Images in a Convent

A young woman (Paloa Senatore), who is involved in an incestuous affair with her uncle, is sent to a convent and quickly realizes it is a hotbed of carnal lust. While she is sleeping her first night and having an erotic dream about her a uncle, another young nun comes in and performs oral sex on her! Then the young nun is caught coming out of her room by the Mother Superior, who takes her off to another room and whips her (naked, of course), which leads to yet another lesbian scene. And this is BEFORE they all get possessed by Satan! The satanic possession involves a creepy statue of a grinning satyr and a mysterious injured man they let convalesce in the convent (and his idea of convalescing is to screw all the nubile initiates and try to do the same to the Mother Superior). Too late, the church tries to intervene.

This is kind of a supernatural "Exorcist"-influenced "nunsploitation" movie, perhaps closer to insane Mexican nun films like "Alucarda" and "Satanic Pandemonium" or Jess Franco's off-the-wall version of "Love Letters of a Portugese Nun" than it is to the earlier more serious Italian nun films. It's also a Joe D'Amato film, so it has great cinematography, even better music, and, of course, a WHOLE lot of sleazy sex. There might actually be TOO MUCH sex. (I like sex in movies the same way I like salt on my food, but D'Amato has a way of taking the top of the salt shaker and just pouring the whole thing on). There's even a brief hardcore sequence,which is not that graphic, but it's a rape sequence where one nun (Marina Hedman) is accosted by randy highwaymen. This scene is potentially offensive,but only if you can buy hardcore porn star Hedman (who looks like fifty miles of rough road) as an innocent virgin.

Paola Senatore is prettier and a much better actress than Hedman (she too did one hardcore film some years later when she was allegedly hooked on heroin in real life and several months pregnant--but even I'm not depraved enough to want to see that). She has a rebellious and particularly ambiguous character, who might or might not be in league with the satanic forces. The satanic forces themselves are pretty ambiguous (it could just be the group hysteria of the nuns). But in the end D'Amato goes for the sleazy nun sex and doesn't delve too much into this. This could have been better, but it's OK guess

The jury is still out as far as nunsploitation and I are concerned; it's not that I don't appreciate sleaze in movies, just that the idea of a load of God-fearing women living behind convent walls doesn't really appeal to me all that much. It's lucky, then, that cult cinema God Joe D'Amato is on hand to spice this theme up a little, with a load of nymphomaniac 'nuns' getting up to all-sorts with each other and any man that that happens to stop by. It's obvious that D'Amato was far more interested in making a porn movie than a film about nuns and their beliefs, and this shines through as the focus is always on the sexual antics, and any whisper of a plot line exists only to string more sex scenes together. There is a plot, however, and it follows a convent full of nuns. After taking in a wounded man against all the convent rules, the nuns soon find themselves making this man the focus of all their desires. However, he has also brought with him the devil (in the form of a statue), and this leads the local priest to visit the convent in order to expel the demon, only he ends up featuring in the nuns' desires also...

At first, I didn't think this movie was going to work as a porn film because the first couple of sex scenes are far too rigid and it seems like the actresses are just doing what they're told. However, D'Amato soon bucks this trend with a plethora of tender and perverted scenes that feature some of the most buxom nuns I've ever seen! D'Amato makes great use of his actresses' bodies, and this is a big bonus for the film; as it's much more full on than a lot of the nunsploitation sleaze. Despite the fact that this is a low quality sleaze movie, the production values are really good! The picture is crystal clear, and most of the acting is passable even when they've got their clothes on. The soundtrack courtesy of Nico Fidenco is infectious, and helps to make the overall film more erotic. This film is also bound to appeal to anyone that loves sleazy trash movies, as D'Amato is happy to go a little further than just showing your basic sex scenes, and the film also features lesbians, rape and wooden dildo's... Overall, Images in a Convent is a surprisingly good slice of nunsploitation and comes highly recommended to fans of this type of movie.

Images in a Convent (1979)

*** (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato's notorious nunploitation film is considered by many to be the most disgusting and brutal. At a local convent nuns find themselves possessed by Satan, which soon gives them the temptation of sex. As is to be expected, this film certainly delivers in the nudity/sex department, although it never gets too hardcore and the reputation is a tad bit misleading because this is actually a fairly well made film. D'Amato, who also served as the DP, makes the budget look a lot higher than it actually is and the story is entertaining, or at least the sexual nuns are. Not nearly as trashy as some of its ilk.

Images in a Convent tries really hard to be this deep, contemplative piece about faith, sexuality, and repression within convent walls, but it mostly just comes across as slow and self-important. The cinematography has some genuinely beautiful moments, all soft lighting and careful compositions that make the religious setting feel appropriately austere and mysterious. You can tell the director had some real artistic vision here, but the execution just doesn't quite live up to the ambition.

The pacing drags something fierce, and while I get that it's supposed to be meditative, there's a difference between thoughtful silence and just plain boring stretches where nothing much happens. The performances are fine enough, but the whole thing feels like it's trying too hard to be profound without actually having much profound to say. It's the kind of European art film that makes you feel like you should appreciate it more than you actually do.

During the 70's sleazy cycle numerous short lived sub-genres popped up to turn heads and enrage moralists every where. None were quite as offensive as nunsploitation and no nunsploitation was as trashy as this.

At a convent in Italy, a man arrives and the nuns begin feeling urges against their calling. It soon becomes clear that the devil has come and the nuns are under his control.

Though the plot suggests some exorcist-style horror, the film plays out much more like a quiet drama. A drama that includes oodles of explicit sexual activity. As the nuns fall into depravity the sexual stakes begin to rise. Of the assorted sored acts, viewers get to see some whippings, rape, oral sex, masturbation, hetero and homo couplings.

For a D'amato flick, it's surprisingly well made. Camera angles, lighting, pacing are all fairly good. Even the scripting and acting are better than the norm. So well is it made that I find myself wishing that all D'amato flicks looked this quality.

On a side note, it's interesting that with the exception of a short fellatio bit the hetero scenes are strictly soft-core while the lesbian scenes are fully explicit.

A well constructed piece of erotica, if one can get past the sacrilegious content.

7/10