Killer Nun
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| Killer Nun | |
|---|---|
 Original Italian poster | |
| Directed by | Giulio Berruti |
| Screenplay by | Giulio Berruti Alberto Tarallo |
| Story by | Enzo Gallo |
| Produced by | Enzo Gallo |
| Starring | Anita Ekberg |
| Cinematography | Antonio Maccoppi |
| Edited by | Mario Giacco |
| Music by | Alessandro Alessandroni |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Killer Nun (also known as Suor Omicidi, or Deadly Habits) is a 1979 Italian nunsploitation film directed and co-written by Giulio Berruti and co-written by Alberto Tarallo.
The film was originally banned in Britain as a 'video nasty' and released with cuts in 1993, but was finally released uncut on DVD in the UK during 2006, after changes in British censorship policy.
Synopsis
Killer Nun (1978) was produced in Italy. It features Anita Ekberg as Sister Gertrude, who is recovering from the removal of a brain tumor, although her Mother Superior (Alida Valli) dismisses Sister Gertrude's fears about a rushed recovery. Unfortunately, soon enough, it becomes clear that Sister Gertrude's fears were legitimate, as the hapless nun spirals into psychosis and addiction to morphine and heroin at the geriatric hospital where she works.
As well as initiating a lesbian affair with Sister Mathieu (Paola Morra), Sister Gertrude stomps on an elderly woman's dentures, reads gory hagiographic details of the lives of tortured saints to her hapless charges, goes into a nearby town, picks up a man at a bar, and has impersonal sex, then returns to the hospital and maneuvers to have concerned Dr Poirret (Massimo Serato) dismissed due to his age. A handsome new doctor, Dr. Patrick Roland (Joe Dallesandro), arrives and becomes suspicious of Sister Gertrude, after Sister Gertrude is accused of throwing an elderly man engaged in sex with a nurse out of a window, inflicts grueling calisthenics on elderly patients, and takes a patient's crutches, forcing him to crawl. Finally. the Mother Superior is convinced that she must do something about her aberrant behavior... but is Sister Gertrude really the perpetrator of murder, or is someone trying to frame her?
Cast
- Anita Ekberg as Sister Gertrude
- Joe Dallesandro as Dr. Patrick Roland
- Alida Valli as Mother Superior
- Paola Morra as Sister Mathieu
- Lou Castel as Peter
- Massimo Serato as Dr. Poirret
- Daniele Dublino as Director
- Laura Nucci as Baroness
- Alice Gherardi as Janet
- Lee De Barriault
- Ileana Fraia
- Antonietta Patriarca
- Sofia Lusy
- Nerina Montagnani as Josephine
- Franco Caracciolo
Nunsploitation
Killer Nun (Suor Omicidi) was an example of the nunsploitation genre, which centres on aberrant secularised behaviour from religious women. Unlike other examples of the genre, usually set in medieval or Renaissance locations, Killer Nun is firmly set in the present day, and has no pretensions to social commentary or any remarks about the role of religious women within the Church or the larger society. In the United Kingdom, Mary Whitehouse denounced it as one of the "video nasties" subgenre of violent horror cinema, which 'might' adversely affect human behaviour.
Although it was originally on a 'DPP list' of 'objectionable' films in the United Kingdom, compiled by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1983 as a result of the aforementioned moral panic and released with 13 seconds of cuts in 1993. Liberalised British film, video and DVD censorship policy meant that a DVD of the film was released in the UK during 2006 in its uncut form.
The Time Out Film Guide describes this film as "a dated blend of softcore sleaze, routine blood-letting and explicable coyness" which "stars an over-the-hill Ekberg." An "excessive scenario" nevertheless has "quaint evasions." According to this review, "lesbianism is hinted at but not shown!" and "scenes of Ekberg shooting up are filmed with her back to the camera."[1]
Nunsploitation themes of religiously enforced isolated celibacy and religious oppression are made by example of the head nuns experiencing morphine-induced fever visions and addiction to said morphine. Mother Superior says refusing to provide any help to Sister Gertrude's requests for getting medical treatment is with oppression, "it is a nun’s vocation to suffer."[2]
See also
Home video and classification details
The film has been released on DVD in America by Blue Underground, in Germany by Koch Media and in the UK by Shameless Screen Entertainment.[3]
Arrow Video will release the movie on Blu-ray in the US and United Kingdom on October 15, 2019.[needs update]
Color: Color Sound Mix: Mono Certification: Germany:18 / Finland:K-18 / Norway:18 / UK:18 / West Germany:18 / Iceland:(Banned)
References
- ^ Fountain, Nigel (2008). Killer Nun. London: Ebury Press. p. 566.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Frazer, Bryant. "Killer Nun". www.deep-focus.com. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ "Rewind @ www.dvdcompare.net – Killer Nun AKA Suor Omicidi (1979)". Retrieved 2010-09-12.
External links
- Killer Nun at IMDb