitation
and giallo, though disparate exploitation thriller genres in film, remained
increasingly popular and relentlessly controversial in the Italian cinematic
marketplace. With occasional writer-director
Giulio Berruti’s final film Killer Nun
however, it finds the two genres spliced together as one uniquely sleazy hybrid
sporting an overqualified cast, plentiful sex & nudity and enough violence,
blood and gore to be banned outright during the heyday of the ‘video nasty’ era
of censorship.
Re-released
by Arrow Video, while this Anita Ekberg (yes, you read that correctly) starring
softcore sleaze and murder fest doesn’t quite reach the heights of such
nunsploitation epics as Ken Russell’s The
Devils, it serves up enough giallo thrills and hallucinatory sequences
along the way to keep exploitation horror filmgoers satisfied.
The
lurid present-day set “true story” of Sister Gertrude (Ekberg of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita), a demented and hysterical
nun working in a mental institution. On
her own private downward spiral of sex and heroin abuse, Gertrude becomes the
prime suspect in a series of murders plaguing the institution as others take
notice of her increasingly erratic behavior.
Co-starring Flesh for Frankenstein
star Joe Dallesandro in a basically thankless role as a young doctor new to
the institution and Paola Morra as nun/lesbian lover Sister Mathieu, Killer Nun in addition to mixing
elements of giallo and nunsploitation also serves up the psychological thriller
with a number of surreal dream sequences chronicling the unraveling of Sister
Getrude’s fragile mind.
While
overtly sleazy in nature including scenes of the classy Ekberg in the same shot
as a naked man as well some fairly messy sex scenes peppering the piece, Killer Nun for all of its tawdriness is
held together by Ekberg’s committed performance who makes the troubled (even
murderous?) nun a sympathetic if not fascinating character. Whatever this film’s intentions are, Ekberg
plays it straight and makes you the viewer invest in the story. Ekberg has always been a glamour queen and
even at her age in the film still had the ability to stop people in their
tracks. Seeing her channeling herself
into such a troubled and, at times, grotesque character is remarkable in it’s
own right even if the film itself is tantamount to a throwaway effort.
Benefiting
the film a great deal is the strange and experimental score by famed composer
Alessandro Alessandroni, creating a soundscape that accurately reflects the
decaying psyche of the central protagonist.
It also helps this is a handsomely shot piece thanks to The Red Nights of the Gestapo cinematographer
Antonio Maccoppi who frequently indulges in extreme close-ups and deep zooms of
Ekberg’s face, sometimes zeroing in on her eyes. Visually it’s a beautiful film to look at
when it isn’t focused on scalpel murders and brain surgeries.
Killer Nun is unabashed filthy
dirty exploitation but it also makes no bones about what it is either. As a psychological character study Killer Nun isn’t terribly complicated but
is anchored by a such a strong central performance we’re caught up in the drama
of Sister Gertrude’s downfall anyway. Yes
this is about what you would expect from nunsploitation and while it clearly
aims low, there’s just enough classiness in this production to still plant
itself firmly on your cinematic radar. Not
the pinnacle of nunsploitation but a wild and entertaining enough entry to
still make it worth a look!
--Andrew Kotwicki
