Evil Nun

Sorry I didn't get another review up sooner. I had intended to do just that, but not everything goes as planned for me, actually it rarely does. I did manage to get a movie in though, so at least I got that far. I was going to watch a different movie, since it was next in line to be watched. Since it was a two hour movie, and it was getting late, I decided to move on to the next film instead. Anyway, I added a new feature to my blog, which I have kept quiet about until now. I just wanted to see if anyone would notice it first. It took a while, but someone did! Maybe it would have helped if I hadn't put it so low on my side bar. Thank you Mr. Jed for being my first follower. I had a feeling he would be the first person to notice it.

Yesterday I watched Killer Nun (1978). This is a film about Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg). Gertrude is an odd nun actually. Then again, maybe not. Not like I actually know any nuns. The story takes place somewhere in Europe, and is said to be based on a true story. As we find out in the extras, the only true part of the story is of a nun stealing. Gertrude is into a few things. First off, she is either recovering, or is fully recovered from brain surgery. She thinks she isn't fully recovered, but the doctor does. Because of the surgery though, Gertrude is now addicted to morphine. When she is using, or when she isn't (I was never able to figure out which), she gets some very wild mood swings. Things take place in a hospital or nursing home, again it was hard to tell which. Gertrude isn't really the bad person that she comes across as, truth be told. We are shown both sides of her personality. There are times she is care free, other times when she is very cruel. One woman finds this out when she puts her false teeth in a glass. Gertrude tries to ignore it, but then she starts to yell at the poor woman, and then takes the teeth. Gertrude then throws them onto the floor and proceeds to stomp on them until there isn't much left of them. Later that night, the poor woman has a heart attack and passes away. Gertrude starts to go through her belongings and finds a ring, which she pockets.

We then watch as she goes into town, changes clothes and pawns the ring. She goes to a bar and has a drink while checking out the men. She finds one to her liking, and shows him that she is interested. He ends up following her back to her room where they have sex up against the door. After they are finished, he leaves her there. Back at the hospital, Gertrude shoots up and the murders begin. This seems to upset Gertrude a lot. She starts to talk to her roommate, Sister Mathieu (Paola Morra). Mathieu confesses to Gertrude that she is in love with Gertrude. As the bodies start to pile up, who is doing the killing? Is Gertrude really going over the edge and killing people?

I admit I am new to the nunsploitation. I have watched very few movies from this sub genre. Killer Nun seems pretty mild to me, from what I have heard about nunsploitation anyway. The whole point is to see nuns doing something they aren't supposed to be doing. More than likely this happens in real life, I don't go in search for stories about nuns though, so I could be wrong. I'm sure it isn't normal to see the things that I described above, but I did feel it was pretty mild. We don't see her injecting morphine all that much. In fact, one scene is barely there because it got heavily cut. The sex scene doesn't show much either. Not that I really expected it to. I wasn't expecting them to show the act, but I was expecting to at least see Ekberg show off what she has. That doesn't happen at any point in the film, in case anyone was wondering. I don't need to see her naked, but I thought that was part of the whole point of nunsploitation, seeing something somewhat forbidden. Morra however, does get nude a lot. I know a lot of people link nunsploitation with two women having sex. Since they are around other women a lot, I guess people assume they have sex with each other as well. I hear the same in women's sports as well. It as always been funny to me that people assume that with women, but not guys. Anyway, there is that here, but again, it is very mild. Just when it is going to happen, it cuts away to another scene.

While Ekberg didn't get naked, even though she and Morra apparently sleep in the nude, she does a wonderful job with her role. The version I watched was dubbed, but you could still tell that Ekberg was giving it her all. She was really getting into the scenes. I have to give credit to the voice over work as well, it was also well done. Turns out that the reason why Ekberg is never shown naked was because director Giullio Berruti was in love with Ekberg (aww), and no longer thought of her as young. He didn't use those words, but that was what he was alluding to. Ekberg was in in her forties when the film was made. That may not be young, but it isn't old either. Ekberg still has it going on in Killer Nun. All the nudity is left to the younger Morra, who I understand was something like a Playboy model before this film. Some of these films get classified as a horror movie. Killer Nun sure did, with a title like that, how could it not? We do get to see some people killed off, but there isn't a lot there as far as effects go. By the way, the guy that did do the effects for this film, eventually went crazy and killed someone for real. Proof that horror movies are bad! Ok, not really.

I thought that Killer Nun was an alright film. It was nothing great, but it did entertain me for the most part. I really didn't care that it was a nunsploitation film. It isn't a sub genre that I will go out of my way for. If I happen to queue one up on Netflix again, I will watch it of course. Even though I liked Killer Nun, overall I was a bit disappointed with it. With all that I have always heard about this type of film, I felt that Killer Nun was just too mild in the end, and not all that much of a horror film really. If you do happen to like this kind of film, maybe I just added another film for you to watch then.
2 out of 5 Needles pushed into one's face sure wouldn't feel too good