Killer Nun

Introduction

An early intertitle says the film is based on real events that took place in a central European country some years ago, so the movie follows Sister Gertrude (Anita Ekberg), a nun in a Catholic hospital in Brussels. Suffering from severe headaches after surgery to remove a brain tumour, she has become a morphine addict with behaviour that attracts the attention of other nuns and patients.

Because, apart from the Mother Superior (played by Alida Valli in a cameo role), she is the most senior member of the nursing staff, held in such high regard that a word from her will get a doctor fired. When a patient dies, she goes through their belongings and finds an expensive ring. Packing a bag with casual clothes, Sister Gertrude goes into town where she pawns the ring to fuel her morphine habit.

With her behaviour becoming more and more extreme and residents dying violent deaths, it seems that she just can't help herself. However, luckily for Sister Gertrude, her roommate, Sister Matthieu (Paola Morra), is in love with her and helps her to cover her tracks. But is Gertrude's habit (pun intended) driving her to murder or is there something more sinister afoot?

Video

Before the film plays, an intertitle says that Shameless have done their best to create the most complete version of the film, mixing various stock, so odd scenes are in Italian with English subtitles. The picture quality is very good and they've clearly gone to some lengths to source the best material out there and show it at its best. The colours are good, the blood nice and red, and the flesh tones (which are illustrated very well by Paola Morra who is clearly not a shy lady!).

Audio

The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track is nice and clear, with the dubbed voices fitting the characters well, so none of them seem silly or arouse amusement. Anita Ekberg wasn't happy with being dubbed (more below) but that's how the Italian film industry operated then.

Extra Features

You get the normal forthcoming attractions reel before the main menu (also available in it) and the theatrical trailer but the main feature is an interview with Anita Ekberg, called The Nun Speaks Out! Ekberg reveals that she has only seen the film once and, upon discovering that she had been dubbed, has refused to watch it again. She also talks about the character and the film, but nothing particularly earth-shattering is divulged.

Conclusion

This is a fine addition to the nunsploitation subgenre, with fine performances from the main cast, particularly Ekberg, and is gory enough to pass as a horror film. Ekberg never seemed the sort of actress who could play a drug-addicted sadistic nun, but does so extremely well - I don't know if you can get further from her role in La Dolce Vita (a bubble-brained egocentric actress) to this, so it's testament to her skills as an actress that she manages to pull it off.

Giulio Berruti directs with real style, pulling the camera back and allowing an increasingly blood-soaked curtain to say what is happening on the other side and never really goes in to gratuitous violence; the goriest the film gets is in the flashback shots of Sister Gertrude's brain operation and these haven't aged particularly well, looking a little unconvincing. It's good to see all these previously cut films be resubmitted to the BBFC who waive most, if not all, of previous censures and effort has obviously gone into restoring this into its most complete version.

If you like Italian horror cinema or even if you haven't looked into it yet, this is not necessarily the best place to start (go with the best films of Mario Bava, Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci first) but it is a fine addition to the shelf of any horror fan.