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The
potential for shocking,
lurid and forbidden
sex and sin in the
convent has been
a part of filmmaking
history from the
Hollywood classic
Black Narcissus,
where a nun is driven
to madness by sexual
abstinance and the
influence of temptation
in a foreign land,
to Kenneth J. Hall's
modern camp classic
The Halfway House,
in which a nun played
by Mary Woronov
sells her soul to
worship an ancient,
virgin-eating god.
Floggings, bondage
and other means
of applying medieval
discipline, profligate
priests and lesbian
trysts abound in
the cinematic genre
of 'nunsploitation,'
a style of filmmaking
that even to this
day almost always
strives to dress
up its prurient
intentions by parading
as morality tales..
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Much
of nunsploitational
cinema has come
from Italy and Spain,
where sex and Catholicism
are both woven into
the fabric of society.
Due to the dark
history of the Church's
use of torture during
the Inquisition,
nunsploitation was
also the most natural
venue in which to
display acts of
sadomasochism under
the guise of religious
penance.
In 'Anticristo:
The Bible of Nasty
Nun Sinema &
Culture' author
Steve Fentone compiles
an amazing archive
of every nunsploitational
film ever made,
revealing the hidden
depth and longevity
of this underground
phenomena. The book
presents its subject
in a style that
is at once scholarly
and entertaining,
with hundreds of
photographs, illustrations
and examples of
movie poster art.
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