I got this recently as part of the "Nunsploitation Box Set" (yes, there really is such a thing), and I was disappointed because I thought this was the original late 60's "Nun of Monza", the film that really inspired the whole modern "nunsploitation" genre. Actually though, it's the later 80's version by the immensely untalented Bruno Mattei. Mattei is a considered by many to be a "sleazemeister". Well, the "sleaze"part might be right, but he's not a "meister" of anything. Besides, plenty of TALENTED Italian directors were positively wallowing in sleaze by the early 80's. All Mattei really brought to the party was a staggering cinematic ineptitude.
For a Mattei film though, this isn't that bad. He actually sticks pretty much to the classic story of the nun of Monza, who is put in a convent by her wealthy father, rises to a position of power within the convent after her father's death, and brings about her own downfall when she gets involved with a man. There are,of course, some exploitative digressions--an orgy here, some gratuitous hardcore horse porn there. There's a priest who takes confession dressed in a red devil outfit (he's just come from an orgy, you see) and then tries to rape the penitent nun. The priests here are ridiculously horny (and for women--I don't know where all the altar boys are). This probably resembles contemporary sex romps like Joe D'Amato's "Images in a Convent" more than it does the original, no doubt more serious "Nun of Monza", but for better or worse it lacks a lot of the supernatural hokum of the D'Amato film. And god knows it's better than Mattei's truly unwatchable follow-up "The Other Hell".
It's interesting to see Eastern European actress Zora Kerova in a lead role. Kerova was kind of (to put it frankly) a perennial piece of ass in various Italian sleaze classics like "Terror Express". "Escape from a Women's Prison", "Cannibal Ferox", and "The New York Ripper". She was probably better suited to that, but she's not completely terrible here. I'm sure Anne Heywood was better in the original movie (and she certainly is in "Nuns of Archangel", which is also in the box set). The movie itself is not completely terrible, and back-handed as it is, that's a genuine compliment for a Bruno Mattei flick.
