Aristide Massacesi, the undisputed King of Italian Sexploitation Movies, here credited as Dario Donati, did it again. After his infamous '79 "Immagini di un convento" aka "Visions in a Convent", an erotic/porn romp starring sultry Paola Senatore (for the erotic part) and totally uninhibited Marina Hedman (for the porn department), comes back several years later, with his second entry in the "Convent Erotica" or "Nunsploitation" sub-genre. Actually in this one, he makes an honest effort to improve the quality of this production and he...almost succeeds. Still a low-budget production but with great Renaissance settings, excellent cinematography, an attractive cast lead by a gorgeous young Eva Grimaldi (at the beginning of her career, bound to become one of the most recognized Icons of Euro Sex-Cinema), decent acting and a clever and quite exploitative direction. As a matter of fact, even if less explicit and graphic then its predecessor, we get here the "whole sleaze enchilada" containing: more then obligatory nuns-lesbian action, nuns-masturbation, nuns-whipping, nuns-torture, nuns-fondling, nun-priest sex action, naked nuns frolicking in bathtubs, a hunky handyman who is mute but compensates his handicap, by being available to "comfort and service" needy nuns and the most incredible and unthinkable exorcism practice, involving holy water and an enema syringe...Wow! Do I need to say more? All the nuns are young and pretty (even Mother Superior is not bad at all...) and you really wonder if, to become a nun in those days, girls had to meet very high beauty parameters.... The story is quite the "classic one": a young girl, Suzanne, is raped by her step-father and consequently (as customary in those days), sent to a convent, to get her out of the way. There she finds soon out, that life behind the convent walls can be quite exciting. She has a steamy sensual relationship with Mother Superior, assorted lesbian encounters with other nuns and a sacrilegious sexual relationship with the young Father Confessor of the convent. This, however, unchains the jealousy and angriness of the other nuns, lead by the Vice-Mother Superior, who "has plans" for Suzanne. Repeatedly rejected, she accuses her of being possessed by the Devil and manages to send her to trial before the Archbishop. Suzanne gets tortured and exorcised (with great satisfaction of the male audience..). She still proclaims her love for God, but also confesses a lack of religious vocation, which made her vulnerable to the "temptations of the flesh". Unable to prove her innocence, abandoned by her lover (who realizes, at the end, that a career in the Vatican is more important then a love relationship) and rejected by the vast majority of the Sisterhood, she "flips-out", gets into convulsions, tears open her robe and (beautifully) naked, drops unconscious on the floor of the church! Highly dramatic organ music - THE END rolling closing-credits....let's go to bed! OK, OK, it's only a Sex-Movie but why have those "Nunsploitation" or "Convent Erotica" flicks become so popular during the '70 and '80s and, in several cases, so successful? (I'd like to recommend very stylish and stimulating Walerian Borowczyk's '78 "Behind the Convent Walls" and both equally excellent Domenico Paolella's '73 "The Nuns of Saint Archangel" and "Story of a Cloistered Nun" and, it goes without saying, the one who started the whole genre: delirious Ken Russell's '71 "The Devils"). I think mainly for their anti-clerical spirit, which started spreading during the seventies, showing the Church, the Cloister, the Inquisition and similar institutions as very corrupt and barbaric. But not only for this reason. They also depict a microcosm, in which young women are "prisoners" confined in limited space, where the most evil and powerful, can sadistically abuse the weakest and the most innocent. I believe the majority of male readers will agree that the half-naked body of a nun (who implies purity, since she is supposed to deny her body and all her sexual desires), becomes a "perverse object of desire". If the very same body undergoes whipping or any other act of (sexual) abuse, it tremendously increases its erotic appeal. A sexual act, like fondling or masturbation, performed on screen by a beautiful actress impersonating a nun, in various stages of undressing of her rough underwear, alone or with a partner, set in a Cloister, becomes an almost unbeatable element for high-voltage and kinky eroticism. What is it? Perverse and fetishistic erotic fantasies? Desire for sacrilegious profanation of a symbol of purity? Expression of a "macho culture" originated "love'n'hate" relationship towards women? Desire of revenge for a symbol of forbidden, unnatural and inaccessible femininity? I don't think I go wrong if I say: a mixture of all of the above! So, if you enjoyed watching "Convent of Sinners" aka "La Monaca del Peccato" (like I did) but, at the end of the movie, felt a sudden urge to...take a shower, it's OK, go ahead and you'll feel (a little) better afterward. I give this one a seven (with a little sense of guilt) out of ten.
