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If Maria von Trapp found Austrian convent life a little suffocating in “The Sound of Music,” she would have been fully asphyxiated — possibly by someone else’s hand — in the austere Catholic spirit-prison that houses “Serviam – I Will Serve,” where any green hills are from view, pain is a holy priority, and perceived problematic flibbertigibbets are solved by rather more ruthless means than a jaunty sing-song. Only the third fiction feature in 20 years from accomplished Austrian formalist Ruth Mader, this supremely well-made chiller announces itself upfront as a cut above your average nunsploitation exercise with its stark, stringent mise-en-scène and jabs of religious inquiry via surreal, Bible-based animated interludes.

Yet “Serviam’s” split impulses between conscientious Church critique and outright horror — complete with shrieking, doomy strings and twisted-sister jump scares — never coalesce into something that fully delivers on either score. What’s left is a very handsome mood piece...